0:15

Welcome to The Drummer and the Great

0:17

Mountain, a

0:18

podcast where we share effective tips

0:21

and practices for working with adult ADD,

0:23

ADHD in a natural,

0:25

effective way without the use of medications.

0:29

Each episode, join me, your host, Batman Saram,

0:31

along with the author of The Drummer and the Great Mountain,

0:34

Michael Joseph Ferguson. Join

0:36

Michael and myself in an interactive discussion

0:39

of sharing our stories as we journey together

0:42

in transforming what can be the gift of

0:44

being what we call Hunter Types.

0:47

This podcast is intended to be your audio companion

0:49

to the book written by Michael, who

0:52

joins me each episode where we both will

0:54

strive to foster dialogue, give

0:56

you our personal insights, and

0:58

share both of our experiences on this similar

1:01

path that we are all on. Our

1:03

intention and hope is that along with the book, this

1:06

podcast gives you an additional perspective

1:08

as you listen to us delve deeper into each chapter

1:11

of the book to give you even more tools

1:13

to go along with what it is that you are

1:15

reading. Visit us at www.drummerandthegreatmountain.com

1:18

to purchase the book and

1:20

look for more tools, tips, and updates,

1:23

as well as giving us feedback on this podcast.

1:27

Join our growing global community of creative

1:29

types, entrepreneurs, and out-of-the-box

1:32

thinkers on our shared journey. Welcome

1:35

to The Drummer and the Great Mountain Podcast.

1:52

Welcome everyone. Thanks for tuning in. I'm

1:54

your host, Michael Joseph Ferguson. How are you all

1:57

doing? In today's episode, we

1:59

are going to be talking

1:59

about the importance of stress

2:02

management to reduce addictive

2:06

tendencies. That's a big theme.

2:08

We've talked about this a bit in the past, but

2:10

a few things have happened the last couple months where I was like,

2:12

oh, I got to revisit this because I've noticed things

2:15

that came up with coaching clients and I saw

2:17

how helpful it was to address

2:20

this. So I wanted to come at this and give

2:22

it its own particular episode.

2:25

So we often find ourselves

2:27

getting lost in behaviors and activities

2:29

that we consciously

2:29

know are not helping

2:32

us. And it's

2:33

wired into us. It's part of

2:35

being wired this way is that we get

2:38

caught by stimuli. We tend to

2:40

get caught by addictive behaviors. It

2:42

kind of goes with the package. So

2:44

they distract us from doing the meaningful

2:47

things that we want to do, being present with our

2:49

families, exploring things

2:51

that we want to explore, intending to

2:53

move our goals forward. And yet the

2:56

cravings are often too much

2:58

for us to stop those behaviors. So

3:01

I know all of you have some version

3:03

of this in your life. I know I do. Everyone's got

3:05

it. But I think us hunter types tend

3:07

to really struggle with this. So

3:10

this can it be anything from overeating to being

3:13

on our phones too much,

3:15

gaming, sex, drugs, alcohol,

3:18

shopping. So what

3:20

you may not realize is stress

3:23

may be the underlying component

3:25

that's perpetuating this behavior.

3:28

So in today's episode, we'll be discussing the

3:30

link between stress and

3:32

addictive behaviors and how

3:34

a focus on stress reduction can

3:37

give you far more control over

3:39

your life. Okay, just a couple quick notes

3:41

before we get started. Quick thank

3:44

you again and expression of gratitude

3:46

for all of you who took the time to write a review

3:49

on Amazon for the book and

3:52

on iTunes for the podcast. I made

3:54

that request at the beginning of the year and

3:57

man, you guys went to town. So thank

3:59

you. I know many. if you've had the book for a while,

4:01

thanks for taking the time to do it. I know I

4:04

thanked you guys a couple months ago, but there's a

4:06

bunch of new reviews and I just wanna say thank you

4:08

for taking the time to do it. It really

4:10

means a lot. Okay, so

4:13

excited to announce we have an upcoming

4:16

online workshop on time

4:19

management, ADHD time management.

4:21

This is the first time we've focused on this

4:23

as its own theme for a workshop.

4:26

So this will be a two-day workshop

4:28

and it'll be happening on June 24th and June 27th. It's

4:32

a two-day workshop. It will be

4:35

recorded. Many of you ask, like, are you gonna

4:37

get the recordings? I can only make one day. It

4:39

will definitely be recorded the whole thing,

4:41

including the Q&A afterwards.

4:43

So you'll have all of it. And so many

4:45

of us struggle with keeping with our time management

4:47

systems. We get overwhelmed by traditional

4:49

methods. So what we've

4:52

put together is how do we approach

4:54

time management being wired this way?

4:57

The way we're wired? How do we put together

4:59

a time management system that's intuitive,

5:01

that works for us, that's simple

5:04

and keeps us on track? So

5:07

during this online workshop, we're gonna be covering

5:09

the many aspects of building

5:12

and optimizing your time management

5:14

system. So from understanding

5:16

just why traditional time management techniques

5:19

are difficult for us to follow, and

5:21

then how do we approach time management from an

5:23

ADHD neurodivergent perspective?

5:27

How to choose whether to use digital

5:29

or paper-based time management, or some hybrid

5:32

of the two, and what specifically

5:34

does that look like? How do you put that together?

5:36

How do we approach note-taking? This is so

5:39

important for time management. How do we

5:41

approach note-taking strategies

5:43

to ensure that we easily capture

5:45

ideas, take action on them,

5:48

schedule them? And more

5:50

importantly, I think one of the biggest pieces from

5:52

this workshop is, what is the effect

5:55

of our emotions on our time

5:57

management system? That is something

5:59

that... that's often overlooked and

6:02

it's a big deal because if there's a

6:04

lot of emotional triggers connected to

6:06

time management or if you don't understand how

6:08

emotions affect your ability for follow-through

6:11

then it can be really difficult to

6:13

have any system. You can have the best system in

6:15

the world but if you don't tackle

6:17

that part of it it's really hard

6:20

to keep with a good time management system.

6:22

So again two-day workshop day one will

6:24

be on tools and techniques and

6:26

day two will be on emotions

6:29

and having realistic expectations

6:32

of yourself so you set aside

6:34

a system that you know is going to work

6:36

and continue to work for you. So

6:39

both sessions will be recorded and

6:42

after each session there's usually at least

6:44

an hour of open Q&A so there's

6:46

the session time and then we'll take a break

6:49

and if you have to leave that's great but we'll

6:51

keep the recording going and then we do

6:53

open Q&A for at least an hour after

6:56

each session. So we're getting close to

6:58

capacity if you'd like to join

6:59

us go to drummerinthegreatmountain.com

7:03

forward slash workshop and I'll leave

7:05

a link in the description of this podcast as well.

7:08

Okay so let's talk about the connection

7:11

between stress and addictive

7:13

behaviors and let's define what the challenge

7:15

is let's kind of map this out a bit. So

7:17

let's just take screen time and social

7:20

media or let's pick an example we all

7:22

can I think relate with in one way or another. So

7:25

you wake up you have an intention for how you want the day

7:27

to go you've mapped it out you've written out here's

7:29

how I'm going to have my day to day is going to go

7:32

and then as you progress

7:34

through a certain task your stress

7:36

levels start to go up you start to feel anxious you

7:38

start to have a lot of inner dialogue of like oh

7:40

you know I don't you maybe you're confused about the

7:42

next step that you need to take and

7:45

so instead of stopping and processing

7:47

that the craving

7:49

for a distractive behavior kicks in and

7:51

then you're on to social media or you're on to

7:54

YouTube or you're on to something that's

7:56

not your intended task. Okay so

7:58

let's call that the quote-unquote

8:00

addictive behavior because you're having a hard

8:03

time stopping yourself from doing it. Okay

8:06

or maybe it's evening it's towards evening

8:08

time and you're naturally your willpower

8:11

will be much lower as you start to get

8:13

into the four or five o'clock hour and

8:16

so that's when you find yourself maybe

8:18

eating more than you would like because you're

8:21

relaxed and you're like oh I had a great like the day

8:23

was hard so I'm gonna reward myself but

8:25

then the next day you're like God I can't believe I did that

8:27

now I've got like you know what you

8:29

just see yourself spinning on those same patterns

8:32

over and over again. So many of us

8:34

are familiar with this kind

8:37

of behavior most people

8:39

go through smaller versions of this

8:42

on a day-to-day basis but when it becomes acute

8:45

when it becomes something you cannot stop

8:47

when it becomes something that is interfering with

8:49

your life when it's sapping

8:52

your much-needed energy and

8:54

focus that's when it really becomes

8:56

something we need to turn towards and say what's

8:59

happening here and from my

9:01

experience understanding the

9:03

mechanism that's happening can

9:06

really give us some insights into some solutions

9:09

or things that can soften the trigger enough

9:11

that we can get a handle on what

9:13

we need to do next. So when I first

9:16

started working on the book The Drum

9:18

and the Great Mountain the impetus for working

9:20

on that book was I had someone

9:22

in my life that I knew was struggling with

9:25

alcoholism and I asked them some questions

9:28

and one of the insights they gave me was

9:30

when they drank they could think

9:33

clearly and that was a major insight

9:35

because I thought okay wait a minute what's going on what's

9:38

happening with their cognitive functions that are

9:40

being affected by the alcohol

9:43

and that led me to the work of Dr. Kevin

9:46

Macaulay who is a addiction

9:49

specialist he runs a

9:51

rehab clinic and he's been doing this

9:53

for a long time he struggled with addiction

9:56

himself and that's what led him to his work so

9:59

he's a very down to earth guy,

10:01

I will send, I'll put some links in the description

10:03

of some talks to check out. But one

10:05

of the insights that came after I wrote

10:08

the book that I came from a talk that he

10:10

gave was he described the connection

10:12

between stress and addiction.

10:15

So as I understand it, here's

10:17

basically how it works. So when you're

10:19

under stress or you're feeling anxious,

10:22

the fight or flight mechanism is triggered.

10:25

And so you get an adrenaline

10:27

surge, but your cortisol levels also

10:30

go up and it's unhealthy

10:32

for you to sustain high levels of cortisol.

10:34

And your brain knows this. So this

10:37

older, deeper part of your brain goes,

10:39

okay, wait a minute. What were those activities

10:42

that this person, you know, we

10:44

have engaged in that

10:46

stimulate a dopamine release? Because

10:49

if dopamine, dopamine levels go

10:52

up,

10:53

which also raises your GABA levels,

10:55

it lowers your cortisol.

10:57

So that craving for

11:00

whatever the behavior

11:02

or the substance is connected

11:04

to reducing your stress. So

11:08

when you don't understand that, what tends

11:10

to happen is, I

11:13

think how they originally found this connection

11:15

is they started to see people who would

11:17

be sober for

11:19

a while, and then they'd have a stressful situation

11:22

and then they'd relapse. And they started

11:24

to study what was the connection between

11:26

the relapse and the stress. And they found

11:29

that this mechanism was at

11:31

play. So on a daily basis, we're

11:34

also going through this because

11:36

the way we're wired, we have less dopamine

11:39

receptors. That's one of the hallmarks of

11:41

ADHD. So when we are

11:44

in a state where we're feeling anxious,

11:47

there's going to be a tendency

11:49

towards a craving for

11:51

that, for a substance or behavior, distracted

11:54

behavior, that's going to stimulate a little

11:57

bit of dopamine. It's not a conscious

11:59

behavior. But here's

12:02

the insight. You can bring it to your conscious

12:04

mind and start to recognize, oh, wait a minute,

12:07

I'm feeling stressed right now. Most of us don't even identify

12:10

the stress in that moment. We just go

12:12

directly to the craving, directly

12:14

towards the thing that

12:16

we're like, oh, I got distracted again. I

12:18

got distracted again. Okay. But

12:21

step back for a second. Were

12:23

you feeling stressed in that moment? Okay. Yeah.

12:25

I, were you confused about what you needed to do next?

12:28

Yes, probably. Okay. So now what

12:30

is this connection between stress and

12:33

you not being able to follow through with

12:36

a particular behavior? What is the connection between

12:38

stress and the addictive behavior?

12:41

The reason why I'm doing this episode is I was,

12:44

I had a couple calls with coaching clients over

12:46

the last couple months where they

12:49

had been doing really well. They had a good diet.

12:52

They had, they were exercising. Their life

12:54

was much, much, moving much better. They

12:56

were much more present with their family. And

12:59

then a stressful situation happened

13:01

and it all fell apart. And

13:03

so as we piece together what happened,

13:07

when I'm coaching, I'm not judging the person

13:09

in any way. I'm just listening. I want to just

13:11

go back and play the tape back. What happened?

13:14

And in this situation with multiple

13:16

people, a stressful situation happened

13:19

and then they found themselves going back

13:22

to the old behaviors, going back to the things

13:24

that they did not want to do, eating poorly,

13:26

all the things that they wanted

13:28

to move past. They just found

13:30

themselves back in the mire again.

13:33

So

13:34

understanding the importance

13:37

of stress management is

13:39

the solution, is a way

13:41

forward. Now I want to hit pause

13:43

here and say if you're addicted to alcohol,

13:46

if you're addicted to drugs, if you're addicted to things that

13:48

are really paging the

13:50

dopamine release, you need

13:53

the support

13:54

of a group. You cannot do this on

13:56

your own. You're at a level where your

13:58

willpower doesn't has...

13:59

zero to do with the situation at this point.

14:02

You need to get support. And

14:04

that's why people go in a detox and they're

14:06

removed from the substance or behavior

14:09

long enough that they can get some traction

14:12

and their brain can start to normalize.

14:15

Okay. But for the rest of us that

14:17

are maybe dealing with screen time

14:19

or just those ongoing

14:22

distractions from social media and things

14:24

like that that you know just burn a lot

14:27

of extra time and during your day, listen

14:29

up because this is how you may want

14:32

to go about giving yourself

14:34

a leg up. Okay. One

14:36

more quick story and then we're going to get into some solutions.

14:39

So over the last couple of months, I've had a lot of

14:41

stress. We've been in the middle of moving. And

14:43

if anyone's moved before, I'm going to do a whole episode

14:46

on moving. It is hyper

14:48

stressful, hyper stressful

14:51

because everything, your whole structure

14:53

is just being dismantled in front

14:55

of you as you're moving and getting moving people

14:57

to come over. So that level

15:00

of stress I recognize

15:02

was leading me to being on my phone

15:04

more, getting on YouTube more, getting

15:07

on social media more. And I knew

15:09

it. I was conscious that this is what was going on.

15:12

And I do meditate, but I found

15:14

myself having a very hard time doing

15:16

that. Okay. So me

15:19

and Cuesta both decided, okay, we

15:21

need at least a, we're going to take one week

15:23

vacation. We pushed it out for a while. We usually take

15:25

like two a year. And

15:28

so we rented a cabin in the mountains

15:30

in Ida wild for a couple of days. And

15:33

one of my criteria was it needed

15:35

to have a hot tub on the deck. So

15:38

we were luckily able to get in. We got a good price

15:40

because it was in between seasons. It was after

15:43

winter. And I sat in that

15:45

hot tub for hours and

15:47

had this beautiful view of this grove

15:49

of trees. And I was

15:52

just watching the birds and my

15:54

level of presence was

15:56

profound.

15:58

I had no desire to get on or

16:00

phones at all. And I could just sit for

16:03

hours and just watch the birds and listen.

16:05

And as many of you have heard from like the

16:08

podcast we've done on Nature Connection, I

16:10

really practiced expanding

16:12

my awareness to take in as

16:15

many sounds as I possibly could to

16:17

really just use this internal

16:21

built mechanism that we all have

16:23

for presence and see

16:25

just like how can I really take in this experience?

16:28

And it was profound. And

16:31

I took away from it going, oh, of course,

16:33

I'm sitting in a warm

16:35

tub, which is like reminds

16:38

our brain of our embryonic fluid when

16:41

we were babies. And it calmed

16:43

me down so much. I didn't have the stressors

16:46

from the move. And it was

16:48

a deep sense of presence. And

16:51

so that highlighted what we're

16:53

talking about today, which is that

16:56

when you're calm, your

16:58

ability to focus will go

17:00

up.

17:01

And when you focus on stress management,

17:04

your ability to pull yourself away

17:06

from distractions biochemically

17:10

is easier.

17:11

So this is the importance

17:14

of having stress management techniques

17:17

in your life on a daily

17:19

basis, especially if you're wired this

17:21

way. Okay, so what does

17:23

a daily slash weekly

17:26

stress management regimen

17:28

look like? What does it look like for you to take

17:30

care of your stress on a regular basis

17:33

so it doesn't peg the meter to the

17:35

point where you're so stressed that you

17:37

can't think straight and you're just completely

17:40

taken over by your cravings. So

17:42

meditation on the

17:45

surface would make the most sense, right, because

17:47

you're meditating, you're calming yourself down. The

17:49

challenge is when you're stressed, it's

17:52

even harder to meditate. So, and I'm

17:54

fully aware of that. So I don't wanna pretend as though

17:56

like, oh yeah, you should just sit down and meditate when

17:58

you're stressed. Doesn't always. work that way. So

18:01

what are some other options that may be a little bit

18:03

easier to onboard? Well, for one is

18:05

cardio exercise. I say it all the time,

18:08

but I can tell you when I'm working with clients,

18:10

when they increase their cardio exercise, it

18:12

is almost guaranteed that

18:14

their anxiety and stress levels go down. So

18:16

it's, you hear me say it every single podcast.

18:19

If you're not doing cardio 10 to 15 minutes

18:21

a day, you need to start doing it. I don't care

18:23

if you're taking meds or not. I work

18:26

with people that take meds. I work with people that don't take

18:28

meds. It still helps

18:30

a lot. So 10 to 15 minutes

18:32

of cardio in the way that feels good to you.

18:35

Big thumbs up. Yoga,

18:38

especially restorative yoga. Sign

18:40

yourself up, find a restorative

18:42

yoga class, try to do it maybe once or twice

18:45

a week. It is awesome at

18:47

reducing your stress. It doesn't involve

18:49

a lot of extra like willpower

18:51

because it's a fairly simple exercise

18:53

that you go through. I would

18:56

encourage class versus doing

18:58

it at home. You know, we're, we're mostly

19:00

out of COVID at this point. So just get out,

19:03

sign yourself up, find some restorative

19:05

yoga classes, look for restorative yoga.

19:07

That's what you're looking for. Warm

19:10

baths,

19:10

as I talked about from my experience,

19:13

that's reminding your brain of the embryonic

19:15

fluid. Don't take your phone in there.

19:18

Sit for at least a half hour, 40 minutes. Maybe

19:21

that's your plan at the end of the day. You

19:23

just take like a half hour warm bath

19:25

at the end of the day. Highly encouraged.

19:28

Sauna can also be, again, warming

19:30

your body up. I know a number of my clients

19:32

that purchased a sauna or they've gone

19:35

and they do sauna on a regular basis. That

19:37

is, and they just say like, I can't

19:40

believe I don't do this more often. It's so important.

19:42

I think clear. I'm feeling more calm. So

19:45

even though you're not doing sauna like throughout

19:47

the day, your baseline stress

19:50

levels go down when you engage in

19:52

these activities. So you don't have to like, say,

19:54

okay, well, I'm feeling stressed now. It's like,

19:56

you know, 12 o'clock and I'm going to go to do doesn't

20:00

necessarily have to be that way. You want to just keep

20:02

your overall stress levels down

20:05

so that you can manage your day to day. Swimming

20:08

is also excellent, especially coming into summer

20:10

in the northern hemisphere. You might want to put that

20:12

on the menu item list. Again,

20:14

what you're looking for is a non stimulating

20:18

activity that's stress reducing.

20:21

You don't want something that's like, oh, I watch

20:23

a movie. But yeah, you're also hyper stimulating

20:25

your brain. That's not necessarily what I would

20:27

call a stress management activity.

20:30

Okay, some other ones, maybe Tai Chi. Definitely.

20:33

Again, find a class. If you're

20:35

going to meditate, absolutely is

20:38

like meditation is awesome. I mean, Gary,

20:40

there's so many studies that have shown that it is excellent

20:43

at stress management. If you're having a hard

20:45

time doing it, like on an app

20:48

or just by yourself with

20:51

some process you have, find a group.

20:54

Join a group where you get together with them either

20:56

online or ideally in person once a

20:58

week. That will give you that sort

21:00

of extra encouragement to build

21:03

your practice. That's how I learned

21:05

how to do it. And I want to really encourage you to,

21:07

if you don't have the willpower to do it on a regular

21:09

basis or the app isn't really

21:12

doing it, look locally to see if you can find

21:14

a local meditation group or

21:16

find some, something online, that would

21:18

be the next step and just commit to

21:20

checking in once a week. Maybe that becomes

21:22

your regular stress management routine and that's

21:25

excellent. But I also don't want

21:27

to recommend it. So as

21:29

many people have a hard time getting onto the meditation

21:32

bandwagon, it's just, it's, it takes,

21:34

it does take an initial impulse

21:37

of extra willpower to make that

21:39

happen. So make the on-ramp

21:41

of your meditation practice be as simple

21:44

as possible. You

21:46

might even say, well, I'm going to build a practice and I'm just going to

21:48

do like one minute every day. I

21:50

think I hear Tim Ferriss talk about how that's how he started

21:53

meditating. So

21:54

give yourself an on-ramp, but that's probably not

21:56

going to be enough initially to give you what

21:58

you need. So again, and join a

22:00

group, find out some other way to do it. Or if you

22:02

have like a really good recording that you can put

22:04

on that really helps you, then

22:07

by all means do it, but make it a practice.

22:10

Dance, anything cardio

22:12

is like excellent for stress reduction.

22:16

And connected to this is just getting enough

22:18

sleep. If you're not getting enough sleep, your

22:20

brain chemistry is off. And

22:23

there is that, that adage of

22:25

like, I'm catching up on my sleep, that's a real

22:27

thing. If

22:29

you go without sleep for long

22:31

periods of time, when you're only sleeping like three,

22:33

four, five hours a night, you

22:35

probably need some kind of restoration.

22:38

And that's where another key

22:41

strategy for stress reduction is if you

22:44

are stressed out continuously

22:47

and you have time off available

22:49

for you at work, take

22:51

it. For God's sake,

22:53

take that time off. Take off like from, if

22:56

you've got like three days, then

22:58

take Wednesday, Thursday, Friday off, and then you've got the

23:00

weekend as well. Do what you need to do

23:02

to keep yourself in

23:04

a space where your stress levels are not

23:07

to the point where it's affecting

23:09

everything in your life. Because when your stress

23:11

levels are high, you're blowing up on other people

23:13

usually, or you're completely removing

23:16

yourself from them. You're constantly

23:18

distracted. You're constantly craving

23:20

those things that keep you stuck

23:23

in unconscious patterns. So taking

23:25

time off, even if it's for short periods

23:27

of time, can be profound.

23:30

So I wanna encourage you to, if you're, there might be

23:32

one or two people in the audience that are like, you know

23:34

what, he's right, I need to do this. Check

23:36

to see what days off you have. Can

23:39

you take a mental health day off at

23:41

work and maybe take it on a Friday

23:43

so you can get the rest of the weekend? Do what you need to

23:45

do so that you can restore

23:47

yourself because what you

23:49

may find is that when you give yourself

23:52

that, when you get back online

23:54

again after that break, your

23:57

willpower is stronger, you're thinking

23:59

more clearly. and you're more able to build

24:01

in some systems that you may be able

24:04

to stick with longer. So as

24:06

we talk about on this podcast, we give

24:08

you some tips and tools and systems to

24:10

build, but this piece

24:13

of it is so important. If you don't address the

24:15

stress management piece, it's gonna

24:17

be very difficult for you to stay

24:19

with systems for long periods of time. Again, medication

24:22

or not medication, I see

24:24

where when we

24:27

deal with stress management, it makes

24:30

everything easier. And yet many of us

24:32

feel that sense of, oh, I don't

24:35

have time for it. There's too much going on.

24:37

I've got too many things I gotta do. But

24:40

the inverse is true. When you actually

24:42

give yourself time to rest

24:44

and restore, you're far more effective.

24:47

So you basically don't

24:49

have an excuse that you don't

24:51

have time because ultimately you

24:53

will burn out anyway. So why

24:55

not give yourself the counterintuitive

24:58

advice of taking more time for stress

25:01

management. Again, not just sitting and watching TV,

25:03

not just sitting on YouTube, but giving

25:05

yourself real deep body level

25:08

stress management so that you can keep

25:10

yourself clear on point.

25:13

And then you're gonna be more able to do things like exercise

25:16

and eat healthy because you've given

25:18

yourself

25:20

that

25:20

extra strength to pull

25:22

yourself back from things that distract

25:24

you.

25:25

Okay, one last point. As

25:27

you go through your day, when

25:30

you are

25:31

setting yourself up for a task, you're

25:33

saying, okay, I've gotta do this, this and this. And

25:35

when you sit down and do the task and you

25:37

notice that you're feeling anxious,

25:40

you notice that you're sitting down and it's in a mundane

25:42

task or it's a report or something you need to write,

25:45

someone you need to communicate with, and

25:47

you feel yourself feeling anxious

25:49

and you catch it.

25:52

What's the next step?

25:53

So the next step I wanna encourage

25:56

you to do is, if you're at your computer,

25:58

open up a notepad and start.

25:59

journaling

26:01

and ask yourself why am I feeling stressed

26:03

in this moment and see if you can just do kind

26:05

of a brain dump get it don't filter

26:07

your thoughts just get out like I'm feeling overwhelmed

26:10

because this this

26:12

report's really important and I know if I

26:14

don't get this right it's like I could lose

26:16

the job or but whatever the thoughts are

26:18

and often they're irrational thoughts

26:21

but just through the process of journaling

26:24

you're able to get yourself back

26:26

in the driver's seat it stops

26:28

the cycle of stress

26:31

craving distraction it short-circuits

26:34

that and you're let you're not pushing

26:36

against it you're not saying stop I shouldn't

26:38

be stressed right now you're allowing yourself

26:41

to express what is happening

26:43

in your brain the thought that is creating

26:45

the stress and once you start to realize okay

26:47

it's the thought that's actually doing it

26:50

then you might be able to then come up with the strategy

26:52

and maybe you say okay wait wait I understand

26:55

that I'm feeling stressed about this but the reality is

26:57

it's probably I'm not probably not gonna lose my job if I

26:59

do bad on this report

27:00

and I'm usually pretty good at

27:02

it so maybe I'll spend

27:04

a half an hour on it and then I'll take a break

27:06

and then come back and if I'm not done in a half an

27:09

hour then I'll finish up that

27:11

little form of inner dialogue

27:13

is enough to short-circuit that

27:16

stress reaction and

27:19

we will go more in detail into this

27:21

into in our on our time management workshop

27:23

I'll go through and we're gonna be talking about the emotional

27:26

components of time management

27:28

because things like that derail

27:31

your whole day so they absolutely

27:34

are connected to your time management system so

27:36

just recognize that when you're stressed

27:39

it is having an impact on

27:42

your ability to stay focused

27:44

on the thing that you want to work on

27:46

so if you have a tool like that we can

27:49

pull the journaling tool out and say okay I'm going to journal

27:51

through this then you're more likely

27:53

to stay on track and

27:55

connected to this again what I talk

27:57

about a lot on this podcast is take regularly

27:59

Breaks if you're taking regular

28:02

breaks, you're a you're not letting

28:04

the stress levels get to that point where you're just

28:06

hyper fixating And you're like I got to get this done I

28:08

got to get this done and then you're you could become less

28:11

and less productive when you take regular

28:13

breaks even if it feels counterintuitive

28:15

you're addressing your stress levels

28:17

because especially if you're moving if you can get

28:20

outside if there's a Nature area

28:22

nearby that's even better. Just have

28:24

regular breaks Whatever you

28:27

do in your life if you can just take regular

28:29

breaks, you're more likely to keep your

28:31

stress levels at a Relatively

28:35

manageable level so that you can stop

28:38

yourself when you're finding yourself distracted

28:40

and go. Okay. Wait, you know, I'm just I'm getting distracted I'm

28:42

gonna take a break. I'm gonna go for a short walk If

28:44

you just start to build that habit, you

28:46

will become more productive and

28:49

you will find that you're less Likely

28:51

to get pulled into the stress

28:53

mechanism Okay, so I hope

28:55

that was helpful I hope some of you that was

28:58

your message that you needed to hear for this

29:00

week If you get a chance

29:02

and you'd like to join us our upcoming time

29:04

management workshop happens on June

29:06

24th If you're interested go

29:09

to drummer and the great mountain.com Forward

29:12

slash workshop and I hope

29:14

to connect with you all in the next couple

29:16

months if you'd like to join us We've got an amazing

29:19

community of people that tend to show up for our workshops.

29:22

Love working with all of you and until

29:24

next time

29:25

Be well

29:29

Thanks for joining us if you'd like

29:31

to learn more about the book the drummer and

29:33

the great mountain Visit drummer

29:36

and the great mountain comm to

29:38

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29:41

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29:43

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29:57

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29:59

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30:02

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30:04

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30:06

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30:09

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30:12

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30:14

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30:17

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