Backseat Positivity
"Able to make serious topics lighthearted and fun - I even laughed at some points!"
Get your bi-weekly dose of positivity in this fun podcast with Dr Dawn Barlow, who helps you navigate all of the weird/best/worst parts of life!
Dawn takes you on the self-improvement journey you didn't realise you needed... Bought to you by a doctor who hasn't had life as sweet as many of her comrades. She knows firsthand just how rubbish life can be, yet has managed to turn her life around for the better!
From relationships to mental health to happiness, make sure you buckle up twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) the join her and her guests for candid self-improvement. Don't forget of the course, the "weird thoughts" segment, where Dawn and her guests share weird thoughts from their lives.
Dawn says:
Sometimes life reminds me of being in a washing machine. It's a bit spinny and turbulent for a while, but then it stops and gives you a little break before spinning you into oblivion once more. It feels like the washing machine wants to wash something bad out of all of us... positivity.
Some might EVEN say that positivity is shouting from the backseat and no-one wants to listen to it... [backseat positivity] More than once a week, but less than 4 times a week, you can shove me in your auditory canals and listen to me chat about L.I.F.E., self-improvement, mental health and anything else that my little monkey-mind paws can grasp onto.
Sometimes other humans actually dare to join me.
It's candid, it's fun. Woo!
Backseat Positivity
Unfiltered, Unscripted, and Standing Up: Backseat Positivity Returns
Ever find yourself lost in the chaos of life, only to return with a splash of bold creativity and vibrant energy? That's exactly where I find myself as I return to Backseat Positivity after a six-month hiatus. With a newfound zest, fueled by unforgettable travels and life-altering changes, I reconnect with you all and my friend Sophie, who's been my cheerleader throughout. Listen as I humorously tackle the mundane like sorting laundry, all while sporting a colorful vintage top that mirrors my colorful plans for the future. This is just the beginning of an exciting journey to rediscover myself and spread positivity, one episode at a time.
But wait, there's more! I’m stepping into the world of stand-up comedy—with more than a few banana peels underfoot. Join me as I navigate the world of joke writing, performance jitters, and the art of capturing humor in everyday moments. Between tales of my boyfriend Tom and my digital note-taking struggles, this episode is all about embracing spontaneity and finding laughter in the unexpected. Plus, discover how you can engage with our podcast through bite-sized clips or dive into full episodes. Get ready for an exhilarating ride filled with laughter, insights, and the promise of more dynamic discussions to come!
Please consider helping me out, I'd seriously super appreciate it! <3
https://www.patreon.com/diariesofadoctor
Hey, hello, I feel like a game show host with my microphone on a toothbrush. So, hi everyone, I literally am a game show host. Welcome back, guys. It's been absolutely ages, ages, ages I don't even know how long, probably about six months, and I thought I'd just do a quick episode on me.
Speaker 1:Coming back to podcasting, where this is going, where the F have I been? What's going on with my outfit? That's the other thing. So this is Backseat Positivity. I'm Dawn and I'm very happy to welcome you back and myself, to be quite honest. So let's get started.
Speaker 1:Number one I am in a fantabulous mood today and I thought you know what, if any day is the day to get my podcasting journey restarted? It's today. I was just feeling it. I'm absolutely smashing life. I'm going through all my tasks, my phone's going off in the corner and it's very distracting, and I have been on a pursuit, a pursuit of attempted happiness, and I'm not there. I'm not, you know, no one's ever there. But this is where I'm going to go with the next sort of I'm going to call it a series of podcasts. I've also been begged to come back multiple times. So, hi, sophie, I'm back, you're welcome, this is for you and I have been traveling, as you may know, and that is the main reason I actually stopped the podcast, well, paused it.
Speaker 1:I never stopped, guys. I never stopped. I never stopped loving the pod, all right. So what happened was I went traveling in was it March, I think? March 2024 I stayed there for two months. That was not intentional and then, well, sort of, I got out of the habit of podcasting twice a week. I got out of the routine. I had like eight podcasts set up. I'm going to take my slippers off Wild. I got out of the routine of podcasting and it just sort of fell by the wayside. Okay, but we're sorting our lives out and that is actually going to be the next episode.
Speaker 1:I'd just like to give you a little teaser. I was actually going to combine these two episodes. I was going to do an episode on you know where I've been, what I've been up to, what's going on with the podcast, where are we going in life? But and then merge it with um, how I'm turning my life around. Because it's happening, guys, it's happening and I am a first-hand witness. So I was going to do both together. And then I thought no, dawn, you can talk for England, so you need to split it into two. And the other issue is I will probably need to split it into two because this needs to be fairly short, because I haven't podcasted in a while, so I only use my camera for podcasting and, you know, for sexy beach shots of when I'm feeling sexy, which is not right now, and we'll get onto the top in a minute. If you're just listening on the podcast, I am bloody sorry because you are missing out on quite a treat.
Speaker 1:I think this is going to be my new podcasting top. This top didn't have a job before. This top didn't have a job before. I'd like to tell you that I bought this top for five pounds, and that is the only reason I bought this top is because it was five pounds from a vintage shop. It's wild. I look like a rainbow sailor and I kind of I had nothing that it went with, obviously because it looks like a rainbow threw up on me. So I was like what do I do with this? And just now, because none of my batteries were charged, because I'm disorganized. This took me about an hour to set up and none of my batteries were charged, so I had to put them on charge. I thought you know what, we're on a day of ticking off jobs.
Speaker 1:So I went and did some of my hanging up of my washing. What I'd done was I had got all of my washing off the washing line and, you know, just to save it as a problem for later, I gathered it all up and I just shoved it in my wardrobe like there was no hanging involved, there was no bags, it was just shoved in the bottom and I was happy with that because outside out of mind. But I thought you know what he's doing, because that pile ain't getting any smaller. You know what I'm saying and I've got more stuff hanging up and, wow, I'm talking about my washing. So I thought you know what. I'll go and do that. Then I saw this absolute monstrosity of a t-shirt, this absolute monstrosity of a t-shirt, and I looked at my background and I thought, oh Christ, I tried to jazz it up with a little bit of colour because we're, we're on the move now. We're on the move, we're on, you know, game show host moving. Uh, head vibe with a microphone on a toothbrush. That is how ratchet this is Now. We obviously had the rainbow wall before, but I felt that it was a bit static. I wanted to move. Yeah, I wanted to move.
Speaker 1:I have wanted to get into stand up for a while, but I am significantly too afraid to do it. So this is my interim period of getting into stand up, because technically I'm standing up whilst also not having the direct public humiliation of nobody laughing at any of the things I say. Now I'd like to point out that everything I say right here is actually not scripted, so I'm not trying to be funny. I haven't, like written any jokes, but you know, if that's a side effect, um, I won't be sad. So you know, give it a little like. If, if a mate, you chuckle or even like smile in your head. You know, when you don't like laugh out loud but you say lol, but like, actually in your head you were laughing, if that happened, you need to give it a like or like, you know, a little comment or something. So I do.
Speaker 1:I go off on so many tangents. I'm so sorry that's, you're just gonna have to accept it. Okay, I can't change it. It's like, um, my boyfriend tried to change me for a long time when I was, you know, getting out of the shower onto the bath mat. I should really call it shower mat, to be quite. I'd get out the shower and he would want me to dry myself off in the shower and I'm like dude, that's what the bath mat's for. Like, it's purposefully absorbent so that when I get out of the bath or the shower it soaks up the water. He would be very upset with me about this and I'd be like you know, we've been together four years. It's not changing. I'm sorry, you're just gonna have to get used to it or leave. So he's shut up about it now. So that's pretty great. Anyway, what was I saying? Um, oh, I was saying you'd have to get used to the fact that I chat shit for half an hour straight. So we've set up for the podcast. We've talked about traveling. We've talked about my friend keeping begging me to come back.
Speaker 1:This might be my new podcasting top, by the way. I'm kind of thinking I was basically trying to say that this looked bland as fuck because I moved into a standing position, so I needed some color, and I am now a moving ball of color that might be the thumbnail. Um, so this I I can't imagine that this ever goes with anything. Why did I buy it? Please somebody tell me the psychology behind that, because nobody knows, not even myself. But I think I found its role in life. It is is wild podcasting top. It's unforgettable, to be quite honest, so I quite like it. It's a nice plain background with a dying plant, so I've put a living plant next to it to show that I'm not fully incompetent of looking after live things.
Speaker 1:But this one is um also a bit damaged and we're also going full lockdown. I look great on the top vibes, but also really bad on the bottom. I was just wearing slippers. I could also not be wearing trousers. I'm getting very hot with my studio lights and um moving around so much so they may be coming off. Stay tuned to find out if Dawn's trousers come off.
Speaker 1:I just need to check on the battery because, quite frankly, it's dangerous. If you've been listening for a while, you'll know that my battery saga never ends. One day when I'm rich and famous, I will buy a camera that never runs out of battery because I will plug it in. I tried to plug this one in. It't let me. It didn't work. It was saying no, no, no. She tried to make me go to rehab. She tried to plug me in to charge my batteries but I said no, no, no. Have you guys watched the Amy Winehouse back to black documentary? Because I have, and that is where that reference came from. Anyway, I'm in one of those moods today where I'm just on fire Thankfully, metaphorically on fire, and I have not physically set fire to myself because I wouldn't be here and I'd be in hospital. I have actually been on fire once before. I ended pretty quickly and that was the end of that, and then I did also burn my arm significantly once with a kettle of hot water, but those are stories for another day.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I would like to add in a nice little stand-up touch. Not only will I be standing up, but I will also be, I should say, stand-up comedy touch, because I could just say stand up and then it's literally just about me standing up, but actually stand-up comedy I yeah. So I know I'm putting this on the internet, I get that, but it feels like I'm there's no harm on for as a dangerous thing to say. It feels like I can't be actively publicly humiliated, which I know, again, are all dangerous things to say. But um, there's something different about having human eyes physical human eyes looking at you and not laughing. The eyes shouldn't be laughing, but the humans attached to those eyes should be laughing. Now it's a bit scary if they're not. So I'm working on it, okay, um, you know, maybe if people in the comments say, dawn, why the hell aren't you doing stand-up yet, I'll be like, okay, lady or person, I will. So you know, basically my whole life is influenced by people on the internet that I don't know. So no, I will get there eventually. I'm basically.
Speaker 1:I'm getting a lot of confidence. I'm getting confidence. I'm writing jokes every day confidence, I'm getting confidence. I'm writing jokes every day. They're not really forming into anything, but maybe one day they will. I want to. Maybe I should tell one. I write one joke every day. It's my.
Speaker 1:I don't know why, but podcasting really gets my nasal like mucus going. So see, that's. This is the thing. When I'm podcasting, I don't feel like I'm trying to be funny, I just feel like I'm talking. I'm literally just spitting my mind. I'm just like whatever comes into my mind, I regurgitate it outwards and that's what you hear, like none of it is scripted. And that again checking the battery, and maybe that's a dangerous game, and maybe that's a dangerous game and maybe that's what makes it shit, but that is the situation. So, again, get over it. I ain't changing myself, for no one Should I just write the. I'll just read the first one that I've written. It's so bad. The thing is I haven't. These are just like verbal vomits from my mind.
Speaker 1:Tom really liked this one, actually, but maybe it was the delivery, and I don't know if I can deliver. If you lower your expectations, anything is possible. No, see, it was bad. That was the bad delivery. I think it was more like well, if you lower your expectations, anything is possible. No again, I just I feel like it's too forced. If you lower your expectations, anything is possible. No again, I just I feel like it's too forced. If you lower expectations, anything's possible. Who knows one, two or three guys? Oh, this one's actually quite funny because it's about a penis and that's always a funny joke. Like, you don't even need to be a funny person to make a funny joke about a penis. So the context is Tom threw a banana skin in the bin and and he goes uh, he, he walks me over to it. He goes Dawn, you need to take a picture of this.
Speaker 1:I honestly think my boyfriend, unintentionally in his acts of daily life is one of the most amusing people to watch. I've honestly said multiple times there are several people who I would like to video just to like show everyone their lives, because they are like entertaining to watch and to experience their like strange, awkward perception of the world and their uh, very bad misfortunes, to be quite honest, because of so you know, personality traits, or maybe they're just inexperienced in the world, or maybe they've got a funny kind of caricature personality, so no one will let me film them though. So that's the sad part about this. Uh, so he makes me take a picture of it. He walks over and goes you need to take a picture of this. And I'm like, why, like, I'm literally taking? Imagine this I'm standing in the middle of the street taking a picture of the inside of a bin, the inside of a bin with a banana skin. I wish I had the picture. Maybe I'll try and find it and put it up on the video, because it actually it looks quite nice.
Speaker 1:Tom says, and I quote it's so artistic, but my banana kind of ruins it. So he's he's obviously like thought oh, it looked really nice until my banana went in it. Why am I explaining it? See. This is why I need the practice, because if I got up on stage and started explaining all of this, people would be like, oh God, and not just the people with obstructive sleep apnea, it would be everyone. So and then I off the hoof, you know, because I'm fucking improvising and funny. I'm like that's not the first thing, your banana's ruined. So there we go. Those are my terrible jokes. Everyone Insert ba-dum-bum-ch here. Right, so we're actually using my iPad for notes.
Speaker 1:I did say that none of this is scripted, but I do have my iPad for bullet point notes, so I did slightly lie. It is. It's semi-scripted. Briefly, you know, when you watch a powerpoint and some people do a really bad powerpoint where they script like the whole word and they just go fossil fuels are bad for the environment, they cause lots of carbon monoxide and it makes cows die and they read it off the screen and you're like you realize that I can read like I didn't need you to verbalize this in the most boring manner possible. But thank you very much. You're getting paid for this. Excellent. I could have got a robot to do this. I'm gonna got ai to do it for free, but anyway. So I'm one of those exceptional people that can write bullet points and then talk for hours about each bullet point without a script. So that is me.
Speaker 1:Ok, we've covered one, two, three, four, five. Oh, we didn't really cover traveling much. Do you want to hear about it? I don't know. So I went traveling. It was supposed to be four weeks, then extended, it went to six weeks and then I was like, hmm, I don't like being financially stable, I would like to put myself in financial ruin for, you know, short term gratification. So I stayed for four weeks and that was a terrible idea.
Speaker 1:But did I have some good memes? Do I have some good mems? Uh, it's not in the past. You know, my memories are still, hopefully, in here. Uh, yes, it was very hot, hotter than I am now, that's for sure. I might, it might be trouser, taking off time. Who thought this would ever happen? I've honestly built up a sweat in all of the crevices of my body, and it doesn't matter, because if you'd accidentally somehow skipped that part of the part of the podcast, you will know no different that I am now trouserless. I actually have socks on still.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, uh, yeah, I went traveling, put myself into financial and then I'm slowly trying to recover from it. It may take two years. Don't, don't do me, don't do me and don't be me. Basically, I can't also now step too far back because you'll see my panties. So I feel like I don't really need to go into traveling that much. Like you can go.
Speaker 1:Look at my YouTube channel if you want, at Dawn Barlow, d-a-w-m-b-a-r-l-o-w. It's not difficult to spell, but everyone asks me how to spell it and I'm like guys, I'm Gary Barlow's wife that is who Dawn Barlow is and me, but thankfully she trumps me when you Google it. So you know, know, whenever I do anything horrible on the internet, no one finds it because there's someone much more famous than me with the same name. There we go. Uh, I don't think you need to hear about my traveling because it was basically like a whole experience of finding myself and, you know, gap year, but significantly more expensive.
Speaker 1:Anyway, where is the podcast going? Well, number one I'd like to make it into this. You know, flowing standing up vibe, especially as it's winter and I'm going to need to keep warm and this is certainly doing a job. Doing the job. Whoa, I still got the spins and yeah, I used to be a gymnast, by the way. Um, pretty good, and I am going to start. This is an absolute plot twist. Everyone, prepare for this. Prepare, I am going to start writing jokes. They're gonna go into the podcast. You're not gonna know, because they're gonna be so good that they will be hidden. No, you'll probably notice to start with, and then hopefully I'll get better and then it'll be less traumatic to witness. But you know, that's the thing.
Speaker 1:Somebody commented on my youtube channel the other day like how is this even like content like um, guess what you've got put in the reps and some videos are shit and some videos are bangers. And you're not gonna. You know, picasso painted 65 000 paintings in his Not all of them were bangers. All right, most of them were probably piles of shit, but I can't tell you. But I don't even know what one of his paintings is called, apart from the one with the blocks. That's like red, blue and yellow. That's the only one I know. And there's a bird that's blue. I think it's a dove. Yellow, that's the only one I know. And there's a bird that's blue. I think it's a dove.
Speaker 1:Anyway, you have to be prolific to be. I was hoping to make that like rhyme, but it didn't. Nothing came to me. You have to be prolific to be fantastic. Anyway, I'm gonna start podcasting weekly. That's where this is going.
Speaker 1:I think we were at one point I don't know how I got very burnt out doing this. Okay, I was daily vlogging, uploading a video every day almost killed me and they were terrible. And I was podcasting three times a week. That got the reps in. Baby, I was like bam, bam, bam, but it was very tiring, tiring. Then I went down to twice a week. That was way better. I think I would do once a week. I'm doing shorts. Every day I'm trying to get a YouTube video out.
Speaker 1:Um, I've got a lot of issues with procrastination and problems with my, uh, procrastination and time management issues. We'll get there. Okay, it's a work in progress and we, it's happening. But I think I can manage one podcast a week and I think do you know what? That's better than nothing. And if I need to go down to one one every two weeks, well, that's fine too, because you write the rules, dawn, and that is. That's the end of it. Anyway, I haven't got the stamina like I used to. Um, also, my batteries literally need changing in my camera, so before they die. I will go and die.
Speaker 1:I will cut this podcast here. You're welcome. If you did like it, guys like it. If you want to stay around for more, subscribe backseat. Positivity has got his own channel now, so this is going to get uploaded onto that channel and you know there's a list of shorts on there from clips, um, from the podcast. You know the highlights and you could just watch those if you want. But you can also watch the long things, like you know the big, long, long form if you've got the attention span and TikTok hasn't killed all your brain cells. So, and shorts as well, youtube shorts. So there we go. I think I need to wrap it up quicker. I might do the next one now, so I'll see you next week, but in the weird time continuum it will be five minutes later. Thanks so much for watching. I kissed you on the microphone. Kiss me through the microphone.
