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
Transforming Your Life with Habits, Passions and Consistent Growth
Ever wonder how transforming small habits can lead to big changes in your life? Join me on a journey of transformation as I share how the principles from "Atomic Habits" helped me navigate the ups and downs of the past six months. Working in a hospital's emergency department has taught me that life can be unpredictable, and I've learned the importance of taking proactive steps to live with purpose. This episode encourages you to evaluate your own life satisfaction, recognize personal flaws, and take steps toward self-improvement.
Rediscovering passions was a crucial milestone in my personal growth journey. After years away, I've rekindled my love for horse riding, finding unexpected peace in this old hobby. Along the way, I found a new meditation app that improved my mindfulness practice and helped me maintain a consistent exercise routine. Plus, I'll share how James Clear's insights have guided me away from all-or-nothing thinking, leading to unexpected success on YouTube. Consistency, it turns out, is a game-changer.
From the joy of horse riding to the therapeutic escape it provides, finding a passion that brings peace is invaluable, especially during the winter months. I'll share a poignant story of personal loss that underscores the urgency of living a fulfilling life. Upcoming episodes promise even more inspiration, with exciting plans including a guest appearance by Sophie. Join me in exploring self-improvement, meditation, and discovering new passions for a happier, more fulfilling existence.
Please consider helping me out, I'd seriously super appreciate it! <3
https://www.patreon.com/diariesofadoctor
Hi, do you know what I thought whilst I was on a roll and I had all the equipment set up and everything out why not do the next one? So we're here with how Dawn me turned her life around because it's been a, it's tumult, tumultuous, it's a, it's been a turbulent last probably six months for me, but I feel like my life is one whole set of scary turbulence. Isn't like that everyone's life? Because it's like oh, another bad thing happened, cool, we can handle it. And then we get over it, and then it's like a little bit chill for a bit and then it's like and then it sort of keeps going around in this circle.
Speaker 1:So I talked about where I'd been in the last episode. I've had a little break for a long time, a long break for a long time, and you can go listen to that one if you want, because nobody wants to listen to it again. Uh, as in in this episode. So you know when I have regular listeners. Thanks, guys, I appreciate the support and that means that you probably listened to the last one, so you don't want to hear me talk about it again. I've already talked about I'm going forwards with one episode a week, so I'm being super organized and I'm recording two in one day. Who'd have thought it? So I wanted to talk today about my I'm gonna say three steps. I've written down three steps. They may end up being a whole pile of nine steps, but in three you know separate things. They are three steps. That was the worst sentence anyone's ever said. Who natively speaks English? So, without further ado, dawn presents on Backseat Positivity. She's turned into a game show host. Let's spin the wheel of how Dawn turned her life around.
Speaker 1:Anyway, number one I have been in the process. I'm just looking at my, looking at my list here. I've been in the process of trying to get over my multiple personality flaws. I feel like everyone has multiple personality flaws, but I in particular have some very strong ones. So I'm one of those people that reads those like. Really would I call them cringy? I feel like maybe 20 years ago they were cringy. Now they're just like a staple of life, and that is self-improvement books, the books that you see at the airport plastered all over w8, smith's or your local bookstore. Other brands are available and everyone started reading them. Now everyone's on like a self-improvement, productivity, connectivity hype. So I've been on that train for a while I very sadly, like to admit and recently, I'm reading lots of books, but I only. I am very proud to admit that I only read half of them. Do you know why? Because I probably have ADHD, sorry, and I also feel like I've gotten enough out of it. I'm like I'm kind of done.
Speaker 1:Now, the only books that I've read through, actually multiple times, I've read Harry Potter. Yeah, I've read him twice, all the way through. All eight books, eight books, eight movies, seven books, sorry, guys, that was. That was a bullet dodged there, to be quite honest, because the harry potter stans would come after me. Is that what you call them, stans? Super fans? Yes, no, I don't actually know. I don't know what I'm talking about. Story of my life. So what's the book I've been reading recently? Now, this book is infamous, let me tell you, and that is. I don't even think it needs an introduction. It's Atomic Habits.
Speaker 1:Now, I was noticing, guys, if you notice something that's going wrong in your life, don't just like, carry on doing it for the rest of your life. Actually do something about it. So, you know, makes you a better person, it makes you more tolerable for other people to be around, it makes your life worth living. No, it makes your life um. Basically, I was thinking, if I got to the end of my life today, if I got cancer which you know, I might have cancer. Nobody knows, it's not looking likely, though you know I've still got lots of energy but if I had cancer and I was given a week, two, three months, whoever knows, whatever, blah, blah, blah would I feel satisfied with my life? And the answer was um, I'm not sure. And if it's, I'm not sure you're doing something wrong. You should be living every day. God, I'm like, I'm like a. What are those people, the preachers that, um, at those really like intense churches in in america? If you're not living every day, you need to sort your life out. Yeah, basically, you need to get your shit together and sort your life out, because it could happen.
Speaker 1:I work in hospital, I work a lot in the emergency department and I see people coming in. You know they're just pootling along with their lives. They're just like la la, la, la la Bam, they're in a car accident, bam Hit by a bus, bam, heart attack. They don't know it's gonna happen, but it does. And it makes me realize. You know life is, you know it can be taken away from us, and I feel like I'm in a privileged position to be able to see that every day. Privileged and kind of mentally damaging, but mainly privileged because I get to help people through the worst times of their lives. But, um, it also makes me reflect on, you know, the not shortness of life. I don't want to be one of those really annoying people that's like well, I'm so short, you only live once. Uh, although that is true, probably so I. It makes me realize the impermanence of life and how much our lives can change, like literally in an instant. I mean, I drive a lot, so anything could happen, and that is terrifying. So I'm like right, let's spend more time with family, let's do this, let's do that.
Speaker 1:So atomic habits um, I was noticing I was having problems, as I have lots of them. In fact, I was regularly doing things that were bad for me, and I knew they were bad. I did it despite knowing this is terribly awful for me, for I was very much in this all or nothing kind of mindset. It's like why eat one slice of Terry's chocolate orange when you could eat the whole thing? And I'm like that penis is coming. So I want to get out of this like all or nothing mindset of right. I'm going to do everything to the best of my ability and I'm gonna do like when I was daily vlogging guys, I went absolutely ham on it.
Speaker 1:I was like I'm gonna do it every day, I'm gonna go blah, blah, blah. Yeah, that got me nowhere. The videos were shit. I got burnt out. I couldn't do it. I didn't enjoy it. I wanted to cry, I wanted to die. So I wanted to die. So it's.
Speaker 1:But until reading Atomic Habits, I was like why would anybody, why would anybody not do something at a hundred percent? Oh, because it's unsustainable. Oh, because it doesn't feel like you're going anywhere. It doesn't. It feels like why am I doing this? Like tiny thing that literally feels like it's leading to nothing. Now I read the book and I was like because what would happen is I would get this like extreme amount of motivation. I would go to the gym every day for a week and I'd be there for like two hours and then I'd be like, okay, I'm kind of done with the gym'm not going to go back for a month, and I'm like going through this cycle of life like this in my life and I'm like why I don't want to do this. I want to stick at something and do it for like a longer period.
Speaker 1:And atomic habits really changed the way I looked, my outlook on things, which was very poor because it was very all or nothing and I was like it's literally not going to benefit me unless I do something 100%, literally at a competitive level and a professional level, and I get paid for it and I'm amazing. So it's a very exhausting place to be. So what it says in the book and I don't want to be a big old spoiler, but I'll give you a little spoiler alert, because we are going to talk about the book, obviously but the main thing it talks about is small changes every day. Don't feel big, but when you add them all together they compound and you get this like, um, you know, exponential graph that goes up not in a linear fashion, not in a straight line, but in like a it snowballs, essentially, but like upward snowball. Yeah, what? So I'm only now starting, probably about a month or two months in.
Speaker 1:I'm now starting to notice that I'm like, yeah, I'm noticing the benefits of doing a little thing every day. Now I have a habit checklist and it's exhausting and a lot of the time I'm like, fuck me, why am I doing this? And those days, do you know what I do? I don't not do the habit, I just do it for less time. I either give myself a timer and I say, right, we're only doing 10 minutes of this, or the lowest case scenario, when I'm really feeling bad, you know, like mental health crisis.
Speaker 1:I you know, ice cream's coming out, I think it's just called guided meditation, I think on Spotify. I think that's the one, and I'm very sorry if it's not and it doesn't sound sexual whatsoever, but I'm pretty sure that's the one. And I was like she sounds like she's having sex. Um, I'll leave you to it, lady, and I'll just go to sleep and you can carry on having fun. So I turned that off and I thought, god, that was an awful experience.
Speaker 1:So then I noticed on the waking up app, they actually have an option where you can get it for free temporarily. So I messaged them and I went through that process and I got it. You can either get it for free or a. I messaged them and I went through that process and I got it. You need to get it for free or a reduced price. So I was like great. They were like we want people to benefit from meditation and not have finances as a uh, restricting factor, like a limiting factor, and I was like you know what? We need more people like that, because everything's like, oh, you want like, um, a tiny bit of sauce, like okay, that's an extra 50p, and it's like, ah, why does everyone care about money so much? It is annoying, but there we go. That's life, that's life.
Speaker 1:There's also some series on there, basically life. And that is where I wanted to go with this, because I was talking about my character flaws. One of them is procrastination. I put off lots of things. There's lots of reasons why I do it. They explore it in the app. They basically say you know, a lot of the reason we do it is I'll just go into it briefly but basically we get really anxious about and we get in our heads about failing, about how bad it's going to be, about how we're going to hate it so much, and then we get this physical anxiety response and we go like you know, start getting tight-chested or getting short of breath or blah, blah, blah, and that makes us not want to do it. It's much more comfortable not to be uncomfortable, so we avoid it, and that is procrastination, woohoo. So basically talks about how to the process behind it and getting over it.
Speaker 1:The second one I've listened to and they're basically like series and it's called time management for mortals. Is it mere mortals or just mortals? Anyway, you'll find it as you go on and maybe I'll leave the link in the description if you do want to that there'll be a 30 day free trial. I get nothing for it apart from just absolute critical acclaim and adoration, but that's pretty much it. So no, I get nothing, no financial benefit for me. I am just being helpful. Who'd have thought that could actually happen in this world? Just being helpful. Who'd have thought that could actually happen in this world? So the other one was the time management, because I would say one of my biggest flaws is this all or nothing thing. Right, so I would end up sitting down for, like, I just get obsessed with doing one thing like the whole day and get nothing else done and that whilst it wow, I've got so much of that done, I then feel like a failure because I've got nothing of anything else done that I wanted to do. Now I use timers, flora, actually, because then it grows real trees for you and that just feels good, doesn't it? Just checking on my battery Because the batteries aren't charged. I'm really paranoid about it.
Speaker 1:And three so number one is just, you know, reading those help self-help books and, um, getting my habits into order. Number two was getting this meditation app. Like I know it's part of the habit, but it's also like I just couldn't get into the habit of doing other other meditation apps because I just thought they were a bit like, bit flat. You know, like I didn't really feel like there was much substance to them, it was just like body scans and clear your mind and that's it and I'm like, okay, what next? So the third thing I did have more points than this and I thought, no, that's overwhelming. Let's calm it down, Dawn, keep it shorter and sweeter than ever before. I'm short and sweet, but my podcast have not been in the past. So number three reigniting my passions, guys, passions, guys. I am low-key, upset. No, not low-key, I am enormous key.
Speaker 1:Obsessed with horses again like it's gone, again my all or nothing problem. I was obsessed with horses, like for a long time. When I was younger I had my own horse, blah, blah. Yes, I was one of those people, but I was never like an absolute posho with it, but I did have have my own pony. Then I had two horses. My mum's had them ever since, but I've been now since my mum has moved back up to near where we live rather than being like fucking miles away and she's still miles away, but less miles, and I've been going up to see her and seeing the horses as well, and I've really gotten into horses again because I've always been into horses.
Speaker 1:But, like being at uni and being at work and living in the city, it's not really very amenable to having a horse. Also, having a horse is expensive. So I was going up and riding her slash, my old horse, but it's just far away. So logistically I thought, well, let's try and find one closer to Bristol. So anyway, long story short, I am now loaning a horse. It's not started yet but it's very exciting. I've been and ridden it. I've been and visited it. I'm actually going back on Saturday, which is in two days time, to learn her routine. Gal's got routines too Not only me, but my horsey.
Speaker 1:So you may be hearing more about my horsey life, because I'm fucking obsessed, honestly, and what I've realised is, sometimes we forget about these passions and these loves of our life and we stop doing them. Why it's like? Why? Why did we stop doing it? Because of time? Because we forget about it, because we forget how much we love it, because we don't realize the importance of it. Because we moved to a new place and we just haven't, like, set it up. Because I had the same with hockey. I moved from Exeter to Bristol and I didn't have a hockey club, so I just stopped doing it. Now I don't love hockey as much as I love horses, I'm not going to lie, but I just always thought horses were like out of my reach. Whenever I've had a horse before, I've not paid for it. My mum has, because I was a child Spoon ice cream, nutella out of the jar, kind of vibes.
Speaker 1:Those are the days I only do two minutes. So if I've got exercise on there, well I will. I'm literally whilst I'm brushing my teeth. I'm like squatting for two minutes, which doesn't sound that hard. But actually, have you tried squatting for two minutes straight? Um, down to depth, back up again. Two minutes straight is actually quite hard work. If you don't stop, you know you can do like a few and then it's fine. But actually in two minutes you could probably get like about 60 maybe not that many 45 squats done. I reckon I don't know. Try it and comment down below how many squats can you do in 45 minutes. But but they have to be to the, you know, ass to grass and standing up fully. I don't want to see any pussy squats, whatever you want to call them.
Speaker 1:So I've been trying to get out of that all or nothing mindset and I really think that Atomic Habits has helped. So thank you, james Clear, you're so kind for writing that book. I mean, I'm not doing it to the best, like absolute. You know the people that do it like properly, like I don't think I'm doing it properly, but I'm still getting the habits done and I am noticing. You know, especially with my YouTube channel I was like, right, I'll just upload a short every day, because I would get in my head and I'd be like that's not good enough, that short isn't good enough, that video isn't good enough, it's not funny enough. Why would people watch it? No one's gonna watch it. And I tell you what not only am I getting good views on it and that is kind of my obviously intention, but I want to get better at creating and doing comedy. In particular, I want to be good at storytelling and, um, joke writing. But joke writing, uh, all my ipad's gone off. Come back please.
Speaker 1:But, um, a lot of the videos that I've done, that I've thought you know what this is not going to do very well. Why would anybody watch this? Because I don't know the stupidest ones. In fact, I've got one on my youtube channel that's called the carrot experiment. You can go and watch it if you want it. Actually, it got like 10,000 views, which is pretty good for my channel, I would say, and I was like what, like how? I honestly was shocked because I was like, um, that was just like such a random video that I really didn't think it would do very well. But anyway, the whole point is I've been doing everything consistently for like two months probably, actually, and I'm really starting to notice the benefits.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to talk another in. I'm going to talk about another one in another little bit, which is one of the habits I'm doing, but there are lots of habits I've been doing number one exercise I'm trying to do four times a week. It's it's not like an everyday thing as such. But you know, even, uh, I if I horse ride, so if I horse ride, then that counts as exercise. So it's not like I don't have to be like. It's not like, oh, you have to go to the gym for two hours and do like, like all this shit, like it's, it's just, it's something that gets your heart rate up. The other things are writing a comedy, like a joke every day, and actually that's quite easy. If I just pay attention, like throughout the day, I'm just like, oh, that's, I like think of them through the day. So that makes it quite easy.
Speaker 1:I've been trying to, um, be like artistic every day and, um, that's going kind of well. Um, do my Spanish every day. While I was doing that, anyway, I try and drink a pint of water with breakfast every morning. I do my. I try and shower Well, I do shower every day, meditate every day, and there are other things as well Editing every day, because I'm so bad at like sitting down and doing it. But I just want to get over the fear, I don't know, the fear of failure. That's what it is. I'm scared of being shit at it. So so what I'm saying is reading those self-improvement books really isn't that bad for you. You might feel like a bit of a one of those cringy idiots, but honestly, that one and um, uh, the subtle art of not giving us is a great one by mark manson. I think I read that one a while ago and that one also changed my mindset significantly, so I recommend that one as well.
Speaker 1:Now I talked a little bit about my other habit, which I haven't talked about fully, but meditation is something I've been doing every day now. I get into bed now and my bedtime routine is that I get into well, I obviously brush my teeth and everything, and then get into bed, shower, brush my teeth, uh, shower floss. Actually I am now a flosser. I never thought I'd convert to the clan, but it's happened and I'm very proud of myself, because once you get into that routine, it kind of feels weird if you don't do it. It's like, well, now I floss, I'm not going to floss, what? So then I brush my teeth. After then I get into bed and I light my candle.
Speaker 1:Now, that is a very important ritual for me, because I just love candles, and then I journal, if I haven't done it already. Sometimes I do it in the morning, which I did today, because sometimes I get into bed and I'm like, wow, I cannot be bothered because I journal on my iPad and sometimes I just can't be bothered to hold it, which is like the most first world problem ever, but it happens. So sometimes I just do like a voice recording of my journal or like a voice dictation one, and do you know what, as long as you get it done, it actually doesn't matter. It's about the process of turning up. Okay, turning up and doing it, because if you don't turn up and do it, you're not going anywhere, and you are not. You're not achieving your goals. Because I have my goals.
Speaker 1:Um, I feel like this is how I've turned my life around. I feel like I had goals, I have goals and I wasn't achieving them. I'm like you know, I don't need to get to the end point right now, but I'm literally not moving anywhere towards it whatsoever. So what, like what? What's going on? My life was more like you know, instead of eat, sleep, rave, repeat my. My life was more like eat an enormous amount of chocolate, take on too many things and get overwhelmed, bury my head in the sand because I've taken on too many things, I've gotten overwhelmed, sleep. So that was my version of eat, sleep, rave, repeat. Like a more tragic version, but seemingly, um, you know, I felt like I was having a good time, because you know who doesn't have a good time with chocolate, but actually I was just, you know, driving myself into a pit of despair, to be quite honest.
Speaker 1:So I've actually started with meditating every day. So, after I get into bed, light my candle, turn off the light. I've journaled, um, I listen to my meditation app. Now, guys, I've found, I found the one. I, if I could get married to a dating, not a dating app, because I was thinking about dating in my head uh, if I could get married to a meditation app, this would be the one I would have said yes, I do, it would have been. We would have been pregnant, moved in together by now, because this is the one. Okay, I hadn't heard of it before. It's not famous. In fact, maybe I should keep it a secret, uh, but I'm not going to because I'm a nice person, but it's the waking up app.
Speaker 1:Now I was speaking to one of the nurses at work and he told me about it and I was like, okay, yeah, fine, I'll try it. Like, I'll do it fine, whatever. Uh, no, I actually was looking for one, because the ones out there, guys, I'm just not loving. They're like really samey, and I was just like I don't know. I didn't really feel like I was going anywhere with them and it's like oh, here's another body scan. Okay, fine. But this one is different. This one has podcasts on it. Number two I really like the guy who owns it. It's called Sam Harris and he does a lot of the talking on it. I really like his voice. That shouldn't matter, but it does to me. Okay. So, sam Harris, his voice is nice. He also seems like a nice person.
Speaker 1:So the kind of mantra of you know, a lot of meditation, a lot of stuff nowadays we have to pay for. It's like, okay, who wants another subscription service? Not me. Me, I feel like I'm drowning in subscriptions. It's like I have about 20 direct debits and it's pretty tragic, but that is the state of life right now and every week, every month, I do try to get rid of one, but basically, um, I was going through a bit. So I I got a 30-day free trial from my friend who's a nurse, and then that ran out and I was like, oh, my god, I'm actually getting on really well with this.
Speaker 1:So then I went to like see how much it was, and I was just at the time not in a position where I could financially afford it, but I was like I'm in a routine, I don't want to stop. So I started going on to this is such a gross story. Um, I actually went on to Spotify and I tried to find like a nice little bedtime body scan, and the one that I found was quite truly one of the most disturbing meditations I've ever heard. It was a lady who. It went on for like 30 minutes. I was like Jesus Christ, my body is not that big. And she went on and on and on and it was the most sexual thing I've ever heard. She was like moaning and you guys are like which one is it? Tell me, I want to listen to it. Shall I see if I can find it, because I mean I listened to it on Spotify and it was awful. Where is it? Oh, is that it?
Speaker 1:So I thought, as an adult living in the city as well I live in Bristol, it's like one of the biggest cities in the southwest I thought I'm not going to be able to afford it. Like how am I going to own my own horse? I didn't consider the fact that I could just have a horse for a few days a week. I don't need to have own my own horse. Lots of people want help with their horses. Yes, you have to financially contribute often, but it doesn't matter, because you get to ride a horse and you get to have fun.
Speaker 1:And I am, I'm honestly obsessed. I think if I were currently in the Victorian ages thankfully I'm not, because my ankles are out, oh, still got my trousers off if I were in the Victorian ages, they would have put me in one of those insane asylums, because I am that obsessed with horses right now I literally can't get enough. I'm like looking on Facebook. I'm like ding, ding, ding, ding ding, looking like all the posts. I'm like looking at all the reels, I'm looking at all the videos. I'm buying all the new horsey stuff. I've got myself a new hat, I'm getting myself some riding trousers, I've got some riding boots. I am going crazy. So they would lock me up and call me a hysterical woman. I would be diagnosed with hysteria. That is how insane I am. But I don't.
Speaker 1:I'm really hoping this is not a fad for me because it's it's like it's ingrained in my history. This isn't like a phase I'm going through. I don't think I think this, the obsession will settle. You know, like after the honeymoon period in any relationship, you you go okay, well, this is nice, but not amazing anymore. You know, you're not like absolutely enamored with them or the situation. So not saying that's a bad thing, guys, it's just true, okay. So, um, yeah, I'm hoping it'll calm down a little bit because I am very obsessed, but I'm so excited and I haven't been this excited about something in a really long time so I'm just like I'm pumped. To be quite honest, I am pumped. It is a long way away. It's about a 30 minute drive, probably a bit longer each way. So it is going to be a lot of work and a lot of traveling.
Speaker 1:But I listen to podcasts. I was listening to a podcast on the way, easy peasy. I'll listen to my meditation app on the way, like the lessons that they do, so it's like not wasted time. And also I've been finding it really meditative to just drive on the motorway, just like sit with cruise control on and just drive, shut up and drive, drive, drive, drive. Okay, I'm getting kind of out of breath. I know I'm not moving, but I am talking at an enormous rate and with an enormous volume as well. You probably I'm going to turn it. I have to turn it down because I'm like redlining the, I'm redlining the microphone. I just can't calm myself down, okay. So yeah, we don't need to talk about just about horses, although I'd love to. It's just about reigniting something that you really feel passionate for now.
Speaker 1:For some people, that's cooking, and I think that the thing that you need to feel is that meditative state. You know where you're, nothing else matters. You're not like, like, if I go for a run or walking the dog, sometimes like I'm not obsessed with it, sometimes I'm like thinking about other shit where, like, I'm like, oh, I need to edit that video and I need to, oh, I could do it like this, and all this could be what I do with the script, and I'm like thinking about other things. With a horse, I feel like it might be because you can't really focus on something else when you're riding a horse, because it's literally a ginormously large focus on something else when you're riding a horse, because it's literally a ginormously large, one ton animal with extreme, you know strength, but also horses are just so calming. I mean, they've been used as therapy animals for a while and it's becoming more common because they breathe really slowly and it's really relaxing. And, depending on the the horse, obviously, or the pony some of them are not relaxing but they'll just stand there and let you stroke them and they're soft and they breathe like and it's just nice and they like sniff you and they're all like tickling your face and it's just, and then you can like brush them and plait their hair. It's just honestly like overall a very relaxing experience. So, finding something for for some people it's cooking like some people just love cooking so meditative and relaxing and also you get a meal at the end of it ideal. I did like it for a bit, but like not as much, you know I, with horse riding you can like get somewhere, you know, not only physically, but also you can like go to competitions and I'm not going to become like a bloody chef or whatever. It gets you out in the outdoors, which is something I've been missing so much, especially since the like uh, winter's started. I want to get out in the outdoors a bit more and I feel like if it's winter and you've got no reason to go outdoors. You often avoid it. So, anyway, my advice, guys, is you don't necessarily need to reignite an old passion, but I think you should find something you're passionate about, something that you want to wake up for, something that you want to live for, something that you want to wake up for, something that you want to live for, and so that your life doesn't just feel like, okay, well, I'll get up and I'll go to work, and then I'll get home and I'll eat and I'll watch TV and then I'll go to bed again, like that is literally what loads of people do, and I'm, you know that's me as well. That's what I do sometimes, and I don't want that to be my life. I want to.
Speaker 1:I spoke about in one of my podcasts where a guy that I knew died of cancer and he's the same age as me and he's a. He was a doctor and I thought, fuck, if it can happen to him, it can happen to anyone. And it was honestly like a big mind fuck for me, because I was like, and I was so sad about it, but I, anyway, we don't get into that again. I did a whole nother episode on it because it really did affect me more than I thought it would. So you can go back and listen to that. It's called, like my doctor friend dies of cancer, like it's pretty bloody obvious which one it is. So, yeah, those are my three points Self improvement, meditation.
Speaker 1:Or just finding an app that, like teaches you about life. Meditation, or just finding an app that, like teaches you about life just improving every day. I think that's the point, like improving on yourself, some self-improvement every day, but you don't need to be obsessed with it. Just a little bit every day, it's nice a little bit. And finding a passion passion for fashion. I'm a Bradstall, oh god, maybe I'll cut that out.
Speaker 1:Anyway, guys, please like subscribe, um, join me for weekly episodes about health, well-being and just general life, but I am trying to make it more of a stand-up comedy vibe. So stay tuned for more episodes. I do also have a very large backlog do I call them a backlog? Uh, previous episode history of about 150, 140 episodes 150 I think. So you can go and listen to those as well. Don't be scared, they might not be as good as this one, but you can see the progression over time. Anyway, thanks guys for listening and I will see you next week. I think Sophie is coming to join me on an episode on the weekend. We're going to record, but we'll be out in a couple of weeks and she loves to be on the podcast, don't you, sophie? Yes, if you've listened to the end. And yeah, so I will see you then. Little kiss on the microphone, love you.
