Embracing Anxiety w/Karla McLaren

It's been a while since we've had a guest on ​The Transforming Anxiety Podcast​, but I have some GOOD ones lined up for you in the coming months. And we're starting back in with interviews by talking with THE ​Karla McLaren​. I have been reading, leaning on, referencing, and using Karla's books since I first started down the path of this work. The Language of Emotions is one I don't even bother "putting away;" it just has its own spot on the edge of the bookshelf where I can easily grab it throughout the week when I'm teaching and talking with students. Because I DO. Heavy rotation, with that one. And she got to thinking, a few years after she published The Language of Emotions that *anxiety* kinda got left out. So she wrote another book: Embracing Anxiety. And I'll warn you, our conversation is a little bit long but, I hope, worth your time. She brings such clarity, levity, and stability to ALL of our emotions and the inner experience. ​Join me for this conversation on Embracing Anxiety with Karla McLaren​... Be Mindful, Not Anxious is open for enrollment! If you want to feel less anxious this fall, JOIN US! Click here to find out more and get signed up - we started Monday, September 16th, but it's not too late to join us! www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/bemindfulnotanxious  Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/273  Be sure to join my email list so you don't miss announcements, new classes, and podcast updates by visiting www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com  Text PODCAST to +1 (816)354-1279 and I'll send mindfulness reminders, anxiety hacks, and little love notes your way from time to time...

Let's go waaaay back to the basics today. I want to pause for a moment and consider what ​anxiety in your body​ looks like and feels like...and how you can approach it. We are taught to fight against, avoid, and try to route around most of our emotions. There's the relentless pursuit of happiness...and anything less is to be dodged at all costs... ...and it does cost us. For this conversation today, ​I invite you to lean towards anxiety a bit​ and consider how this emotion works FOR you and how you can work WITH it...instead of telling such scary stories about it and trying to "fix" it. Let's talk about anxiety on this week's episode of ​The Transforming Anxiety Podcast​. And how anxiety looks in your body... Be Mindful, Not Anxious is open for enrollment! If you want to feel less anxious this fall, JOIN US! Click here to find out more and get signed up - we start Monday, September 16th! www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/bemindfulnotanxious  Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/272  Be sure to join my email list so you don't miss announcements, new classes, and podcast updates by visiting www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com  Text PODCAST to +1 (816)354-1279 and I'll send mindfulness reminders, anxiety hacks, and little love notes your way from time to time...

Sometimes, we get a little lost in the rabbit holes of our minds and we wind up in the junk food aisle of thought. Y'know, stuff like: Gossip Complaining Quick fixes Self-doubt Things you've thought before... We're going to explore ​junk food self-talk​ on ​The Transforming Anxiety Podcast today​. This is something I'm pretty sure, oh, 100% of us do. 🙃 The more we can pay attention to the quality and content of our thinking, the BETTER. Because when we clean up our thinking, there's a ripple effect on our emotions, our words, our actions, our behaviors...our LIVES. I know, junk food tastes good. It's quick, it's convenient, it's so easy and yummy. I get it. Same with junk food thoughts. They're just RIGHT THERE, and they typically come with a little zip of dopamine, the little quick zip of pleasure. But...but... ...just like real junk food, junk thinking isn't healthy, it isn't nourishing, and it doesn't support you in being the most YOU you that you can be. Let's talk about it together. ​Junk food self-talk​... Be Mindful, Not Anxious is open for enrollment! If you want to feel less anxious this fall, JOIN US! Click here to find out more and get signed up - we start Monday, September 16th! www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/bemindfulnotanxious  Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/271  Be sure to join my email list so you don't miss announcements, new classes, and podcast updates by visiting www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com  Text PODCAST to +1 (816)354-1279 and I'll send mindfulness reminders, anxiety hacks, and little love notes your way from time to time...

  Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/269  Be sure to join my email list so you don't miss announcements, new classes, and podcast updates by visiting www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com  Text PODCAST to +1 (816)354-1279 and I'll send mindfulness reminders, anxiety hacks, and little love notes your way from time to time...

Back to school, time for fall, changes are coming...so let's talk about what sometimes happens which is: we get ​overwhelmed​. 😬 There are a lot of emotional experiences out there and we flow through MANY of them in a day, an hour, a minute sometimes (know what I mean?). But overwhelm is something that doesn't dissipate quite like the others and it requires some special handling. We need to be extra careful with this one. Because: overwhelm can take you out. It can complete derail you and wipe out your sense of confidence, capability, and (let's be honest) sanity. As things gear up for the school year, this seemed especially timely and important to explore together. Join me for this week's episode of ​The Transforming Anxiety Podcast​ and let's talk about ​overwhelm​ together... Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/269  Be sure to join my email list so you don't miss announcements, new classes, and podcast updates by visiting www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com  Text PODCAST to +1 (816)354-1279 and I'll send mindfulness reminders, anxiety hacks, and little love notes your way from time to time...

Sooo, I'm thinking we all want to ​cope better​ with, well, all the things: work, kids, our own thoughts + feelings, how wild the world feels...y'know, LIFE. And in this week's episode of The Transforming Anxiety Podcast I'm going to break all of it down into: Stress Stressors Maladaptive coping strategies Adapative coping strategies so that we have a practical way to figure out where we are and ​how to cope better​. If you've felt a bit lost with how to get through a tricky situation or just completely zoned out, for hours at a time, and then come to and wondered where you went, this 20-minute episode will help. Join me and let's talk about ​how to cope better​... Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/268  Be sure to join my email list so you don't miss announcements, new classes, and podcast updates by visiting www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com  Text PODCAST to +1 (816)354-1279 and I'll send mindfulness reminders, anxiety hacks, and little love notes your way from time to time...

Well, I've tried to do this episode a couple of times and I guess this one is tricky to pinpoint and talk directly about...but we're gonna try it anyway this week. We're talking about ​your magic​ on this episode of ​The Transforming Anxiety Podcast​. What do I mean by "your magic?" I mean: the things that make you YOU. The daily stuff that brings you closer to yourself. The vibe you have when you walk into a room. The little (and big) things that you do, say, create, think up, and offer simply by being here. I think this stuff is *important*. Life-giving, in fact. Because, well, the alternative can be positively life-draining...and I want to safeguard us against losing our magic and, therefore, ourselves. Join me for this conversation. Let's talk about ​your MAGIC​. Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/267  Be sure to join my email list so you don't miss announcements, new classes, and podcast updates by visiting www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com  Text PODCAST to +1 (816)354-1279 and I'll send mindfulness reminders, anxiety hacks, and little love notes your way from time to time...

So, it's time for another feelings episode on ​The Transforming Anxiety Podcast ​BUT! This week we're going to explore how we can feel things without having those feelings ooze into our words and actions... Have you ever totally lost your mind with your kid because you were feeling impatient? Or slammed a door out of frustration at work because your boss is so demanding? Yeah... Turns out: we can FEEL things and not get quite so reactive to those feelings. We can allow our emotions to be there, we can feel them, aaaand we can ask ourselves: who do I want to be in this situation? How do I want to respond? And we can turn up the volume on equanimity (more on that fancy word in this episode) and take action from a place of steadiness. I know, I know. And yes, this is kinda mind-ninja stuff. It's possible, though. Promise. Wanna practice together? Let's talk about it. ​Feeling it without being it​. Join me... Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/266  Be sure to join my email list so you don't miss announcements, new classes, and podcast updates by visiting www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com  Submit your questions to me by CLICKING THIS LINK. You can write me a message OR you can leave me a voicemail. I can reply directly to you and may use your question or comment on a future episode of the show! Also: I just love hearing from you. Let’s be in touch. 😊 Text PODCAST to +1 (816)354-1279 and I'll send mindfulness reminders, anxiety hacks, and little love notes your way from time to time...

Welp, we've reached mid-summer and I thought it was time to take a pause...breathe...and ground ourselves with a few go-to, tried-and-true ideas. I wanted to share ​a few thoughts to live by​ that have supported me through good times and really tough times. These are quotes, poems, and lessons I have been practicing with for *years*. These are all straight from my own personal work; reminders and teachings that I continue to lean on, contemplate, and keep close. No matter what's going on in my life, these are the ones that I come back to over and over again. So I thought hey, let's go easy this week and do something simple, but helpful. Bookmark this one; it'll be a great episode to return to down the road. ​Join me for this episode. I'm looking forward to sharing these with you...​ Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/265  Be sure to join my email list so you don't miss announcements, new classes, and podcast updates by visiting www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com  Submit your questions to me by CLICKING THIS LINK. You can write me a message OR you can leave me a voicemail. I can reply directly to you and may use your question or comment on a future episode of the show! Also: I just love hearing from you. Let’s be in touch. 😊 Text PODCAST to +1 (816)354-1279 and I'll send mindfulness reminders, anxiety hacks, and little love notes your way from time to time...

I just got back from a week hiking in Colorado and I got to thinking (while I was out of breath on the side of a 14,000+ foot mountain): ​why do we do these silly hard things​? Over and over again, humans seek ease, comfort, simplicity, and relaxation in life. We'll adjust the thermostat by *one* degree to get more comfortable. We fall back on old habits and patterns (good and bad) because the exertion required to change things can seem insurmountable. We are drawn to familiarity and what's well-known to us on the regular. And... ...humans also have a wild capacity to seek out challenging situations, overcome difficulties, and push themselves way beyond their limits. It's cool to THINK about doing silly hard things...because then we have a better idea of HOW to go out there and DO the silly hard things we want to do. Yeah? Join me. ​Let's go do some silly hard things together​... Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/264  Be sure to join my email list so you don't miss announcements, new classes, and podcast updates by visiting www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com  Submit your questions to me by CLICKING THIS LINK. You can write me a message OR you can leave me a voicemail. I can reply directly to you and may use your question or comment on a future episode of the show! Also: I just love hearing from you. Let’s be in touch. 😊 Text PODCAST to +1 (816)354-1279 and I'll send mindfulness reminders, anxiety hacks, and little love notes your way from time to time...