The Anatomy of Anxiety w/Dr. Ellen Vora

Happy New Year! We made it to 2025...and so far most of what we've accomplished in Kansas City is a massive snowstorm. ❄️ Kinda fun, even if we're all climbing the walls at this point. Late last year I did an episode about "mental load" and as soon as I recorded that one, I knew I wanted to do a related episode on the sister burden that we all carry every day: ​emotional load​. Mental load is all of the logistics: the figuring and sorting and scheduling and planning and carpooling and spreadsheeting. ​Emotional load​ is the way it all FEELS, the emotional toll that accompanies the going and the doing. Plus the emotional cost that comes with reading the news of the day, hearing the latest from friends and family, and just getting through the hours, days, and weeks. We aren't robots. We have feelings about ALL of it. And those feelings add up. It's what we're talking about on this week's episode of ​The Transforming Anxiety Podcast: emotional load​. Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/278  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...

I'm baaaack. Again. 🤦‍♀️ Turns out I have, and will, take sporadic breaks from the podcast. Not because I *want * to. But because sometimes I flirt with burnout and I need to. I missed you. Big time. And I'm so glad to be back with you right as we close out the year... And I'm bringing a real gentle re-entry 😜 to you this week on The Transforming Anxiety Podcast; we're talking about ​hope vs. hopelessness​, with a strong nod towards expectations. I've found myself caught up in hope, and not in the good way. Having high expectations and then feeling disproportionately bummed out when things go awry. I know I'm not alone in this; I'm hearing you. And although I have no answers for you this week (and, honestly, I never look to bring you anything overly prescriptive, because only YOU know what you want and need), I DO want to talk about it with you. Let's explore hope together. I'd like that. 💜 Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/277  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...

Ohhhh, do I have a treat for you today. There are a few books that I recommend to clients, students, friends, family, people in line at the grocery store, you name it...and THIS guy has done it again. Oliver Burkeman is the author of the NYT Bestseller Four Thousand Weeks (that's the one I've been known to push into the hands of anyone who will listen) and he's back at it with the just-released ​Meditations for Mortals​. And this week's episode of ​The Transforming Anxiety Podcast​ is an interview with Mr. Burkeman. A few nuggets from new book: "The whole point of facing the truth about finitude is that it gets easier to spend more of your time on worthwhile and life-enriching activities once you’re no longer trying to do all of them, or do them perfectly, or do them with the secret agenda of achieving a feeling of security or control." And this is another great quote... "...the life-enhancing route is to think of decisions not as things that come along, but as things to go hunting for. In other words: to operate on the assumption that somewhere, in the confusing morass of your work or your life, lurks at least one decision you could make, right now, in order to get unstuck and get moving." This is a really great conversation and I'm thrilled he spent some time with us. You can find the video ​HERE​ and audio is in your podcast feed or ​over on the website​. Find out more about Mr. Burkeman, all of his books and other work, plus get subscribed to his newsletter, The Imperfectionist, by visiting: ​www.oliverburkeman.com​. Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/276  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...

The idea for this week's episode of ​The Transforming Anxiety Podcast​ is something I've personally been practicing with for a while...noticing those little moments or places during the day where things aren't flowing smoothly. When there are hiccups that totally derail my focus. Times when I struggle with something that seems like it should be much easier than it is. ​Friction points​. That's what we're talking about today. Sometimes this is something like: I'm carrying too many things and can't open the car door. Or I keep the lighter in a drawer too far away from where I light candles and I finally notice: hey, I should move this thing over there. Sometimes it's something far bigger. An unwillingness to look at a credit card statement, which creates a friction point between you and your financial health. A hesitation to apply for a new job, which creates a friction point between you and your professional goals. We all have these little hangups in our days and we're going to look at it together this week on the pod. ​Join me and let's talk about friction points​... Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/275  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...

I recently got turned on to the idea of ​mental load​...and I HAD to bring this one to ​The Transforming Anxiety Podcast​and talk about it with you. Have you heard of this concept? Basically, this is all of the behind-the-scenes, "invisible" work that goes on to get the show on the road. The grocery store runs and laundry and organization and calendar finagling that has to happen to get everyone where they need to go, with everything they need to have, in a somewhat timely and sane manner. It's the thankless, energy-filled effort that goes into supporting the family system, the work department, or the group / community / organization so that the people can do what they want and need to do. And it weighs a lot, the mental load. ​Come join me for this week's episode and let's talk about it more​. Hit "reply" and let me know what your experience of *mental load* is like. I'm finding this concept SO useful and hope this one helps you, too... Full show notes are located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/274  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...

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...