Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to the Happy Stack Podcast, where we explore the science and strategies behind creating a happier, more fulfilling life. I'm Terianne Richards and I partner with organizations to address the root causes of burnout, disengagement, and stress, equipping leaders and teams with the tools they need to thrive, both organizationally and personally. Each episode, we dive into practical habits, insights, and strategies to help high performers like you level up from the inside out.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Let's get stacking.
Hey, friends, welcome back to the Happy Stack Podcast.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: I'm your host, Terianne Richards, and today.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: We'Re going to get into the brain. And not in some sciency, boring, disconnected way, but in the asking yourself that question of, you know, why do I.
[00:00:50] Speaker C: Feel like my head is full of a bunch of bees after three meetings.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: And one decision that I didn't want to make kind of way.
[00:00:57] Speaker D: Right?
[00:00:58] Speaker B: We're talking about stress, resilience, and how we can stop letting burnout be the byproduct of ambition.
I want to start off by saying this.
Resilience is not a personality trait. It's a practice. And it's something that is innate to all of us.
And stress, well, it's not always the enemy. But if stress is unmanaged or it's misunderstood, well, that's where clarity dies and.
[00:01:29] Speaker C: Chaos starts to breed.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: So let's dig into it. Let's start with the brain.
[00:01:33] Speaker C: Here's the deal.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: When we're under stress, whether it's looming deadlines, tough team dynamics, or just if.
[00:01:42] Speaker C: You'Re like me, 47 tabs open in.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Your brain, your body responds as you're running from a lion, it's sort of.
[00:01:49] Speaker C: That same experience for your body, right?
[00:01:51] Speaker B: We're under this duress, and there's all.
[00:01:54] Speaker C: This chaos around us.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Conflicts, deep conversations, tough conversations, things that.
[00:02:02] Speaker C: Need to get done yesterday, but they're still due today, somehow.
And all of these things are swirling in your head, and the way your.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: Body sees it is like you're being chased by a lion. Your brain gets flooded with cortisol and.
[00:02:18] Speaker C: It'S just in survival mode.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: And survival mode is great if you're in the jungle being chased by a lion, but when you're trying to run.
[00:02:27] Speaker C: A business, raise a family, or lead.
[00:02:29] Speaker B: A team, survival mode basically hijacks your best tools.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: Your rational thinking, your creativity, your empathy, your memory.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: All the stuff that makes you a powerful, connected human, it hijacks it. And that, my friends, is why you.
[00:02:46] Speaker C: Snap at your partner after a rough day.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: It's why you reread the same sentence.
[00:02:52] Speaker C: Six times and still don't know what it says.
[00:02:55] Speaker B: This is why decision fatigue is real.
[00:02:58] Speaker C: Your brain is literally struggling to think.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Clearly when it's under that constant fire.
And, you know, I think back in my history, you know, I felt this when I was scaling my business.
[00:03:09] Speaker C: I had a few retail stores in.
[00:03:11] Speaker B: My mid to late 20s, but I was also quietly falling apart, you know.
[00:03:17] Speaker C: And then I fast forward into my early 30s and I had speaking gigs.
[00:03:20] Speaker B: And I had, you know, revenue, and I had praise and accolades, but I also had insomnia and chest tightness and a constant fog that was swirling around my brain. What I didn't know at the time was that my prefrontal cortex, that part.
[00:03:38] Speaker C: Of my brain that manages decision making and regulation, was being drowned out by all of those stress chemicals. In my book, Success Takes Courage, I.
[00:03:47] Speaker B: Write about the season where I lost my business, my marriage, and I almost lost my identity, all while pretending I was fine. But I wasn't fine.
[00:04:00] Speaker C: I was fried.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: And my brain, well, it basically became a battlefield.
So what do we do? Right, because the reality of it is, is there's a lot of things that are happening around us that kind of.
[00:04:12] Speaker C: Feel outside of our control.
[00:04:14] Speaker D: Right.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: What we can do is we learn.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: The same way our bodies learn through.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: Repetition, through intention, and through those micro.
[00:04:24] Speaker C: Actions, if you will.
[00:04:25] Speaker D: Right?
[00:04:26] Speaker C: So let me break this down into, like real life resilience moves that you can practice.
These are not cutesy. These are not woo woo.
[00:04:34] Speaker B: These are actually backed by research.
And if I'm being frank, if you've listened to me through any of my videos or the podcast, some of these.
[00:04:43] Speaker C: Moves have saved my life.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: So number one is movement breaks. And no, I don't mean like, it's.
[00:04:48] Speaker C: Not training for a marathon, y' all.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: I mean just like, get up and.
[00:04:51] Speaker C: Move your body, Take a walk, stretch.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: This is not about weight loss. Although, you know, hey, I think there's a, A time and a place for that as well. But take a walk, stretch.
[00:05:01] Speaker C: Do a sun salutation, you know, while.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: You'Re making your tea or getting your coffee.
Movement improves oxygen flow, it boost cognitive.
[00:05:11] Speaker C: Function, and it reduces that cortisol that's cluttering up in your headspace.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: So I know for me, this is.
[00:05:18] Speaker C: How it works in my world. It's going to work for each of you differently.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: But I started scheduling walk and talk. So, you know, I'll jump on a call with my mom or I'll jump on call with potentially like a client, and, you know, I'll just put my earbuds in and I start having a.
[00:05:33] Speaker C: Conversation, but I'm moving my body while I'm doing it. And what that does is, well, it.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Does a few things. So it helps with clarity. It helps remove all that fog that's up in your head.
[00:05:42] Speaker C: Head.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: But it also made some of those tough moments, those tough conversations just feel a little bit less tough, if you will.
[00:05:51] Speaker D: Right.
[00:05:51] Speaker C: Number two, change your environment.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: So I'm not talking about redoing your office, but there's this thought process that.
[00:05:58] Speaker C: I created a few years ago, and.
[00:05:59] Speaker B: It basically says, you know, each and every one of us wants to feel successful in our own right, feel happy, feel fulfilled.
But that all starts all the way.
[00:06:11] Speaker C: Back to your environment. And your environment is everything from, you know, what's on your desk, how much clutter is there.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: Your environment is the people, the places.
[00:06:20] Speaker C: That you're spending time in and around. Your environment is the shows you're watching. Your environment is the podcast you're listening to.
Change your environment.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: And so sometimes that can be simple, as, you know, getting a standing desk.
[00:06:34] Speaker C: Or having good lighting and having lighting.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: That comes from natural lighting. You know, I have a window right.
[00:06:39] Speaker C: Here to my right.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Even a darn live plant can shift your mental load, change the people you're.
[00:06:48] Speaker C: Spending your time around.
[00:06:49] Speaker B: You know, yes, we love our family and some of our friends from way back in the day, but if the.
[00:06:55] Speaker C: People that you're spending your time around are complainers or gossipers or just live in the negative or the I can't.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: And it won't happen for me, then by nature, that starts to become your environment. It becomes sort of like the blazer.
[00:07:11] Speaker C: That you wear into most spaces.
[00:07:13] Speaker D: Right?
[00:07:13] Speaker C: And so research shows that environments that support natural movement reduce stress.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Environments with positive people help to reduce cortisol, which is why even swapping seats in a room where you might be at a table, that you maybe are surrounded by some negative nellies, or if we're talking about moving, doing, like a.
[00:07:34] Speaker C: Quick work sprint from your office to.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: The coffee shop, it can be just that enough amount of change that can break that overwhelm. Cycle number three, nature is your reset button. So go for a walk in the woods. I know. I live in New Brunswick. It's full of beautiful trails and greenery.
[00:07:56] Speaker C: And when I walk through the woods behind my house, I have no phone, no podcasts.
[00:08:01] Speaker B: A lot of times I come back with the answers that I couldn't find.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: If I was sitting here staring at my laptop for four hours.
Nature has this way of rewiring your.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: Brain, literally, it lowers your cortisol, improves creative problem solving, helps to restore your attention span. And it's not something that, like, again, this is research backed, y' all.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: Like, this is not stuff I'm making up on the fly.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: It actually is part of a high performance strategy. Number four, mental hygiene.
[00:08:30] Speaker C: This is a little bit of what I call the woo. Now, there are some of you that you do this really, really well, and.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: I love you and I want to.
[00:08:38] Speaker C: Be like you when I grow up.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: But for me, this one has always been tough.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: This is about mindfulness meditation and breath work. I am a shallow breather.
[00:08:49] Speaker B: I don't always remember to breathe all.
[00:08:51] Speaker C: The way down to my belly meditation.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: I start getting antsy and I start wanting to, you know, because a lot of times, well, I always thought that.
[00:08:59] Speaker C: Meditation meant that you weren't supposed to think until I met some amazing humans.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Who meditate and they're like, nope, that's.
[00:09:05] Speaker C: Not what it means. But meditation can be. I do walking meditations, which literally is.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: Like, I go for a walk in the woods.
[00:09:11] Speaker C: No phone, no podcasts, and I just listen. I listen to the birds, birds. I watch the squirrels.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: I listen to the brook with its water running. I stay present in the moment. And when my mind starts to float into all those areas of what could be happening in the future and, you.
[00:09:27] Speaker C: Know, maybe what happened in the past.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: Or whatever it is, and I'm coming.
[00:09:30] Speaker C: Up with my next grand business idea.
[00:09:33] Speaker B: I just come back to the present. And mindfulness is just that, just paying.
[00:09:36] Speaker C: Attention to what's happening in the present.
[00:09:37] Speaker B: I literally used to roll my eyes at this stuff.
[00:09:39] Speaker C: But the truth is, mindfulness is it's not just about emptying your brain. It's about training your attention and your.
And noticing the chaos before it takes you down to your knees. And that's the truth.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: So you don't need to meditate for an hour. Try two minutes, breathe in for four, hold out for four, exhale for four. And they call that box breathing.
[00:10:01] Speaker C: That's actually something that the Navy SEALs do.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: That's it.
[00:10:04] Speaker C: That's a reset button that you were able to do if you just did.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: That once a day, twice a day, three times a day, or every time that you're kind of feeling that little bit of overwhelm and stress, you're training.
[00:10:15] Speaker C: Your nervous system the same way you would train your muscles at the gym at the end of the day.
[00:10:20] Speaker B: Another thing that has helped in immense ways for me is reframing.
[00:10:26] Speaker C: It's one of the biggest shifts that.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: I've made and I teach in every.
[00:10:30] Speaker C: Training, every coaching, every keynote, it's that the language you use with yourself shapes your physiological self, right?
[00:10:40] Speaker B: So when you say to yourself, whether.
[00:10:43] Speaker C: It'S in your head or out loud.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: That the challenge that you're dealing with.
[00:10:47] Speaker C: Is a frickin nightmare, this is never going to work. Versus this is a challenge. And let me see what solutions I can find. It literally changes how your brain and your body respond.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: And that's called cognitive reframing. Now usually when I say this, there's.
[00:11:03] Speaker C: One person in the room who says.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Well, what are you trying to say?
[00:11:06] Speaker C: Is this toxic? You know, toxic positivity?
[00:11:09] Speaker B: In other words, always looking at the positive side of it and it's like, no, that's not what it is.
[00:11:14] Speaker C: Toxic positivity is pretending everything's fine when it's not. What I did not just say is everything's fine. I said it's a challenge and let's look for a solution.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: I'm looking at this in a way of how do I reframe whatever this.
[00:11:25] Speaker C: Thing is that's happening in my world to something that I can potentially take back some of my power, some of.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: My control, by using my ability to.
[00:11:35] Speaker C: Problem solve to potentially find a solution.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: And it's building nervous system literacy. You get to ask internally or out loud depending on where you are.
[00:11:47] Speaker C: What in this mess is in my control right here, right now? What is it that I can control?
[00:11:52] Speaker B: What am I making this mean to me? In other words, on a scale of.
[00:11:57] Speaker C: 0 to 10, how important am I making this to me? Because sometimes we make something a nine when really it's a two.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: But we get so worked up with.
[00:12:05] Speaker C: Whatever it is that's happening.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: I know for me, perfect example is somebody in my family who maybe isn't doing something the way I would typically do it. And in the end, I see them maybe struggling or challenged, I might get really frustrated that they're not taking the road that I would have taken.
[00:12:24] Speaker C: And I know I'm not the only one who ever feels that way. So I might feel in that moment an 8 or a 9.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: But if I take that pause and I go, well, what am I making.
[00:12:32] Speaker C: This mean to me? Oh, it's like, shoot, this isn't, you.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: Know, not my circus, not my monkey. I care about this person.
[00:12:37] Speaker C: But they get to choose the path that they take.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: So let's dial this back and then.
[00:12:42] Speaker C: The next question is, you know, what can I learn from this?
[00:12:44] Speaker D: Right?
[00:12:44] Speaker C: Those three questions alone have brought me personally back from many Ledges, right?
[00:12:51] Speaker B: And then finally, I guess I'd land this plane with deep sleep. I am somebody who has an extremely busy brain. I'm always seeming to think of ideas.
[00:13:02] Speaker C: And I'm very creative and very innovative.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: And hey, I'm not perfect, but I've had to learn how to put a sleep routine in place.
[00:13:10] Speaker C: And I'm still on that journey. I'm still trying to get it. I mean, you can go to Google, you can go to Perplexity, you can.
[00:13:15] Speaker B: Go to any of those places to research.
And what you will find is resilience is a lot of.
[00:13:22] Speaker C: It is an inside out job. So it's a lot of the stuff that we have to do within our.
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Mind, within our brain, and then it's what we do with our body.
[00:13:30] Speaker C: And deep sleep helps you build resilience.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: You cannot build resilience if your brain.
[00:13:36] Speaker C: Never gets the chance to recover from the day before. It's not a luxury.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: It is literally.
You know, if you think of technology.
[00:13:43] Speaker C: It'S the factory reset.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: Your brain needs to flush out all.
[00:13:48] Speaker C: Of those emotional toxins, all of the stress residue, all of the stuff that didn't burn off the day before burns.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: Off when you go and you have a great sleep. When I don't sleep, I'm a little bit shorter.
[00:14:02] Speaker C: In my words, I'm foggy brained and I just lose that edge that allows.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Me to be the me that I am.
[00:14:10] Speaker C: And when I do sleep, when I sleep, great. I lead better, I live better.
[00:14:15] Speaker B: I don't think it's something we need to apologize for prioritizing. I think it's something that has to be. You know, most of us don't go.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: To bed without brushing our teeth.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: To me, it's like having a great night's sleep is as powerful as brushing my teeth.
[00:14:33] Speaker D: Right.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: Here's the thing I wish. You know, someone told me 10 years ago, you do not become resilient by powering through.
[00:14:41] Speaker C: And that stress is inevitable. You do become resilient by rebuilding that trust with yourself. I'll say it again and again on repeat. Resilience is an inside out job. You need to listen to your body.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: By interrupting those patterns that keep you in the burnout loop.
[00:15:01] Speaker C: And by choosing to train your brain.
[00:15:03] Speaker B: Yes, we can train our brains like.
[00:15:05] Speaker C: You would train for a marathon, a climb, or any goal that you were chasing after.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: If you want to perform at a.
[00:15:14] Speaker C: High level without falling apart, you have to stop pretending that your mind is a machine, because it's not.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: It is a garden.
[00:15:23] Speaker C: And you don't force a garden to bloom by yelling at it to hustle.
You tend to it, you prune it, you water it. Heck, sometimes you just send it nice.
[00:15:35] Speaker B: Loving words of affirmation, information.
[00:15:37] Speaker C: And all this greatness happens. You let the season shape it. And that is the work, right?
[00:15:43] Speaker B: That is the work for us who have ambition, who are always trying to.
[00:15:47] Speaker C: Do better, who are trying to grow. I am not saying stop that. Please continue. The world needs your greatness.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: What I am saying is you are not a machine.
[00:15:57] Speaker C: My computer is a machine. My cell phone is a machine.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: I can plug that damn thing in.
[00:16:02] Speaker C: Hey, that's even like, there's a great metaphor for us. There's Most of us plug our phones in at least every day. Maybe every two days. Why? Because the battery drains.
Why don't we do that with ourselves?
[00:16:17] Speaker B: Listen, if this episode stirred something in you, share it with someone.
[00:16:21] Speaker C: Also, give me a review, y' all. I want to hear from you.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: I want to know if the podcast I'm doing are landing with you and if you're a leader. Remember, your team does not need more hustle tips. They need permission to be human, and they need you to lead by example.
[00:16:40] Speaker C: Cheers.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Hey, thanks for listening to the Happy Stack podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share.
[00:16:49] Speaker B: It with someone who could use a.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Little extra happiness in their life. Let's keep stacking those wins together.
[00:16:54] Speaker B: See you next time.
