De-Stress For Success with Isabella Ferguson
This podcast is about finding calm. I talk to the experts and bring you evidence-based practical methods to help you destress and live purposefully. In my early 40’s, I bowed out of a 20 year legal career “to spend more time with the kids”. However it was more than that. Decades of running on high anxiety and drinking to cope had had its toll on my nervous system and I was burnt out. I didn’t know it at the time, but from there I started years of recovery and ultimately stepped into a new way of living. I went to rehab, retrained as a counsellor and coach, created a successful counselling practice, became a motivational & corporate wellness speaker, took up painting and now support others to destress for success.
https://isabellaferguson.com.au
De-Stress For Success with Isabella Ferguson
1. Welcome to De-Stress for Success with Isabella Ferguson
Feeling overwhelmed, stressed out, and don't know where to turn? Welcome to De-stress for Success with Isabella Ferguson. This podcast promises to enlighten you on the captivating science behind stress and shares groundbreaking techniques to help you manage it effectively. We delve into the fascinating workings of the human brain, focusing on how it learns stress responses from our environments and the potential to retrain our brain for healthier stress responses - a legacy that we can pass on to our children. We'll also talk about the role that alcohol plays in stress and discuss effective ways to find calmness without it, such as deep breathing, mindfulness, and meditation.
We're all searching for something bigger than us to provide meaning and guidance in our lives - and that's exactly what I'll address in this podcast. Hear from neuroscientists, wellness experts, and individuals who've triumphed over burnout on the importance of identifying your passion and purpose, even amidst time constraints.
We're not just talking about surviving, but thriving, by redefining what success means to us individually. As we delve into these important discussions, we'll also discover how de-stressing can bring us closer to our goals. So, tune in and embark on this transformative journey towards a happier, healthier you.
https://isabellaferguson.com.au
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ISABELLA FERGUSON
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Stress. It can come on for no obvious reason. It can motivate and small doses of it can be helpful, but it can also paralyze. It can make or break a precious moment. In fact, it can be crippling, claustrophobic, panicky, seemingly endless and all-consuming Stress can contribute to health problems over time physical ailments, mental health issues and emotional withdrawal. Anger and hopelessness. Addiction People reach for alcohol in an attempt to escape stress.
Speaker 1:I certainly did so. What is it really and why am I so fascinated by it? It intrigues me why people handle and respond to the same situation so differently. What makes one person, bound out of bed, excited To head off to give a presentation, while another just feels so stressed in anticipation, dreading the moment, even seeking out a glass or two of wine for Dutch courage along the way and yes, I have done that, by the way. Why does one person let a conversation slide away like water for ducks back, but another will ruminate on it into the evening?
Speaker 1:It's the neuroscience that draws me in. Did you know that we inherit our stress response from former generations, including our parents or carers? So the way that they handled stress, the way that they showed it, the way that they practice self-care, the way that they coped. Was it healthy, unhealthy? We learned from that. Our brain learned from those environments, and this is what we can find ourselves doing later on when we find ourselves stressed. So we can pass on our way of reacting to stress also to our children. But the good news is that we can retrain our brain to respond to stress differently, so in doing so, we're also able to pass on healthier coping mechanisms to our kids as well. We can learn to release the stress valve so that it doesn't accumulate and feel overwhelming by the time we walk in the door. And this is what gets my pulse racing. I love this part, this science of stress that gives us hope to change, that empowers us to de-stress and find our calm. If we could bottle that peaceful, calm, content feeling that we occasionally can find our self in, if we could save it for future moments, we'd make a fortune.
Speaker 1:I've been there, and it's perhaps for this reason that I delved into the topic of stress in the first place. In my early 40s I was a litigation lawyer. I had been for 20 years. It was a career I loved until it just became too much. So I left, and my reason to anyone that asked was I needed to spend more time with my kids. However, it was more than that. I couldn't contemplate stepping foot into the office one more time. I reacted in fear when the phone rang, when I was visualising it being a particular client or colleague or solicitor on the other side.
Speaker 1:Decades of running on high anxiety, drinking way too much to cope, had had its toll on my nervous system and I was burnt out. I didn't know it at the time, but from there I started years of recovery, soul searching and ultimately stepped into a new way of living. This included heading off to rehab to deal with my dependence on alcohol, kicking the booze once and for all. In fact, I stepped out of rehab and straight into the COVID lockdown, but I was able to use this time to read up, retrain, make some changes and step into the second half of my life Different, with intention. It's not all easy. I'm certainly far from perfect, but I have learnt a lot about stress and I'm proud to say that I'm able to help others too.
Speaker 1:In a nutshell, stress is our physical response to an actual or perceived threat or challenge. It's your body's automatic reaction to protect you. Your body activates a complex set of responses that are designed to help you deal with a situation, whether by confronting it or avoiding it, and of course, this is what's known as the vital flight response. I'll be super quick here. But signals are sent to your sympathetic nervous system, which triggers a rapid series of physiological changes, including the release of stress hormones, particularly adrenaline, into the bloodstream, and this causes the heart rate to increase, pumps blood to the muscles and vital organs, which prepares the body for quick physical action in case we need it. Cortisol, another stress hormone, is also released, and cortisol helps maintain the body's energy supply by increasing glucose into the bloodstream.
Speaker 1:Now, these reactions are understandable and 100% helpful if you're being chased by a tiger. In fact, it's also kind of understandable if you're about to give a presentation or you're on a first date. It keeps you on your toes, it keeps you looking for conversation, you're ready, you're motivated. But what if you're sitting behind your desk, absolutely stationary, staring at your computer? What if you're safely tucked away in bed but yet feel beyond stressed? Or you wake up, reach for your phone and that familiar, awful feeling of stress kicks in. The body can react this way when you have a combative conversation with a client or colleague on the phone, and sometimes, you can feel like this for seemingly no good reason at all. It's that restless, anxious, antsy, uncomfortable feeling.
Speaker 1:Now, alcohol is something that is a major contributor to stress, but also many people reach for it to seek to lessen the stressful feelings. Most of my clients who have ended up drinking less or have kicked the booze all together have said that without alcohol, they discover a sea of calm. So alcohol will crop up on this podcast as a topic relating to this contribution to stress from time to time. The main focus, though, is to bring to you new, emerging, evidence-based stress reducing methodologies that we're able to integrate into our lives Deep breathing techniques, ice baths, endorphin inducing activities, mindfulness, meditation all of those sorts of things that we know about, and there's also the mental work reviewing your daily habits, finding some time for regenerative activities to release your stress valve, reframing negative thoughts so that you're less inclined to bruminate, saying no to people setting healthy boundaries.
Speaker 1:Equally key and something that we will be focusing a little on this podcast, is how to find your something larger, the thing that is bigger than you, that you strive towards, that sustains you when times are tough and which helps you to thrive when things are going well. Your passion, your purpose might be another way of describing this. Something larger. Realistically, however, these things can be hard to explore and do consistently on your own if you're time poor and locked into a tight schedule. Here's the thing. Professionals, most of us are saturated with wellness tips, but we're time poor.
Speaker 1:On this podcast, I talked to neuroscientists, wellness experts and also those that have suffered burnout but have lived through it, like myself, and have found a way to the other side. These people with lived experiences can act as that beacon of hope for you if you're in the midst of a stressful situation and they've got to talk about how they got through it, how they've changed, transformed their lives. On the other side of stress and burnout, I'll ask the questions you wish you had the time to ask, so that we can spend less time ruminating and more time doing the things we want to do. Oh, and the title De-stress for Success. Well, what is success? It's all about accomplishing the goal of helping ourselves and others lead a better, happier, healthier life. Success is about perception and, of course, how you define it is entirely up to you whether it's personal goals, health goals, career goals. De-stressing is going to help you succeed with all of those goals. I'm glad you found this podcast. That's the intro out of the way. Let's get started.
