To mark this year's Mental Health Awareness Week theme, ‘Movement: Moving more for our mental health’, The Happier Life project went back into the archives to repurpose an interview host Gabby did with mental health and exercise coach Dan Hancock. Dan, who goes by ‘The Mental Health PT’ online, passionately believes in doing what works for you and you enjoy; is the key to a healthy, long lasting relationship with exercise.

There are many reasons why physical activity is good for your body, but what often gets overlooked is the vast ways it can improve our mental and emotional health too. Participation in regular physical activity can increase our self-esteem, improve our mood and reduce stress and anxiety. It also can play a pivotal role in preventing the development of mental health problems, and in improving the quality of life of people experiencing mental health challenges.

So why do so many of us struggle to move more? In this episode of The Happier Life project, Dan and Gabby talk about getting over the hurdle of gym intimidation, why aggressive fitness plans, or ‘quick fixes’ are not the answer, what to do when we lack motivation, and working with what works for you.

Dan also talks about the numerous ways exercise plays a vital role in our mental health and how this inspired him to create the world’s first certification in Mental Health and Exercise Coaching. This episode will serve as a great motivator for both those who are wanting to move more and those already on their fitness journey.

For more on Dan’s Mental Health Exercising Coaching program: https://mymhec.com/ To follow Dan on Instagram: @mentalhealthpt To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself To watch the video of this interview head to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mypossibleself1756

Note, The My Possible Self App is free to download and access all of its content. We have a variety exercise and movement videos created with your mental health in mind which you can find in the nutrition and exercise tab. Try yoga, pilates, strength, cardio... plus we even have a foundation for fitness program, for those at the start of your movement journey.

Have you ever felt detached from your own life? Disconnected from yourself? Like you were an outsider looking in at your own existence? Going through the motions, emotionally numb, emotionally disconnected from people you care about? Or maybe you've looked at your environment and everything appears foggy? You feel unable to see your surroundings accurately, they lack vividness and coloring? Things don't seem real? Does this get in the way of your relationships and work? Or disrupt other daily activities?

Temporary feelings of depersonalization and derealization are common. About one half of people have felt detached from themselves (depersonalization) or from their surroundings (derealization) at one time or another. But if this is happening more frequently, or becomes a common occurrence; then you may be suffering from depersonalization-derealization disorder.

Depersonalization-derealization disorder (DP/DR) is a mental health condition where you feel disconnected from your body, your feelings and your environment. It tends to come and go over a long period of time, causing much distress and anxiety.

Depersonalization-derealization disorder is thought to be caused by trauma or extreme stress. Adverse early childhood experiences, specifically emotional abuse and neglect, have been linked to the development of depersonalization symptoms. Feelings of depersonalization and derealization are common from significant stress or panic attacks. Individuals may remain in a depersonalized state for the duration of a typical panic attack. However, in some cases, the dissociated state may last for hours, days, weeks, or even months at a time. In rare cases, symptoms of a single episode can last for years.

Swamy G is a counselor who regularly writes about depersonalization (DP) and derealization (DR) at https://acoachcalledlife.com/ Having personally gone through the challenges of DP/DR and overcoming them, he created a comprehensive online program to help others fully recover from DP/DR. In this conversation, you’ll learn how the disorder is more common than you might think, and how and why many of us can struggle from depersonalization and derealization during our life. You’ll also learn all about the symptoms and stress factors, what to do if someone you care about might be suffering from, and how, with time and tools, we can recover.

To work with Swamy G and/or learn more about depersonalization (DP) and derealization (DR): acoachcalledlife.com

To access Swamy’s comprehensive online DP/DR program: DPDR No More

To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast

To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself

When it comes to improving our mental well-being, practising calm is one of the best places to start. Clarity of mind is extremely important when you are dealing with stress, problems and emotional turmoil. And remaining calm in times of turbulence and chaos, allows us to think more logically and make decisions accordingly.

Rebekah Ballagh is the bestselling author and illustrator of 'Note to Self', 'Note to Self Journal', 'Words of Comfort', 'Be Your Best Self', 'Big Feelings' and 'Let's Go, Flo!' She's a qualified counsellor, somatic and nervous system regulation coach, trainer, speaker and the creator of popular Instagram community @journey_to_wellness_ Rebekah’s latest book '101 Ways to Find Calm - How to use your body to soothe your mind', offers simple, powerful tools to teach you how to safely feel and process your emotions, rewire your brain and nervous system, and how to deeply connect with yourself.

In this episode of The Happier Life Project Becks shares some of her favourite calming exercises from the book, whilst discussing with host Gabby why so many people around the world struggle with finding calm. Rebekah also talks about why it’s so important to complete the stress response and sit with and digest difficult emotions, in order to come to a more peaceful place in the body.

Gabby and Becks also look at the most common reasons why the brain won’t allow us to relax, and what we can do to override or disengage the body’s stress response - when it is unnecessarily activated.

To learn more about Rebekah’s courses, book and membership program: www.journeytowellness.online

To be part of Rebekah’s Instagram community: @journey_to_wellness_

To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast

To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself

Hormones are essential for life and your health. They affect everything from blood sugar to blood pressure, growth, fertility, your sex drive, metabolism, and even sleep. Hormones are so important they influence the way we think and act day to day.

The menstrual cycle is regulated by hormones. So if we are having irregular periods, bleed between periods, bleed more heavily than usual, or develop severe pain during our period; this could be an indicator our hormones are out of wack.

Chlo Hodgkinson is a PT and Coach that has learned and trained to work with hormones and the menstrual cycle after recovering from her own journey with disordered eating and relative energy deficiency. After fully rehabilitating and healing her relationship with food and exercise, Chlo turned to social media to raise awareness on amenorrhea (the absence of menstruation). Then went on to become a coach to help clients get back to training after amenorrhea, as well as staying on track with their recovery and supporting them on that journey.

Chlo is passionate in helping females recover from disordered eating, amenorrhea, diet culture and learning to workout with the menstrual cycle. Chlo is also part of The My Possible Self team and creates content for our social channels.

Chlo speaks candidly about her journey with disordered eating habits and overtraining and why losing her period was the catalyst towards her seeking help to heal her hormones and regain her menstrual cycle.

Chlo shares the signs to look out for your hormones may be imbalanced and what steps you need to take to get the help you need. Chlo and host Gabby also talk about the pressures society puts on females particularly when it comes to what is regarded as a ‘healthy’ body image. And Chlo also explains the significant relationship between anxiety, food and exercise.

To follow Chlo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chlohodgkinson/

To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast

To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself

None of us had a perfect childhood; we are all carrying around wounds and behaviours that don’t serve us. But what if we could break free from unhealthy family patterns to liberate the way we live and love?

As children we observe and absorb everything around us. And we teach ourselves to behave in a way that helps to make us feel safe. But at what cost? Have we developed coping mechanisms and strategies to try to feel more worthy, prioritized, safe, like we belong? Could we have developed trust issues because we witnessed our parents keep secrets? Do we struggle with perfectionism because our caregivers rewarded our good behaviour and achievements, but punished or ignored us when we didn’t live up to their standards?

When we start to unpack the significant impact and deep conditioning that our roots and origin wounds have on our relationship patterns - past and present - we start to recognise our triggers and coping mechanisms that might actually be doing more harm than good. But it doesn’t have to be that way, says licensed marriage and family therapist and author of the best selling book ‘The Origins of You’ Vienna Pharaon.

Vienna is a licensed marriage and family therapist and one of New York City’s most sought-after relationship therapists. Vienna has practised therapy for more than fifteen years and is the creator of @mindfulMFT on Instagram where she is helping over 700K people around the world heal their childhood wounds.

Vienna shares the five major origin wounds that most struggle with; consciously or subconsciously. She also explains how the healing journey begins by exploring what we have learned as a child - how to relate to others, ourselves, and the world around us. Host Gabby and Vienna also talk about identifying triggers, which could be unresolved wounds trying to get our attention. And how we can shift our patterns and habits to create a new healthier path for ourselves.

For more on Vienna Pharaon: https://viennapharaon.com/

To follow Vienna on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmft/

To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast

To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself

Health anxiety is a common condition, diagnosed in 4% to 5% of people. But experts believe that the disorder often goes undiagnosed and may affect more than 10% of the entire population. In this Ask The Expert episode host Gabby puts your questions to ex-health anxiety sufferer.. now relatable health anxiety therapist and social media influencer Cherelle Roberts.

To follow Cherelle on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cherellethinks/

To watch Cherelle's health anxiety videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@cherellethinks6398

To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast

To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself

To email a question for our next expert: podcast@mypossibleself.com

This episode is dedicated to hearing the powerful story of the previous episode's guest. Victoria Niamh is a female confidence coach, mentor, social media Influencer and the Founder of ‘The Glow Up Project’ which aims to inspire women to understand that the real glow up is an inside job. Vic advocates for body confidence and breaking stigma around mental health and is passionate about empowering women to unconditionally own and love themselves.

Vic's passion for helping women stemmed from her own harrowing story battling anorexia nervosa, orthorexia and body dysmorphia as she pushed herself to dangerous degrees to obtain the 'perfect body'. First as a dancer and then as a bikini model.

This conversation contains material of a sensitive and potentially distressing nature involving eating disorders that may be triggering for some individuals. This does not mean the material WILL be triggering; just that it MAY.

Please take care of yourself, and don’t hesitate to ask for help if you need it.

To Learn More about The Glow Up Project : https://theglowupproject.co.uk/

To follow The Glow Up project on Instagram: @theglowupproject_

To follow Victoria Niamh on Instagram: @victorianiamh

To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast

To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself

The role of love in mental health is significant. When people think of love, they usually think of the positive feelings associated with a deep connection. However, love can encompass more than just happiness and radiate in many different ways. We experience love when we interact with others and ourselves. Science shows that love involves multiple neurotransmitters and hormones that affect our physiology and mental health.

Loving and stable relationships can help improve a person's ability to manage stress and can help to decrease levels of anxiety and depression. But while love and mental health for the most part are positively related, researchers have found some correlation between love and mental illnesses (or mental health conditions) too. The most common being anxiety, depression, trauma and chronic stress.

Victoria Niamh is a female confidence coach, mentor, social media Influencer and founder of ‘The Glow Up Project’ which aims to inspire women to understand that the real glow up is an inside job. Vic advocates for body confidence and breaking stigma around mental health, and is passionate about empowering women to unconditionally own and love themselves.

As this episode arrives during the week in which Valentines Day falls Vic, with host Gabby, look at some of the different reasons people's mental health suffers around Valentines Day; whilst discussing possible solutions to relieve these struggles. Vic also shares how the love and support from her partner Mike was a huge factor to her own self love and body healing journey. The Glow Up Project founder also explains the driving force behind helping women shine from the inside out, without changing anything externally, so they can find inner happiness and peace.

To Learn More about The Glow Up Project : https://theglowupproject.co.uk/ To follow The Glow Up project on Instagram: @theglowupproject_ To follow Victoria Niamh on Instagram: @victorianiamh To download the free My Possible Self App: https://mypossibleself.app.link/podcast To follow My Possible Self on Instagram: @mypossibleself