Happiness Hacks

Informações:

Synopsis

A podcast with stories and lessons from a personal and professional quest to Live Happier. Helping individuals live with more authenticity and intention. Providing strategies to reduce perfectionism, quiet the inner critic, and live happier lives. Plenty of laughter, insight and strategies.

Episodes

  • Spiraling Up

    30/07/2021 Duration: 27min

    This episode traces a familiar circle, pun intended! Nancy explores the idea of "spiraling" through a personal story about living the same lessons about anxiety over and over again. Then, she talks to movement educator and expert on the mind body connection, Jenn Pilotti, about ways to combat anxiety by using your brain to tune into bodily sensations. Jenn shares some movement exercises, tips and tricks for calming the nervous system through movement. At the end of the episode Nancy puts what she learned from Jenn to the test, by taking a walk through a labyrinth. Listen to the full episode to hear: - How to look at the so-called "anxiety spiral" in a new light. - How to use movement to calm anxiety. - Tips and tricks for tapping into the sensations of the body. - Resources and advice from Jenn Pilotti.    Learn more about Jenn: - Go to jennpilotti.com   Learn more about Nancy: Coach in Your Pocket The Happier Approach Book

  • Anti-Gratitude

    16/07/2021 Duration: 23min

    In this episode, we tackle a subject that Nancy has VERY strong opinions about. Gratitude. Sometimes it seems like people use the idea of gratitude as a way to wipe away the pains and sorrows of life. But that isn't very effective and can end up making us feel worse. Nancy talks to journalist and author Rob Walker about how we can use the art of noticing the everyday as a way to tap into a deeper sense of gratitude for the world around us. Rob shares some tips, prompts, and suggestions for using simple attention as an alternative to the stale notion of gratitude. Listen to the end for some excellent dog panting sounds!   Listen to the full episode to hear: - How to hold on to our power of attention in everyday life. - How to tap into and notice the world around us to create an authentic sense of gratitude. - Tips, prompts and tricks for sparking creativity through attention. - Resources and advice from Rob Walker

  • All the Feels

    02/07/2021 Duration: 26min

    In this episode, we learn all about feelings. How they show up in our brains and in our bodies, and how they can affect the way we interact with the world around us. Nancy tells us about trying to conquer her Monger during a stressful time, and how feeling her emotions in her body and naming them, helped her to feel better in the moment. We also hear from science journalist and health advocate Donna Jackson Nakazawa who explains to us from a scientific perspective what a feeling actually is, and how it affects our bodies over the course of our lives. She gives us some tips for understanding our emotions and how our health can be affected by trauma.   Listen to the full episode to hear: - How feelings affect our physical and mental health. - How a feeling is biologically created. - How trauma affects our emotional and physical state. - Resources and advice from Donna Jackson Nakazawa.

  • The Biggest Fan

    18/06/2021 Duration: 23min

    In this episode, we'll learn about the final character in the Happier Approach cast-- the wise, self-loyal, and sometimes elusive, Biggest Fan. The Biggest Fan always has your back, but that doesn't mean that listening to her is easy. Nancy shares her experience of learning to tap into the voice of the Biggest Fan through the encouragement of her husband Doug. Then, she speaks with actor Victor Warren, who embodies what it means to listen to that self-loyal voice in order to make your dreams come true. Finally, Nancy shares a conversation between herself and her husband Doug, where they talk about the true meaning of the Biggest Fan.   Listen to the full episode to hear: - All about The Biggest Fan - Tips for tapping into the self-loyal voice of the Biggest Fan. - Insight from actor Victor Warren.

  • The BFF

    04/06/2021 Duration: 18min

    In this episode, we get close and personal with another central character in the Happier Approach: the overindulgent BFF. The BFF has good intentions-- she's often jumping in to argue with the Monger when that mean voice of self-criticism gets too loud. But the BFF can push us over the line from self-care to self-indulgence very quickly. Nancy walks us through a typical tug-of-war between her Monger and BFF, and tells us how she's able to quiet those voices. Nancy also speaks to writer and mental health advocate Jill Stark, author of three books about mental health. Jill tells us about her experience giving up alcohol, and how practicing radical honesty around that tough decision totally kick-started her career as an author. She also shares some tips that she's picked up from her own experiences dealing with her inner critic. Listen to the full episode to hear: All about The BFF. Tips for recognizing the BFF voice and distinguishing between self-care and self-indulgence. Resources and

  • The Monger

    21/05/2021 Duration: 18min

    In this episode, we take a trip into Nancy's brain and learn all about her inner self-critique. The voice that tells her every day that all the things she's doing just aren't good enough. Nancy calls that voice The Monger. The Monger is at the root of why Nancy started the Happier Approach. She realized that her Monger's voice is particularly loud. Nancy wonders: do other people, people who really seem to have it together, have loud Mongers too? To answer that question Nancy speaks with Kati Morton, a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, author, and YouTube creator. Kati tells us about her own struggles with the inner critic and gives us some tips on how to quiet that screechy Monger voice.  Listen to the full episode to hear: All about The Monger Tips for recognizing the Monger's voice and quieting her. Resources and advice from Kati Morton. For more information about Kati and her work: Go to katimorton.com. Check out Kati's YouTube channel Pre-order Kati's for

  • Hi I'm Nancy

    07/05/2021 Duration: 18min

    In this episode, the first of our new season, we go back to the beginning to learn how The Happier Approach all started. This is a great episode to listen to if you're just learning about the podcast. If you're a longtime listener, you'll get the in-depth story of how Nancy started her journey toward self-loyalty, catalyzed by a public talk at a wine shop, as well as a personal tragedy. You'll hear from all the major characters in Nancy's life, her husband Doug, her best friend Mary, her mom Jane, and even her dad Ted. Each of them remembers, along with Nancy, how she came to recognize her Monger and her BFF, and rally her Biggest Fan to start her journey toward self-loyalty.   Listen to the full episode to hear: The origins of The Happier Approach. A primer on the major characters of The Happier Approach: the Monger, the BFF, and the Biggest Fan. The story of the beginning of Nancy's personal journey toward self-loyalty.   Learn more about Nancy: Coach in Your Pocket The Hap

  • New Season Trailer

    25/04/2021 Duration: 01min

    Trailer for the new season of the Happier Approach. Starts May 7th!

  • Practicing Self-Loyalty in the New Year - Part 2

    28/01/2021 Duration: 30min

    The beginning of any new year often hyperactivates our “Shoulds.” I should lose weight.I should start meditating more.I should be kinder to myself.I should put myself out there more.I should, I should, I should.I am no stranger to the Shoulds that my Monger promotes every new year. Like clockwork, those shoulds and New Year, New Me attitudes drift away. My Monger always has a heyday with this—convincing me that I was failing.But the concept of self-loyalty—the notion that true change comes only when we’re loyal to ourselves first—is what changed the game for me… for the better.In part one of this series on self-loyalty, I talked with my friend and podcast producer, Sean McMullin. We defined self-loyalty and how to bring self-loyalty to the center of your life as you make plans for change in the new year. If you haven’t listened to part one yet, I recommend that you do before jumping into this one.Today, I’m continuing my conversation with Sean, going deeper into change, resolutions, and plans for the new year

  • Episode 164: Practicing Self-Loyalty in the New Year - Part 1

    21/01/2021 Duration: 33min

    For years, the month of December was my month of debauchery. My BFF (the voice of false self-compassion) ran the show. After months of being told what I “should” do by my Monger in December, I could throw all the rules out the window.  December was the one month out of the year that I gave myself permission to not listen to the shaming voice of the Monger: I gave myself the free pass of December because I knew come January, my Monger would drop the hammer and criticize me into submission. I believed, on January 1st (well, 2nd really because on the 1st, I was still recovering from all the December merriment), I would magically become a new person. Someone who loved vegetables and hated sugar, desired to work out every day, easily abstained from drinking, and uber-productive. I am sure you could guess how that went. Long story short, come mid-January, my Monger had a field day with all the ways I was failing. This all-or-nothing thinking ran my life for years---decades really. But something changed, thanks to t

  • Episode 163: Lou Blaser and the Performative Nature of High Functioning Anxiety - Part 2

    14/01/2021 Duration: 23min

    Anyone with High Functioning Anxiety knows what I mean when I talk about the Swan Effect. It basically boils down to the feeling of being so on top of it and accomplishing everything we set our sights on… compared to the overwhelm and exhaustion that we feel under the surface that no one can see.  My guest on this series about the performative nature of high functioning anxiety is no stranger to the Swan Effect.  In part one of this podcast, Lou Blaser from the Second Breaks Podcast and I talked about the Swan Effect and what it feels like to be calm on top and yet paddling like mad, metaphorically, underneath. We also discussed when Lou realized she needed help and what therapy taught her about anxiety and depression.  On today’s episode, Lou and I continue the conversation around the performative nature of high functioning anxiety with Lou. For her, learning to recognize that tendency is a sign that her depression and anxiety have spiked and that she needs to step up her self-care. If you feel like no matte

  • Episode 162: Lou Blaser and the Performative Nature of High Functioning Anxiety - Part 1

    07/01/2021 Duration: 26min

    Well, we made it to 2021! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season. I know I’m excited to be back at the podcast after a short break.  One of the most challenging aspects of High Functioning Anxiety is the Catch-22 of the positive affirmations you receive for being so on-it and accomplishing so much versus the overwhelm and exhaustion you feel under the surface.  Does this sound familiar? This Catch-22 causes those of us with HFA to be extremely performative in how we approach our lives. The never-let-them-see-you-sweat idea permeates everything we do.  On today’s episode, I’m going to go deep into the performative nature of high functioning anxiety and talk with Lou Blaser from the Second Breaks Podcast. Lou was kind enough to agree to come on and talk about her experience with anxiety and depression.  Lou and I refer to that Catch-22 as The Swan Effect: you look beautiful and calm on the outside but underneath the surface you are paddling like crazy. I am so excited for you to hear this interview.  This is

  • Episode 161: Experimenting with Meditation and Mindfulness - Part 2

    26/11/2020 Duration: 39min

    About a month ago, I challenged myself to a month of practicing meditation.  As I shared in Part One of this series, I didn’t have a consistent meditation practice prior to this experiment. In fact, I was pretty resistant to it in the first place. (Be sure to go back and listen to this episode if you haven’t yet!) But I was inspired to give meditation another try because of all the stress and anxiety in the world right now.  As I share in the episode, I made it to 30 days of practicing meditation and mindfulness. Technically, it was two weeks of meditation and two weeks of mindfulness—and I get into why I broke it into chunks like this in the episode.  Of course, I had to invite my friend and podcast producer, Sean McMullin of Yellow House Media, back to the show to chat with me about my experience. As you heard in the first part of this series, Sean is someone who not only knows me well—but he also has a meditation practice of his own and I figured he’d be the perfect person to keep me accountable.  I learn

  • Episode 160: Successfully Navigating Decision Fatigue, COVID, and the Holidays with Michelle Florendo

    19/11/2020 Duration: 42min

    As if navigating the holidays wasn’t already hard enough, 2020 has turned our holiday traditions on their head.  In my family, we’re making some tough decisions about the holidays, and emotions are running high. We’ve already canceled our traditional Thanksgiving trip to Chicago to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins—and it looks like we’ll need to reimagine our Christmas as well, which has been pretty much the same my whole life.  Making decisions this year has been hard. I’m sure you feel it, too. Do we have a holiday celebration with family? Do we travel? Do we stay home and have a virtual get together? Do we need to change how we do things at all? It’s tough and the decision fatigue is real.  In a quest to make the holiday decision-making process as easy as possible (or at least a little bit easier), I wanted to talk with Decision Engineer and Coach, Michelle Florendo.  Michelle specializes in helping people untangle messy decisions in life and work. After studying decision engineering at Stanford Universit

  • Episode 159: A Weekend in the Life of High Functioning Anxiety

    12/11/2020 Duration: 20min

    For many of us with High Functioning Anxiety, we have a hard time noticing when we are anxious. Our anxiety is usually swimming around in our heads WELL before we consciously notice it.  For me, I can say I’m fine, I’m not feeling anxious then poof—I explode at my husband for leaving something out of place and realize how high my anxiety is and I didn’t even realize it. In a similar vein, my clients tell me their HFA shows up when they can’t sleep at night because of their racing thoughts. The truth is: we all have default patterns we fall into. Many of us have “go-to” behaviors to express our anxiety that we either inherited genetically or that we learned from a young age: behaviors we engage in and beliefs that we get stuck on. Some of these patterns might be overeating, overthinking, people-pleasing, insomnia, over-analyzing, or assuming you are wrong. HFA is sneaky—and it shows up in the most strange and uncomfortable ways. To illustrate, I decided to record the times when my anxiety was exceptionally hig

  • Episode 158: What is Self-Compassion with Gary Ritts

    05/11/2020 Duration: 32min

    The self-help industry is FULL of concepts that are meant to inspire you into a better version of yourself—go big or go home, love yourself, rewrite your past—but what happens when they’re overused and lose all their meaning? How can they then motivate you to live happier and more fulfilled?   And what about self-compassion?  I remember reading Tara Brach’s book, Radical Acceptance, where she tells a story about a woman’s mother who was dying. On her deathbed, the mother opened her eyes and said, “You know, all my life I thought something was wrong with me. What a waste.”  I can still remember where I was when I read that line. At that time self-compassion was NOT a part of my life. In fact, it was the exact opposite: I believed something was wrong with me and I was constantly looking for the fix. Kind of the opposite of self-love and self-compassion. The bright side is that one line prompted my quest to figure out what self-compassion was and how it looked for me. It was a cautionary tale—and I swore I would

  • Episode 157: Unhooking the Lie that You Need to be Mean to Yourself

    29/10/2020 Duration: 25min

    For those of us with high functioning anxiety, the voice of our inner Monger is loud.  It’s the voice that tells us we’ll never succeed.  It’s the voice that tells us we’re an imposter and we’re mere moments away from being found out.  It’s an internal voice of belittling and nastiness. It consistently makes us feel like we aren’t enough.  For those of us with exceptionally loud Mongers, we can’t WAIT for the day that our Monger disappears. And while we’d like to silence that inner critic once and for all, what happens if you feel like you’d never get anything done without your Monger? What do you do then? That’s exactly what my dear friend Jamie told me… and it sparked an epiphany. I needed to get to the root of why my own Monger was so belittling, shaming and mean—and why I believed that I needed that voice. In this episode, Jamie and I are chatting about her anxiety and how her Monger shows up in her life and ways your Monger might show up in your life, too. To learn more about the Monger, listen to Episod

  • Episode 156: What Is Happy?

    22/10/2020 Duration: 26min

    What is happy?  This is a loaded question—but it’s something I want to explore in this episode because happiness is the #1 thing my clients say they want. But how do we get to happiness? What is the path there? Lately, I’ve been on a quest to go deeper. To ask questions. To get clear.  In episode 153, I explored how asking and studying into a question helps you to really get to the heart of the issue.  What does happiness look like?  What does happiness feel like?  How will we know when we’ve reached happiness?  For this episode, I decided to ask some of the people in my life—my mom, my second mom, my nephews, and my friend Andrew, who is a philosophy professor at Otterbein University—what they think about happiness and you’ll hear their ideas throughout the show.  As you’re listening to this episode, I challenge you to ask yourself: what is happy for you?   Listen to the full episode to hear: How happiness is fleeting and is a feeling we have, just like sadness and anger. It isn’t a state of constant being

  • Episode 155: Experimenting with Meditation and Mindfulness - Part 1

    15/10/2020 Duration: 36min

    I don’t have a meditation practice of my own.  In fact, I’m pretty resistant to it. I have a lot of rules around meditation and I’m pretty rigid in how I think about it.  But, with all the stress in the world recently and my own anxiety, I thought it might be helpful to revisit meditation.  Meditation, after all, puts our anxiety front and center. It encourages us to make space for it so that we can soften our feelings of anxiousness and stress. Maybe it could help?  That’s why I decided that doing an experiment would be a lighthearted and fun way to reintroduce meditation back into my life. Plus, it would be a space for play and exploration rather than rules.  In this episode, I sit down with my friend Sean McMullin of Yellow House Media, who is the producer of this podcast, to talk about experimenting with meditation and mindfulness.  Sean’s been practicing meditation for nine months at the time of recording and is light years ahead of me—and he also understands my blocks and resistance to meditation. Liste

  • Episode 154: How to Be the Caretaker of Your Own Radical Personal Empowerment and Self-Love with Amy E. Smith

    08/10/2020 Duration: 01h04min

    How often are you apologizing, regardless if you hurt someone or if the situation truly necessitated an “I’m sorry”?  People-pleasing includes a lot of apologizing, and it doesn’t always express what we really mean which, sometimes, isn’t so much I’m sorry as it is I’m so thankful.  I used to say I’m so sorry all the time. I’d apologize for everything—even when it’s not really what I meant. Here’s an example from my own life. When I published my book, The Happier Approach, some of my friends and family hosted book parties in their homes.  One of my dear friends from high school, Renee Mattson who spoke on the podcast about how to avoid passing your anxiety onto your kids (here’s part one and part two), hosted one of these events. She invited me to her house a little early so we could have lunch together.  When I arrived, Renee realized she’d forgotten to think about lunch. As she was running around the kitchen, prepping leftovers, I started to feel bad. She went into all this trouble—hosting an event for me—a

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