In fact, I am pretty sure I have intimately conversed with them all...
Whether it be the "you will never have what it takes" demon, the "things will never get better" ogre , or the "you don't deserve to be happy" beast, I have pretty much had to battle all types.
And while I have gotten super efficient at slaying the demons before they manifest into a full -blown depression spiral, they never fully go away.
The key is learning what to say to the demons.
In this episode, I am sharing the exact method I use to slay all of the self-defeating, mental chatter before it has the chance to consume me.
Just remember....you are NOT your thoughts!
Sending you my love. xoxo
Note: Any of you interested in meeting me at the Clarify Your Calling-Step into Your Purpose event, can learn more here.
**All my fellow mamas out there: I am a potty-mouth, so you may want to listen with headphones on!**
If you found this episode helpful it would mean the world to me if you could share it with a friend or screenshot this episode on your phone, upload it to Instagram stories and tag me (@designingvibes). This podcast is not monetized, so spreading the word is the best way to "pay me back" for my time and wisdom- so to speak.
Welcome to the introverted influencer podcast. I'm your host, Erica. Vank my soul's mission on this planet is to help fellow introverts grow their online influence and estate, a feminine flow and ease while battling the lows of depression, anxiety, and even mom guilt. I've somehow managed to build a six figure blog without the use of social media and without sacrificing my mental health, if I can do it, you can too.
Speaker 2:
Hello there. Welcome back episode 30, one of the introverted influencer podcast. So if you missed last week's episode, I had my very first guest on the show last week with my friend Gina Oldham, and we announced that we are well, she is going to be the one throwing an event in Chattanooga in November called clarify your purpose and step into your calling. And she has invited me to be a keynote speaker there. So I, I hope some of you guys can actually make the event. I am super nervous to be showing up and speaking in public because that is like my biggest fear, but I'm stepping through it and I wanna help others. So I'm going to leave the link to the event in the show notes for you guys, check that out, but we have kind of been going over what each of the keynote speakers are gonna be speaking about. And she was kind of going over some of the pain points that she'd already noticed from, from some of the women that we know will be there. And one of these women in particular said that she struggled with demons in her head. And as soon as Gina told me that, I just, it really, really struck such a chord with me because I, I know exactly what that's like. I am no stranger to demons, head demons.<laugh> if you'd like to call it that. In fact, I had so many demons, especially as, as a young lady that I had to drill them out in my early years. And
Speaker 1:
I developed
Speaker 2:
An addiction to prescription pills. Um,<laugh> it got so bad. It led me into a mental facility after I had really just tried to end the demons for good. So God that struck a chord and this world is crazy. I just found out that a girl I used to hang out with, back in, back in my school days, passed away from a heroin overdose. And I was so incredibly disturbed because I thought my God, you know, that that easily could have been me. If I didn't go through the self-development and spiritual journey that I have gone through to basically strengthen my nervous system and the demons never go away, but I have developed a toolbox to deal with these demons. So that is what I wanna talk about with you guys today. And, and like I said, I'm not beyond the demons. I have had to face a whole new round of demons just coming out with this podcast. And now at the thought of me getting up on stage in November and speaking as a motivational speaker to actually really high performing professionals,<laugh>, it's a lot of the, uh, who the hell do I think I am demons that I am facing right now. But all of that being said, I'm still standing. I'm still here. And I'm still doing the thing, which means I have come a long, long way from basically drowning out all of my demons with prescription medications. So I wanted to kinda share, it was kind of a light bulb moment for me when I learned these few questions. And I hope that it can kind of help you step outside and, and not blindly just believe these crazy self-limiting thoughts. So I don't know if any of you have heard of Katie Byron, that she is a thought leader, she's an author and you would never guess this with her resume now and how far she has come. But actually in her forties, she was an alcoholic. She was addicted to, I think coding. And she had like three kids. She didn't have a job. She was miserable. And she basically hit rock bottom was forced into a rehab facility. And I guess through her withdrawal, she kind of had a moment of clarity and epiphany and she calls it the work. But what it is, is it, it involves asking yourself these four questions because this is what's gonna squash a lot of those demons that I guess, I guess, cause a lot of pain and, and maybe leads to addiction and, uh, a life not truly lived. So when you get it, some thoughts in your head, ask yourself these four questions, okay. This is from Katie Byron. Number one, is it true? Is this thought true? You know that I'll, I'll always be miserable. I'll never be successful. I'm not good enough. Is it true? Is it ultimately true? Which leads to the next question? Can you absolutely know that it's true. Like without a shadow of a doubt, I'll never be worthy of money. I'll never have success. Is that ultimately true? Absolutely. True. Number three. How do you react when you believe that thought, how does that, how does it feel if you believe it? Probably not good, right? That's where we get caught up in number three. I think we believe the thought number four, how or no, sorry. Who would you be without that thought? And I think this is where we need to dwell. So those are some really simple questions, but I think they're so effective because they pull us out of that spiral and it kind of helps us to realize like how irrational we are when we succumb to those thoughts. Because, uh, there's a teacher. I, I love her work. Amanda Francis, she's hilarious. But she likes to say, is there a chalkboard in heaven or is there a chalkboard written in the sky that says whatever your self limiting belief is true and no, it's all. It's your, it's what you, it's your perception. So I'm challenging you today. Stop blindly believing the demons in your head. It's irrational. Okay. And if it's not enough for you to ask yourself those four questions to kind of pull you out of that negative loop, I would also suggest this is what really helped me become. I, I think a lot more even kill is meditation And really devoted. Or even if you don't like to just sit and block out all the thoughts in your mind, which that's not meditation, even just the art of mindfulness in some way, if that's like a quiet walk in nature being in nature, maybe it's just journaling. That is another practice that I've picked up over the past two years. That helps so much. So when I have those thoughts, I journal them out and it's like, by getting it out of your body, you're getting it out of your ORIC field and you can then become the observer because you can more objectively look at what's going on. And this is what my, any sort of mindfulness practice in meditation can do as well. Because instead of just not even being in a being aware that you were falling into something like that, you can more easily pull yourself out and just be the observer and recognize. Yes. Okay. I'm getting those, those demonic sorts of thoughts. Again, I'm beating myself up, but it's not ultimately true and I can stop it. And I can question if it's ultimately true, but my favorite part of all<laugh> is step four. Who would you be without that thought? That's what you've gotta latch on to. So yeah, I can stay here and say, who the hell am I to speak to all of these women? I feel like I suck at speaking. I feel like my brain has turned to most since being a mom. Yeah. I can go down that path and beat myself up and talk myself out of it. But I'm choosing to act as though those thoughts are not true and I'm gonna step through it because I wanna be the girl who, who doesn't let those beliefs get the best of her and keep her from living the life she knows she's supposed to live. So I hope this helped just remember, you are not your thoughts, thoughts come and go like clouds, choose to latch on to the good ones, sending you all my love. And I would absolutely love to give you a big old hug and meet you in person at the step into your purpose event, November 5th. So I will leave that link in the show notes.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much for stopping by this week. I make no money from this podcast. So the best way you can pay it forward is by leaving the show a five star review, sharing it with a friend or even screenshotting this episode on your phone, uploading it to your Insta story and tagging me in it at designing vibes, sending you my love.