How to Feel Better Fast: 5 Tricks That Give You More Energy Instantly

23:37Mel Robbins:Have you ever found a protein drink that you actually like? A protein drink that when you drink it, you don't feel bloated, it doesn't have that weird chalky aftertaste? I've never found anything like that. And then a friend showed me something that changed everything. They pulled out this little shot from their pocket and I couldn't believe it. They said, Mel, there's 23 grams of protein in this thing. I took a sip. Holy cow, it was the best protein I'd ever had. No bloat, delicious, no artificial flavor, sugar-free, fat-free. Are you sure this is 23 grams of high-quality protein? You better believe I'm sure because I'm a co-founder.

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24:57Mel Robbins:Whether you're just getting started or already logging serious miles, Ultra Shoes are designed to move with you stride after stride. Shop now at ultrarunning.com and use code MEL10 for 10 % off at checkout. And if you want even more savings and you've got an HSA or FSA account, you can use those pre-tax dollars on Ultra Shoes through TruMed. Just head to trumed.com slash ultra to check your eligibility, and it may save you an average of 30%. True Med is for qualified customers. HSA, FSA, tax savings vary. Experience Ultra and stay out there at ultrarunning.com. That's A-L-T-R-A running.com. August is National Wellness Month.

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26:41Mel Robbins:I am so thrilled that everyone is talking about menopause and paramenopause. The hot flashes, the brain fog, the changes to your skin, your mood, your hair, frozen shoulder, all of it. I mean, the fact that we're finally having conversations based on research and science and women are getting the attention they deserve, holy cow. But here's the part that we also need to talk about. Where do you go for care and when? That's where our sponsor MidiHealth comes in. Midi is the largest virtual clinic for women in midlife, founded by two incredible women whose vision was to change the way women are treated, particularly during perimenopause and menopause.

27:18Mel Robbins:Midi's clinicians are specially trained in menopause and perimenopause care and will work with you to build a customized plan personalized to your specific symptoms. That includes safe, effective medications and supplements, both hormonal and non-hormonal, and visits are covered by insurance. Talk to the experts at MIDI, where no question is taboo. Book your first virtual visit today at joinmidi.com. That's join M-I-D-I dot com.

27:51Welcome back.

27:52Mel Robbins:It's your friend Mel Robbins, and today I'm sharing five things based on the experts who have been on the podcast that will shift your mood instantly and help you feel better fast. Before the break, neuroscientist Dr. Wendy Suzuki gave you and me two incredibly simple ways to shift your mood. Number one, move your body for 10 minutes. Get out the door, go for a walk. You'll feel like a different person. And number two, when you take a shower, end it on cold. You get that natural adrenaline smoking through your body. You're going to love that. Now we're going to move on to the third feeling that kept coming up over and over and over again from you and your fellow listeners, which is, you know what I need help with, Mel?

28:32Mel Robbins:My brain is fried. I know this feeling. I always explain this like the drawbridge is not closing. You know how on a drawbridge, both sides go up, and then as it comes down, the sides connect? When my brain is fried, whether it's because I've worked too much or I've been pushing myself too hard or I've been going through something, it's almost like the drawbridge can't close. I can't connect the dots. I start a sentence. I can't finish the sentence. I have a thought. Then I forget the thought. Make the appointment. I forget the appointment. I forget that it's my husband's birthday. I drop the ball on a deadline.

29:11Mel Robbins:You start to go like, what is wrong with me? Is this hormones? Is this life? Is this just my brain? Is this like something going on with my memory? Well, it turns out that feeling mentally fried is what happens when your brain has been taking in too much for too long. Does that sound like you? You're juggling too many things. You've got too many open tabs. You've got too many people needing something from you. Too much scrolling, which is input. Too much reacting, which is input. Too much worrying, which is input. Too much trying to keep up, which is input. And at some point, your brain's just like, okay, we're done here.

29:48Mel Robbins:We're done here. And what happens is your attention starts to get weaker. and suddenly the simplest things feel hard or you're rereading the same thing five times or here's my favorite one. How many times have you walked into a room and you're like, wait, what was I, why am I coming in here? And then you walk out and then you go, oh, oh, that's right. I needed to get the scissors. And then you go back in and you get halfway across the room and you go, wait a minute, what am I looking for again? Or this is another thing that happens for me. This is signal number one that Mel Robbins has reached peak brain capacity.

30:21I get irritated over the tiniest things or I get upset with the nicest people.

30:31Mel Robbins:And then I feel terrible. And it's the worst. It's the worst when your poor brain is fried. It's just been trying so hard to do everything and to file it all away and to keep you organized. Oh, my gosh, that brain of yours. Wow. It's been working on overtime. time. And look, you can tell yourself all you want, focus, try harder, get it together. But maybe you don't need to focus harder. Maybe you need to change what your brain is looking at. Isn't that kind of an interesting thought? I mean, let me say that again. You may not need to try harder. In fact, you shouldn't. Maybe you just need to change your focus for a second.

31:17Mel Robbins:And this piece of advice comes from Dr. Adam Alter. Dr. Alter is a renowned researcher and professor at NYU's Stern School of Business. He earned his PhD in psychology from Princeton, and a major part of his research focuses on how the environment around you shapes how you think, how you behave, and how you feel. Dr. Alter is going to explain how simply changing what you're looking at immediately changes how you feel. You know, there's that famous, I think it's a Wayne Dwyer quote, when you change the way you look at the world, the world you look at changes. And Dr. Adam Alter is here to teach you that there's specific things to look at and focus on that fundamentally change the way you feel in your body and the way your brain is able to work.

32:14Mel Robbins:So let's take a listen to what he said when he was here on the Mel Robbins podcast.

32:22So a lot of my work focuses on how these different cues shape how we think, feel, and behave and our welfare, our wellbeing. A lot of the focus for me recently is what happens when you go as far from screens as possible to natural environments, which we all sort of have the I think general sense that that's good for us. It's good to be in a natural environment, but the effects there are among the most profound I've ever seen in any research that just spending a bit of time near a body of running water or hearing wind rustle through trees have a huge effect on your welfare and it's worth doing.

32:53Mel Robbins:What effect does it have on your welfare? So one thing about the way we live our lives today in the modern era is that we are constantly sapped. Our attention is sapped. We're asked to pay huge amounts of very focused attention all the time, whether we're looking at screens, whether we're having extended work conversations, whether we're doing work. And so by the end of the day, you're kind of depleted, depleted, depleted. If you wear one of those watches that tracks your body battery, you see it just kind of goes down and down and down. And that's a good metaphor for the way we live our lives.

33:21It sums it up pretty well. The thing about nature is that apart from actually being asleep, being in a natural environment is replenishing. It basically turns that dial upside down. And so your energy starts to climb again. So it gives you back a lot of what is sapped by that very focused attention. Because when you're in a natural environment, your attention is still grabbed by things. You might hear a bird, you might hear the running water, you might look at trees, whatever it might be, looking at the ocean. But that kind of less focused attention is really restorative. And there's actually a whole body of research called attention restoration therapy that focuses on exactly this idea that being in natural environments is one of the best forms of medicine we have.

34:02Mel Robbins:So let's unpack that. I think you said something about attention therapy. Attention restoration therapy. What is that? Yeah, it's basically this idea that your attention is constantly being sapped. It's being taken away. And the kind of attention you have in a natural environment, which is not demanding, it's replenishing. It's true. It restores you. It brings you back. It gives you something that you don't have. I think the single most profound example of this for me was a study that was done at a hospital on people who were recovering from surgery. And they were randomly assigned to different rooms.

34:32And some of the rooms looked out at a natural environment, a beautiful green lawn, some trees. And some of the rooms just where they happened to be in the building did not have that view. They were looking at another part of the building. And they wanted to track how these people recovered from identical surgeries, depending on which room they happened to be assigned to. And they found they needed like half as much pain medication. They spent three days fewer in hospital recovering. Just looking out at that natural environment was the best form of medicine there was. So it's true, I run maybe four or five days a week and I try to do it outside when I can.

35:05And I know on some level it just feels good, but there's a huge amount of science behind that as well.

35:10Mel Robbins:So what do you recommend for us to put into our lives? Because we've had neuroscientists, medical doctors, sleep experts come on the show and talk about the importance of getting natural light first thing in the morning. We've also had someone talk about if you're kind of burnt out and you are having one of those moments where you just feel your energy draining, even looking off at the distance out the window can help you restore your energy. What are some of the takeaways or the science fact things that people can implement in their lives to tap into this research? Yeah, so I think the biggest thing is I ran yesterday in a forest and it was wonderful.

35:53And there was running water, there were all these ingredients and it was incredibly restorative. But as a runner, my instinct is to just keep going, which is how we live our lives, right? You're doing something and you want to keep going till it ends, till you finish doing it, till you can check it off. And I had to push myself to stop for five minutes to sit on a rock and just let the water go by. And that was by far the most restorative, wonderful part of the day. And I think there's something to that, this idea of purposely stopping yourself. So I would say, whether you're in a big city or whether you're not in a big city, find a little patch of natural environment.

36:27And by the way, if you're in an apartment in a big urban environment and you don't have that option, even little trees, little plants that you have in the apartment, the sound of a little fountain that you have with running water, that stands in for that experience too, is just spend say five minutes a day doing absolutely nothing but taking in, drinking in that natural environment, even if it's a tiny one in your apartment. If you can get out, all the better, but it's very important to do that, I think, as a sort of daily practice.

36:56Mel Robbins:Even just hearing him say the sound of running water, I mean, doesn't that just make you go, oh, the sound of running water. I want to underline that term that Dr. Atler just said, attention restoration therapy. Dr. Alter's research has proven how attention restoration therapy works. Spending time in nature or simply being around greenery or, oh my gosh, the sound of running water, it can help restore your focus and shift your mind from tired to calm or even energized. and if you really stop and think about it you can embrace the truth of that and as I think about that like the sound of running water I wonder if why it works is because the sound of running water makes me think of moments of time where I'm like laying by a river it reminds your mind that life isn't always this freaking chaotic and nutso that there are parts of you that experience moments of calm, moments of peace.

38:16Mel Robbins:And you can use this technique that he's taught you in order to tap into that when you're feeling like you're fried. And I know that a lot of people around the world listen to this show and they live in large cities and maybe you live in a big city or maybe you're listening and you work in an office or you have the kind of job where you're inside all day or on your feet taking care of people all day, I really want you to pay attention to this particular technique because it's going to be especially helpful to you. Because you know that feeling when you finally step outside and take your first real breath of fresh air all day and you're like, oh my gosh, I feel like I just escaped from the crypt.

39:09Oh, okay, I'm out of there.

39:12Mel Robbins:We're free people. In fact, I told you I took a walk yesterday. That's for real. And I went outside and I was with my sister-in-law, Christine, who's our chief operating officer. And I turned to her and I just said, this is incredible. We should make this mandatory every single day. There are people walking around. We got an ice cream cone in the middle of the day. There was a blue sky. The breeze was blowing. and just noticing those things, it shifts something in you. So why wait until your brain is completely fried? Use the research to feel better every single day. And if you are fried, like I have been feeling fried, use this research to feel better every single day.

39:57Mel Robbins:When I step back in from that walk, and so we're combining Dr. Suzuki's 10-minute walk research here, along with Dr. Alter's research, where you really want to notice. Don't go out there and stare at your phone. Step outside and notice. I was a fundamentally different Mel Robbins when I came back into the office. The fog was lifted. I felt more energized. My mood was different. And the rest of the day was different. This is such an easy thing to try. See, life is hard, but making yourself feel a little better doesn't have to be hard. Or you could just put a beautiful plant on your desk or buy some fresh flowers at the grocery store and put them in a little jar next to your computer.

40:45Mel Robbins:This one's my personal favorite. I love, love, love fresh flowers. I always have one right on the windowsill by my computer. Open the window. Take out your headphones when you're walking to work and listen. And I mean, really listen. Listen to the birds, to the rain. Listen to the wind. Listen to the kids laughing. as you walk past that playground. Whatever is around you, listen. Because when your brain is overloaded, you just need to give your brain something else to focus on. Not the phone call, the screen, the emails, the text, the meeting, something different, something new. And you know what?

41:30Mel Robbins:How about I give you a moment to do that right now? How about we hit the pause button? and I'm going to let our sponsors share a few words and you can take a step outside, breathe in the fresh air, listen to the sounds and when we come back, there is somebody very unexpected and very funny who will be waiting for you to show you how to stop waiting for other people to hype you up. She's going to show you how to become your own best friend and dare I say, have a little bit more fun. And that's exactly what we're gonna do when we return. So stay with me, we'll be right back.

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42:53Mel Robbins:So you can shop confidently knowing that for supplements and sports nutrition products, brands provide certificates of analysis. And select products are independently verified through the iTested Lab program, too. And if something doesn't meet your expectations, iHerb makes it right with easy returns and simple refunds. Visit iHerb.com slash Mel and use code MEL20 for 20 % off your order. That's iHerb.com slash Mel with code MEL20. Nothing feels quite as good as a good night's sleep. I mean, don't you just automatically wake up feeling more focused and energized and ready to take on the day? If you're pushing through exhaustion, that's not something to celebrate.

43:36Mel Robbins:All of the experts agree, deep, restorative sleep is when your body recovers, repairs, and prepares you for the day ahead. And the right mattress can play a key role in helping you get that quality rest. I want to ask you something. Are both you and your partner getting the sleep you need? or are you both compromising every single night? You deserve a sleep solution that works for both of you, not just one of you. That's where Mattress Firm comes in. Mattress Firm's sleep experts can match you to a customizable sleep solution like the Tempur-Pedic Split King Sleep System. You can mix and match comfort levels and adjustable positions that help you and your partner sleep better together.

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45:40Mel Robbins:Welcome back. It's your friend Mel Robbins. and today I'm sharing five things that you can do from some of the extraordinary experts that have appeared on the Mel Robbins podcast. These five things shift your mood instantly and can help you feel better fast. Now, before the break, researcher Dr. Adam Alter taught you and me what to do when your brain feels shot, fried, fog. Change what you're looking at. Step outside. Really take it all in. Now we're going to talk about the fourth thing that you can do to feel better fast. And this one addresses something that I saw in so many of your fellow listeners responding to that question.

46:22Mel Robbins:What do you need help with right now? And what you need help with is you're tired of being so serious all the time. You're tired of being responsible for everyone and holding everything together. and more than anything else, you're just sick and tired of being hard on yourself. You look in the mirror and you start putting yourself down and even when you accomplish something, you're so quick to move the goalpost and move on to what's next and not even savor the thing that you just did right. Come on, what is going on with you and me? Not everything has to be that deep for crying out loud. When do we all get so freaking serious?

47:01Mel Robbins:No wonder we're all exhausted. We're constantly beating the hell out of ourselves. I mean, you never talk to your kids like that, right? So why do you talk to yourself like that? And there's a shift that you need to make. You need to stop waiting for somebody else to pick you back up. You need to stop waiting for someone in your life to come along and hype you up. Do you deserve that? Of course you do. We all deserve to be told that you're doing a good job, but you also need to become your own cheerleader. You need to remind yourself that not everything is that deep. Not everything is worth your attention for crying out loud.

47:35Mel Robbins:And by gosh, you're doing a darn good job at the things you are doing. That the person that looks at you and says, I got you, you're amazing. Look how far you come. That person needs to be you. You need to remind yourself. You're allowed to have fun because if we're not having fun, of course everything's gonna feel heavy. You're allowed to wake up and think, what kind of shenanigans are we gonna get into today? In fact, you need to remind yourself that you gotta get into some more shenanigans and trouble. and the one person that could probably do that in a way that makes you laugh as she does is none other than Chelsea Handler.

48:09Mel Robbins:Chelsea is hilarious. I mean, obviously, she's one of the most successful comedians of all time, but underneath all that humor is something really powerful. She has learned how to have her own back and when I read her New York Times bestselling book, I'll have what she's having. There's one passage that I couldn't help but cry reading. Because she wrote about becoming for herself what she had spent her entire life trying to be for everyone else. How to become her own best friend, her own cheerleader, her own best listener. Here is Chelsea Handler on the Mel Robbins podcast, reading that passage from her book to you.

48:51Mel Robbins:And then you're going to hear us unpack what that actually means and how you can become that best friend for yourself too. I became for myself what I've tried to be for every important person in my life, my own best friend, my own cheerleader, my own listener, my mother, my sister. I became my own daughter. How do you do that for yourself? You have to love yourself and you have to wake up every single day and say, I know you high-five yourself in the mirror every day. I wake up every single day. I look in the mirror and I say, what kind of shenanigans are we going to get up to today? You beautiful human being.

49:35You literally say that. I say that. Yes. I mean, there are mornings I don't say it, but I say, I said it this morning. I say to myself all the time, you're amazing. If I see a mirror, I'm like, you're amazing. Look what you've done. You're incredible. Like who else is going to tell us that every day. We have to, and we all as women, and to the woman that is listening to this, you know, we have to make sure that we remind ourselves every day of our intrinsic and innate value. We are so valuable just by the nature of us being here is value, and we can add so much value to so many people's lives.

50:13And it doesn't matter if you're a famous person or you're a public person. You have the ability to do that as a private person with a quieter life. Every time you see a new person on the street, you can smile at them with love in your eyes. You can see somebody going through a hard time at the airport and come over and be like, do you need help? Can I help you? The person that's working in the airport bathroom to smile and say, how are you doing? Are you having a good day? I always think that's easy to do when you're in a good mood, but when you're in a bad mood to extend your generosity when you don't feel like it, that's like next level.

50:48I just love Chelsea.

50:50Mel Robbins:And there are two things, did you notice, that she was teaching you? The first is, number one, you have to become the person who has your own back. Now, once in a while, not only when things are going well, every single day, you have to be the one who looks in the mirror and says, I got you. I got you. You're doing better than you think. I mean, look at how far you've come. You are amazing. And look, I know that feels kind of weird and cringy and awkward, but do it anyway. Because do you want to spend your whole life saying the opposite to yourself, hoping that someone else is going to just kind of waltz in and tell you the things that you deserve to hear?

51:37Mel Robbins:Don't do that. Remind yourself. Tell yourself the things you want to hear. And the second thing that I want to make sure that you really take away from this, because it's just as powerful, when you're stuck in a bad mood, stop making the entire world about your bad mood. Look up. Ask somebody for help. Help someone else. Notice someone. Smile at someone. Help someone. Hold the door open for someone. Ask someone else, are you okay? Because the fastest way out of your own head is to put some love into the world around you. The fastest way to stop marinating in your own bad mood is to look around and see if you can help someone else.

52:28Mel Robbins:And I really want you to try both of these suggestions. I want you to look in the mirror. I want you to tell yourself, I got you. I see you. We got this. You're doing a great job. And I want you, when you catch yourself in a bad mood, do not turn the entire world into a bad mood. Get out of your head and see what you can do for somebody else. It'll shift your mood immediately. And that brings me to the fifth and final feeling I saw over and over and over again. And my favorite piece of advice and the tool that you're going to get, which is one of my favorite things that have ever been shared on the Mel Robbins podcast.

53:06Mel Robbins:And the fifth feeling is heavy because you're feeling scared. You feel uncertain. You feel sad about the future. I mean, some of your fellow listeners wrote in, what would you tell someone who's lost their focus and their vision for their own life? Someone else wrote, I'm completely lost. I don't know what I'm meant to do in my life or even where to start. I'm feeling called to change. I'm so unhappy though, and I don't even know how to begin. I want to succeed, but I don't know how, and it's stressing me out. How can I find myself again?

53:55Mel Robbins:One of the things that really struck me is how many of you want change. You want a sense of direction, but you don't know where to start. And I think a lot of times when you get stuck in a chapter of your life or you get stuck thinking about how bad you feel, all you're doing is spinning in place because all you see is where you're standing. And that's why it's so easy to start to convince yourself that you don't know where to start. But maybe the real question isn't, where do I start? Maybe the real question is, where am I going? And that brings me to the final expert I want to introduce you to.

54:48Mel Robbins:Because without a destination in mind, it's really hard to step up to the starting line. Of course you don't know how to start because you don't know where you're going. And without having a final destination that you can envision, it's impossible to create a set of directions from where you are to where you want to go next. And that brings me to the final expert from the Mel Robbins podcast that I am so excited for you to listen to. Because Dr. Martha Beck has an extraordinary tool that is backed by science. She has been using this for decades to help you right now envision where you want to go in the future.

55:33Mel Robbins:Dr. Martha Beck is one of the most respected life coaches in the world. She holds three degrees from Harvard, is a six-time New York Times bestselling author, and is famously known as Oprah's life coach. Dr. Martha Beck has an extraordinarily powerful exercise that she calls the ideal day. And the reason why I wanted you to experience this exercise live right now is because it is the tool based on research that not only helps you step up to and over the starting line, by the time you are done with this exercise, you will have a clear picture of a future that really makes you come alive. And Dr.

56:21Mel Robbins:Martha Beck is going to walk you through this simple exercise where you just close your eyes and you picture one perfect, ideal day. And I want you to do it with me right now. Don't overthink it. Don't question. Don't ask yourself, how's it all going to happen? I want you to just take a deep breath and listen. Let your intuition answer. Let your senses come alive. Here is Dr. Martha Beck walking you through the ideal day exercise.

57:06The ideal day, yeah. It's really simple. And now you're grounded in your body. This is the track. We have to follow the track. This is how you track forward. How far would you like to go in the future? We're going to do time travel. So you, don't do hypotheticals. I want to know what you're going to do. I immediately thought a decade, 10 years. Okay. Think about, you don't have to say it. Think about the age you'll be. And the age your husband, your children will be. Sort of move your mind forward like a calendar. Now, here are the instructions. Your life is absolutely what it was meant to be.

57:43Every expression of your greatest joy and your greatest fulfillment. You're going to wake up on a day that is an ordinary day in a perfect life, in an ideal life. So what I'm going to do is I'll prompt you with a few things, and I want you to let your senses answer these questions, not your mind. So your mind can't time travel. It will tell you it can, but it can't. Only the body can time travel. And this is how it goes. You wake up on this morning and you don't even open your eyes. You listen. What do you hear on this day, an ordinary day in your perfect life in 2034? What do you hear? I hear waves and I hear little kids laughing.

58:33Okay. So smell the air. Don't open your eyes. What do you smell? Salt. Coffee. I'm seeing a theme here. All right. Open your eyes. Look at the sheets. What color are they?

58:48Mel Robbins:White. Look at the floor. What does it look like? Wood? Yeah, it's a wide planked wood floor that's sort of, it's kind of, it's not shiny. It's like worn. Cool. Look over across from you in the bed. who's there, if anyone? Chris. Loaded question. Okay, great. Look at the room. What do you see? The whole room. It's very, like, just kind of modern and unfussy and beautiful. Are there photographs on the walls? No, there was like a painting or a photograph. Okay, what does it look like? It was like a big beach scene. Ah, this theme is strong. It's very strong. All right. Are there windows in the room?

59:45There's one. Okay. Get up and go to the window and look out. Okay. What do you see? Your life is perfect. What do you see?

59:52Mel Robbins:The ocean. Okay. It could also be like the Alps and the Sahara. Like you can see anything. There are no rules here. Okay. It's just imagination. Yeah. But you see the ocean. Mm-hmm. Is it like a tropical ocean or is it northern? No, it's sort of northern. Okay. Rocky or just sandy? Don't think. It's just the ocean. Cool. All right. So you go into your bathroom. Uh-huh. It's the perfect bathroom. Look at the design of everything in the bathroom. And then look at yourself in the mirror. And you are your healthiest, most radiant, physically fit self. Take that in. You are looking fabulous. Yes. And so you do your morning stuff, take a shower or whatever.

1:00:40Then you go to your closet and open the door. This is very important. The clothes in your closet reflect everything you do in your perfect life because you have to wear different things. So I always ask people, look at the shoes. What kinds of shoes do you have? Oh, they're all like flip-flops and Birkenstocks. There's no strappy sandals with stiletto heels? Nope. Hiking boots? Not at this house. Oh, you have more than one house. See how that came in? Yes. Fabulous. So this is your beach house, clearly. And you do not do formal wear at the beach house. So what you're going to do now, Chris is still in the bed.

1:01:25Maybe you go into the kitchen and you walk through this house. As you walk through the house, see if there are pictures of events that have happened. Like right now, I can see a picture behind you of a wonderful family trip to the ocean. Look for the pictures that have been taken in the years between 2024 and 2034. Two weddings. Awesome. Yeah. Cool. Wow. Grandbabies. Oh, good. Is it their laughter you can hear? Yeah. Oh, I thought so. I love it. I love that. Can you feel that you are creating this future as we go through this? You are out of anxiety and into imagination and the tears in your eyes tell me it's real.

1:02:16Yeah. You're finding your purpose right now. And the things that bring tears to your eyes are the real purpose. Forget career, forget money, forget all that bullshit. When you're dying, it's the pictures of your grandkids you're going to look at. It's the hugs they give you. It's stuff that society says isn't valuable because there's no money attached to it. That's bullshit. When I walk people through this, we go through the whole day, who's in the kitchen and walk all the way. I won't do it now because it would take the whole session, but you go through the whole morning and see, I'll ask you, what do you do in the mornings?

1:02:55Well, you know what's interesting is I walk the beach.

1:02:58Mel Robbins:I have a big thing of water. I practice yoga. I read on the porch. Who's there? I'm just hanging my family and my parents. Oh, that's... Can you feel how free that is? Yeah. because you've done so much in the world that says, you know, be a lawyer, all that stuff that was harsh and cruel and sort of tried to knock the sentimentality out of you. It was pushing you away from your purpose and into fear, into anxiety, because when we leave the track of our joy, a natural response is to be terrified. And then we get stuck in that spiral and we can't come back. But when you begin to create, which you just did, with your senses and your imagination, not verbal mind.

1:03:55Don't be counting things and measuring how it's going to happen. No. That's all left hemisphere thinking. Senses and joy. That's how you track your future. And as you track it, you create it.

1:04:10Mel Robbins:I wanted to ask you about the senses. Yeah. Because what happens when you tap into that creativity and you really navigate through a day like that using only senses? Because I did catch myself at times, and I'm sure as you were listening and you were imagining your ideal day, you caught yourself thinking too. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it takes you out of the feel. Yeah. Why do the senses matter and why do they help you unlock your sense of purpose and joy and tap into this creativity? I'm so glad you asked. And again, I don't want to get all science-y here. No, please. But the left hemisphere of the brain, which is glorified by our society, that left hemisphere is what talks and counts and measures time and thinks of problems and tries to get what it wants.

1:05:07And it's very fear-based. so it gets stuck in anxiety. When you go to the senses, if I asked you, you know, imagine the taste of lemon, immediately the right hemisphere would start to light up. The senses and our sense of being in place activate the right hemisphere, and so does imagination. So, and creativity like sums it all up. So, any artist is just in the present moment, very much in contact with what we're making and not stuck in fear at all. The interesting thing is that after you come out of a session of that, because your right hemisphere doesn't track time and you go back into the verbal left hemisphere, it will say, well, that was nothing.

1:05:51That didn't even happen. There was no time. I don't know what you were doing. What is that about? So when you say, you know, I say, oh yeah, bliss and white light and everything. And you're like, Like, how does that add up? It's the right hemisphere that gives us our sense of meaning, our sense of connection, our sense of joy. And the mind that goes, no, that actually is a completely different part of the brain. But as I said, anxiety shuts down creativity, but creativity shuts down anxiety. So while you were doing the ideal day, how anxious were you? Zero. Yeah. Nothing. Yeah. Just pure feeling.

1:06:32Yeah. Some scientists, some psychologists set out to discover why we have all species on Earth. There's a certain proportion of us that take our own lives on purpose. No other animal does that that we know of. And the answer to why we do that is language. Because of the way we think in language and time, we can construct a future that is so painful to live with that it outweighs our fear of death. A structure made of nothing but words and thoughts can torture us until we want to die. And I lived that way for about 32 years. And then I decided I was going to live in the awareness of that light.

1:07:19Mel Robbins:I love that last sentence. I decided I was going to live in the awareness of that light. Incredible. And you know what's so powerful about that exercise? Is that when you open your eyes, you're still in your present life, but the picture in your mind has changed. And when the picture in your mind changes, how you feel right now changes too. And that's exactly what Dr. Martha Beck means when she says, in this ideal day, You are out of anxiety and into imagination because you've stopped questioning. How's this ever going to work? I can't start. I don't know what to do. And instead, you start asking, what do I hear?

1:08:17Mel Robbins:What do I smell? Who is beside me? What do I see? What photographs are around me? Who's laughing? It helps you to stop feeding the fear and drop into your senses and create a different future. And that was the whole point of this episode, to help you to feel different. Just five simple things that you can do to shift how you feel, to shift your mood, to clear away the weight any single time you need to. And I just want to say, I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of you for taking this time for yourself and listening to something that's going to make you feel better because you deserve to feel better.

1:09:10Mel Robbins:And while life may feel very complicated, the things that you can do right now are pretty simple. And while things may feel very hard, it is kind of easy to make yourself feel just a little bit better. Even in those moments when you don't feel like yourself, that stronger, clearer, and more energized version of you, you're still in there. And these five tools help you tap back into that. And in case no one else tells you today, as your friend, I wanted to be sure to tell you that I love you and I believe in you and I believe in your ability to create a better life. And there is no doubt in my mind that if you do these simple things to make yourself feel better in your day-to-day life, your life will, in fact, get better.

1:10:00Mel Robbins:All right. I'll see you in the very next episode. I'm going to welcome you in the moment you hit play.

1:10:08Mel Robbins:Okay, great. Here we go. All right. You ready? No, you're good. Okay, here we go. These glasses are still so dirty. Hold on, I've got hair on my nose. we're gonna have a throat clearing thing sorry lots of edits today oh i love this one here we go what was the last line that i said you know who's going through a tough friend how was that remember what page i was on okay and what was the thing again oh and then i put my water down that's how we do it okay boom great coaching okay great job guys Oh, and one more thing. And no, this is not a blooper. This is the legal language. You know, what the lawyers write and what I need to read to you.

1:10:55Mel Robbins:This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist. And this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode.

1:11:20Mel Robbins:Sirius XM Podcasts.

1:11:27Mel Robbins:You know, I'm a real homebody, and one of my favorite life hacks is having your home reflect who you are. Not who you used to be or what you think it's supposed to look like, Just you now. And Ashley has pieces that fit whatever your style is. In fact, I'm scrolling Ashley's site right now, and I am immediately drawn to the pieces in the Serene Bay Outdoor Collection. Oh my gosh. My personal style, it's cozy and functional. The pieces in this collection feel elevated, but still livable. But what I love most about Ashley is that every piece doesn't just look great. They're built for real life with features like stain resistant fabrics that are easy to clean and even machine washable cushion covers.

1:12:14Mel Robbins:Plus, Ashley offers white glove delivery so everything is brought right into your home and set up where you want it, making the entire process easy from start to finish. Visit your local Ashley store or head to ashley.com to find your style. You're doing your best to show up, stay consistent, feel strong, and then allergies hit. Suddenly you're rescheduling plans, your whole day is derailed, but you can take your power back with Claritin-D. Claritin-D provides fast, powerful relief of your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion. Claritin-D starts working in as little as 30 minutes so you can get back to feeling like yourself again and live life on your terms.

1:12:55Mel Robbins:When allergies get in your way, try Claritin-D. Claritin clears, uses directed.