Show Notes for The Aspiring Psychologist Podcast Episode: 35: Mindfulness practice for aspiring psychologists.

Thank you for listening to the Aspiring Psychologist Podcast.

On our journeys in psychology, our lives can become really busy. Today I have a lovely chat with Amy Polly about mindfulness and meditation. She stresses that mindfulness is for everyone and gives great advice for how you can fit it into your life. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed speaking to her, and that it can help you on the good days and the bad. There are a couple of swear words in the episode so you may want to listen away from children.

The Highlights:

• 00:28: Living busy lives and introducing our guest speaker Amy Polly.
• 02:03: Amy’s origin story into mindfulness.
• 04:38: Mindfulness when coping with difficult experiences.
• 06:15: What mindfulness really is.
• 09:24: Integrating mindfulness into your busy lifestyle.
• 12:49: The raisin exercise!
• 14:10: Reducing burnout.
• 19:15: Being compassionate to ourselves!
• 20:41: Trauma and mindfulness.
• 21:58: Our physical health is important too!
• 23:14: Future proofing!
• 26:17: Teaching mindfulness to children and young people.
• 28:55: We can all practice mindfulness!
• 30:11: A heart-warming message.

Links:

Connect with Amy Polly here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-polly-69415a18b/

Get your Supervision Shaping Tool now: https://www.goodthinkingpsychology.co.uk/supervision

Connect socially with Marianne and check out ways to work with her, including the upcoming Aspiring Psychologist Book and The Aspiring Psychologist Membership on her Link tree: https://linktr.ee/drmariannetrent

• To check out The Clinical Psychologist Collective Book: https://amzn.to/3jOplx0

To join my free Facebook group and discuss your thoughts on this episode and more: https://www.facebook.com/groups/aspiringpsychologistcommunity

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Hi, welcome along to the aspiring psychologist podcast. It can be so tricky in the middle of busy lives to find ways to cope with what life throws at us. Whether you are working with clients, whether you are juggling work commitments and family commitments and just life laundry stuff. It can be really, really tricky and finding ways that can be useful for our own mental health and wellbeing. And also that of our clients can be really transformational and sometimes trying on different approaches for size can be really useful ahead of doing that with your clients. And there's lots spoken in the media about mindfulness and its benefits. And today I'm gonna be joined by Amy Polly, who is a mindfulness expert, and I hope you will find our discussion around how she got into it, how she uses it for her own family and for her clients to be really, really useful. I will look forward to catching up with you on the other side. I hope you find it useful. Hi, welcome along today. We are joined by Amy Polly, who is a mindfulness expert. Hi Amy. Thank you for joining us.

Hi, thank you for having me.

Oh, so good to have you here. So I thought it would be useful for us to share with our audience a little bit about you and how you got into mindfulness, if that's okay.

Yeah, of course. So I always tell this story. This is my origin story. for my mindfulness. I was going through a period of stress. So I, in my previous life, not really, not that long ago, I was an accountant for nearly 19 years. And at the time I had quite a stressful job that was running around in my mind a lot the time. And I was in the relationship that wasn't very healthy for me. And so I was really, really stressed. And the first thing that I really noticed is, and I dunno about you, but is affected my sleep and it affected my eating. But the thing for me is I know I can function without a bit of food, but without my sleep, I'm not okay. And it got to the point where I just wasn't falling asleep very easily and I wasn't sleeping well.

And I'm pretty sure that it must have been a middle of the night Google where I thought to myself, so I need help with this. And I came across meditation and mindfulness and I stuck something on YouTube. And I always say, this is no word of a lie within about three or four days. I just started to drift off easier into sleep. And the quality of my sleep was just a little bit better. And at that point with my mind, I just needed to know everything. So I bought a book about mindfulness. I started watching videos on YouTube and that was nine or 10 years ago now. So as I started to delve into it more, I signed up to do a diploma in meditation. I signed up to do a diploma in mindfulness, and then it's almost like this gateway to a whole new world of understanding yourself and looking after yourself.

And my nanny had dementia. My mum had suffered with depression. And me going through my own journey, I sort of told her all about it. And so we sort of went on that journey a little bit together and I helped her. And every time I'd learn something, I'd go and sort of practice with my mum. And it just really changed things for me. It changed my perspective on things. It changed the way that we dealt with things together. And all in all honesty, it was just eye opening and it was life changing for me. And so, yeah, nine or 10 years agothat was, and here we are now and I've decided to run a business based on it.

That's an incredible story. And absolutely the words in my mind were life changing, you know, for that, that random Google you know, it sounds like you were really suffering quite a lot at that time with what was going on in your work and just mind yes. Mind fog. And that's really led you to a very interesting path that helps not only yourself but loads of other people as well.

And it really is my passion, I think because it helped me so much. And I think it's a lot, I've spoke to another mine from this teacher last week, we had a little catch up and it was the same for him. He had his journey before he, I never knew I would want to teach this to people. I was just doing it for me. Then I was sharing it with my mum. But I think as we have our experiences and you keep having those moments of realisation about how much it's helped you. You know, I had miscarriage before I had my son and I don't think I would've dealt with that the way that I did, if I hadn't already had a mindfulness practice that I'd been practicing for quite a while. And lots of other things that happened in life.

I had postnatal anxiety after I had my son. Again, my mum was there to support me, but also in supporting myself, I had my mindfulness practice and I think people think it's like this woo, woo word. And people say mindfulness. And they just think, oh, it's having a calm mind and meditating. And it's not, it's so much more than that. It really is a practice. It's like a brain training to allow our brain to deal with basically the shit in life in a better way. And it, doesn't always, it's not always perfect, still get angry. I still get sad. You know, I still losing my mind sometimes. And you know, I'm still a human being, but it's just helped me so much. I couldn't not share it with people.

Yeah, I think you're right. I think sometimes I think because of the media attention and the press, it's got it can scare people off a little bit because it does seem a little bit new age. It does seem a little bit crystal healing, but it doesn't need to be, does it, it can just be mainstream and part of your everyday life. No.

Yeah. And you know what, so this whole thing I always say is BS this empty your mind thing. I was diagnosed with ADHD last year, so I didn't even know this is why my brain is the way it is. It'd been really interesting to understand that. But I know that I've got a very chatty noisy brain that sees in words and pictures, and I don't have a quiet brain like ever. Even in meditation, I have to do things a certain way. And this whole empty your mind thing, I think people think mindfulness meditation empty your mind. I feel perfect. And serene, and it's literally not that mindfulness is the awareness of what's going on at the end of the day. Mindfulness, isn't just meditation. So we might use meditation to get into some nice states and yes, breathing in a certain way will calmers and visualisations can be very lovely and relaxing, but actually you might do a meditation one day where you notice that your breathing is shallow and your chest is tight because you're feeling anxious.

Is that emptying your mind? Is that calm? No. Is it mindfulness? Yes. because it's awareness. And so I think we just need to go right back to the beginning of educating people on what mindfulness is and how it can help us, but in our everyday life, like, it's not this big, I need to go to a mountain top and sit like you say, with crystals. Although I do like a few crystals in my house. But it's not that it's not rainbows and unicorns. It's a brain training to be able to be aware of what's going on in and around you. And then when we've got that awareness, hopefully it's a bit easier to manage those things.

Yeah. I think that is a nice distinction just to welcome people in wherever they are right now. I know when I was first learning about it, it actually did scare me often. They did actually quit my mindfulness course because I was in my third year as a trainee at that point third and final year. And they were like, well, you're gonna need to spend, you know, an hour a day sort of laying still on the floor. And you know, cancel any plans you've got basically. And I was like, do you know what? I haven't actually got time or the inclination to do that. You know, I'd moved in with my partner. Who's now my husband, like a year before when I was having a busy life. I didn't have children at that time, but if I'd had children that certainly would've been a no go, you know? And so I think it was just something about the way that that was taught, not as everyday chunks of time, but as a standard, you know, hour.

Yeah. And do you know what, if you makes me an, I want it, it infu me a little bit because I just think for me, I want to make it accessible and I would, I want people to have it as a practice. So I don't want to discourage people from doing, and at the end of the day, wouldn't we all like to have an hour to lay down in silence and whatever, but the reality is that most people don't have that opportunity and you can still reap the benefits. I mean, you know how the brain works, you can still re the benefits without having to lay there for an hour in silence. And that's, I think for me, the big thing that we need to bust, I mean, when I was naming my business re mindfulness rebel was what I called myself and rebellion is my business because it's just breaking those norms, especially around mental health and wellbeing and mindfulness.

And actually I started my practice with three minutes a day. So I meditation consciously choosing to meditate for three minutes a day. That's a start and it's better to have a small practice every day than to have a big practice every now and again, like that's not a habit, is it? And so for me, especially working a lot with mums, it's about how can we incorporate this into every day? Yes, consciously choosing to sit in meditation is really important. That's like going for the gym, going to the gym for our mind. You can't get a six pack without exercising the muscles the same as, you know, our brain needs the exercise. And you can, you, I always say it like this. You can walk instead of taking the car, you can take the stairs instead of the lift. That's your everyday practice. That's your everyday looking after your physical health, where your mindfulness everyday practice is what you do in your boring Monday and everyday task. You don't have to sit for an hour, but you can practice mindfulness when you're brushing your teeth, having a shower, eating your food. God, we don't do that at all. you know, having a walk, washing up the pots, whatever it is, you can practice mindfulness every day. And that for me is like the big mythbusting that we still need to do.

Okay. So I think many of our audience are having time, at least to brush their teeth twice a day. So could you talk us through how you might be really mindful in those two minutes morning and evening?

Sure. So I actually just before I explain that I work for a charity, so my local mental health charity, so people that come along there are usually prescribed by someone from my eight week course. So I do volunteer work during the day dropping sessions. Then we have the eight week course for people that need to maybe have a little bit of help with things. So these are people that aren't mentally well, and I was having a chat and we were doing a session one, the lady said to me, cause I was talking about brushing out, brushing my teeth. It's one that I always go to, I think, cuz I really like it cause it's got so many different sensations. And she went, yes, but it's not the same as, you know, if paying attention to sitting outside and looking at the nice tree or flowers or whatever.

And I said, it is exactly the same. I said, your brain doesn't know what it's paying attention to. It might feel nicer for you to be outside looking at a beautiful scenery, but your brain engaging that prefrontal cortex of your brain doesn't know if it's at a beautiful rainbow or if it's looking at, at you brushing your teeth. And it was almost like a little light bulb moment. She was like, oh, okay. So I can do both. And then we talked about how to do that. So when we're brushing our teeth for example, or anything, it's all about as engaging as many of our senses as possible. And for someone with me like a really chatty mind, sometimes it helps me to almost narrate it a little bit and label what I can smell, what I can taste, what I can hear.

But just coming back to those senses. So when you're brushing your teeth, so many of them are being activated. So you can smell your toothpaste, you can taste the toothpaste, you can hear the sound of the toothbrush on your teeth. You've got the sensation of touch either onto your teeth or in your hand. It's just about coming back to all those micro senses, like really honing in on all of those things. And when you do that, you are so present in the moment, you are very highly unlikely to be thinking about the to-do list or what happened yesterday. Do, do you know what I mean? So it's really about bringing your attention to the moment, which sounds a little bit like, oh, how am I gonna do that? But that's how we start using our senses in everyday tasks.

And I think that's so much more easier to get on board with than learning with a reason, you know?

By the way. Right. I have to say I do do the raisin just because it is a really good thing for, especially if I'm teaching online, I know people might be able to get a raisin or a net or whatever it is. But I always tell the story of right at the beginning of my journey, I've been practicing mindfulness for a bit. And I said to one of my colleagues, oh, there's a mindfulness managers, course let's go because we might be able to do this for people. Even then obviously there was something within me that wanted to start sharing. And I just remember, and I'm not, I, this isn't about the guy at all. He was very lovely, but sitting in a hotel conference room with a guy standing there in a gray suit and tie telling me to listen to a raisin was honestly one of the funniest experiences ever. So I do the raisin exercise, but I never ask anyone to listen to it. it still makes me laugh.

It's not gonna say very much, no, but in case people are listening to they're like, I don't even know while you're talking about raisins. Could you give us just a very quick overview of the raisin exercise?

So the raisin exercise really is just an example in being aware. So it's one of the first things we do when we start a meditation course, just to show people how unaware they are, because you've probably never really studied a raisin. And like I say it by looking at it, by touching it by tasting it, we are using all of our senses. And so it's just a way to get people to interact with being mindful. Especially if you're getting someone to come and sit down and do this thing, how do you show them awareness? We use a raisin .

Brilliant. And I've really heartened with the idea that it doesn't matter what we're looking at so long as we're doing it because actually my bathroom is still the only room in the house that needs to be refurbed. So it's not that nice, but it's gonna be as beneficial for me to be mindful in there as it is. If I am by waterfall, you know, doing me lovely. , that's really good to know. Really good to know. Yeah. So, you know, lots of the time with our audience, you know, they're managing big caseloads, there's, you know, clinical risk that they're managing. They've got, you know, supervisor pressure, pressure from family and home life. It's a lot, you know, how could, you know, have you got a top tip for how to kind of reduce and manage burnout by using mindfulness?

Yeah. So a couple of things, really mindfulness is something that's proactive and that we should create a practice. So that's the first thing. If your interest is in mindfulness, I would say, just get started, have a look what's out there. You can even go on YouTube. You can see if there's courses but it's a practice. So it's really important to do that proactive stuff. So rather than just going, I need mindfulness now, cause I'm stressed out actually practicing it when everything's all good. So actually when you are by the waterfalls or you're out on a day out or you're in a hot tub or whatever you're doing by being engaging your senses in the good times as well. And just starting to get interested in it meditate as often as you can, by the way, not all meditations are equal. Some people's voices will really annoy you.

So feel free to turn it off and try another one because that's really important. , don't sit there like gritting your teeth to get through it if someone's irritating. So what I would say is the, the proactive work we need to put that in. You know, like I said about the six pack, you're not gonna get six pack without exercising. The muscle and mindfulness is the same. We need to make a practice. We need to create a new habit. But what I would say is, so start with the basics, being aware in our everyday choosing a small mindfulness meditation each day. But when we go through a mindfulness course, we start to realize that there's so much more to mindfulness than just meditation and just being aware. It really allows us to start to understand how our brain works. And one of the big things about awareness is you'll get to know yourself a bit more and I'll get to know myself a bit more.

I'll know the things that trigger anxiety in me. I'll the things that trigger stress. I know the things that that will be flags that are leading to burnout. For example, we need awareness to notice those things. That's why the proactive mindfulness really works well. But as we go through the course, you know, we talk about other things like managing our reactions because our brain works super quick and we need jerk into things. Letting things be is another big area that we talk about because especially if you are stressed out, like you say, you've got these cases, you've got clients, you've got worries. We have to come back to the reality. And a big part of mindfulness is having an awareness of what's going on and having a reality check. So the question I always say is what, what can't I change? What can't I control, try to let those things be like, let those things go and actually put our time, energy and focus into the things we can control, the things we can change.

And that's a really big shift in mindset and in where your energy's going, because we can sit and steer on a lot of things. We can stress about a lot of things, but most of the time they've already happened or they certainly haven't happened yet. So actually that question, and I think that's one of the big parts of mindfulness is thinking about where our awareness attention and where our energy is going. And so we can pose those questions to ourselves, particularly if we starting to feel stressed, like, why am I feeling stressed? Is this real? Is this actually real life? Or is it something that hasn't happened yet or happened in the past? Cuz that's, that's not here now. Does that make sense?

Yeah, it really does. It really does. We can be swept away, can't we? With things that may never or are not within our immediate future.

And it's really easy, you know, and when I was going through that time, when I couldn't sleep, I'd be driving along in my car, stewing, stewing on things that had happened and that would then be informing worries that I would be having about the future. Never was I very present in the moment. And that stewing was really what led me down that spiral of, you know, negative thinking and anxiety. And I've now learned, you know, driving is one of the places where I think a lot. And I now try to just practice minus even when I'm driving. And I didn't know this was done in courses where people have been caught, speeding and stuff. I only found that out in the last couple of months that you just label what you can see and it's about like paying attention and bringing yourself back to the moment and you know, it, isn't all woo, woo.

It's just about training your brain to do that. Cause every time that your mind flickers off somewhere and you pull it back to pay attention to the thing that's right in front of you, you've just practiced mindfulness. And so I always say there's no like failing, if you are sitting in meditation and people say like, I've had a bad meditation, no one has a bad meditation. You've just meditated. And each time your mind wanders off, cuz sometimes you're sitting in meditation and you'll feel like, oh, that was I paid attention to my breathing and I did that really well today. Another day you'll think, oh, and my mind just didn't settle, but you will have gone somewhere in your thoughts and pulled it back to the meditation, give yourself a pat on the back each time you've done that. You've just practiced mindfulness.

Yeah. And I think when I work with people and we've done some elements of mindfulness or guided imagery type stuff, people can be quite mean to themselves when they wander off track. But it's about that gently returning yourself without judging.

That's the word that always yeah. Gently. Yeah. And, and that, you know, that nods too, when we get to sort of the latter part of our mindfulness course compassion and kindness is a huge area that we talk about. How are you looking after yourself? How are you being kind to yourself? And it keeps coming back and we say it all the time and it comes with practice, but you wouldn't speak to your worst enemy, the way that you speak to yourself sometimes. And it does come back to compassion and kindness and giving yourself a little bit of leeway for being a human being. I think people often think, you know, I'm gonna practice mindfulness and meditation. It has to be perfect. Cause that's what we see on Instagram and Facebook and whatever. And it's not, we're human beings. We're a human brain that is wide a certain way to protect us.

We don't need that so much nowadays, but there's still things that triggers us. And I think one of the big things about our mindfulness practice is having that compassion for ourself to accept that we're human and things. Aren't always gonna go to plan and we're gonna make mistakes. And that's okay. I just think, you know, social media and being online a lot of the time makes us think that we're not allowed to make mistakes, but we absolutely are. And like you say, it's about being kind, there's no failing, there's no wrong. It's just about a practice and you know, most of the time when people are doing this practice, it's because they want to look after themselves a little bit better. So yeah, kindness and capacity is huge.

Some of the stuff you mentioned there, you know, when you are struggling to stay present in the now because of stuff from then or stuff from that's going to happen, it's actually, you know, symptoms of trauma, isn't it. And then symptoms of hyper vigilance about what's gonna come is all tied up in trauma as well. So by really trying to stay in the present, we are really trying to help, you know, the brain and the body and the mind know that that's not now that was then, or that's gonna be what may or may not come to pass. And that can be really useful as well.

Well, it really affects our, you know, our nervous system and you know, well, you do know the, the way that our body and our mind works is that we don't actually know if we are in that situation. Or if we're thinking about being in that situation, we still release those stress chemicals and hormones. So actually it really is beneficial for us physiologically to be better at being present in the moment. Because when we start to ponder on those things or take ourself back to a, it could be a traumatic place or just a generally stressful place. Or for me, for example, when I had postnatal anxiety being in that space, like I could feel those feelings in my body like that physiologically something was happening. And so I think, you know, often we think, like I said before, that mindfulness is this woo woo LA LA thing that we are gonna do in a perfectly quiet space.

And it isn't, it's really useful in helping us to manage our mental health, but also that impacts our physical health. And if we start thinking about mental health as a whole, I started to create a toolkit for the sessions that I was leading and you know, what's gonna be on there. We talk about eating, we talk about sleep, we talk about human connection. But mindfulness sits at the core because we have to have that awareness to be able to do all of those other things. So yeah, it can be really life changing. And I know you said to me earlier about not looking my age or whatever, but I think part of that has just been looking after myself. And you know, stress can be aging, can't it? Not to say I never have any stress, but I just feel like sometimes we just accept these high levels of stress, but it's doing some hand actually learn a new way of managing it. And that's what I think I want for people.

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. It can have a total impact on your mind, your body, your soul all of that. And it's yeah, it can be, life-changing like it has been for you.

It really has. And I don't, I honestly don't know what I would've done in those really difficult times. Those things that have happened in my personal life, if I didn't have that practice, like I just can't even imagine it. I can't imagine not having, I just, I just can't. I just dunno what I would've done. I just dunno what I would've done.

It's like future proofing yourself. Isn't it learning the stuff now so that when you need it later along the road, perhaps at times you can't even imagine. Yeah, you've got that in the bank. You've got that ready.

Yeah. And I, I, and you know, when I, when I had postnatal anxiety, cause I've never had anxiety in my life, I, I never had anything like that. It was very much linked to the, to the birth of my baby. And you know, one of the things that my mindfulness practice also helped with, wasn't just my mindfulness practice. It was the awareness that I needed help because I was so in tune with how I usually thought and felt and my emotions and I could see what was happening and that it, I was not okay. And so I did actually get some additional help. Even still last year I was working through and had some therapy because I think I had that awareness of what sort of my baseline, if you like. And when I knew that my practice wasn't helping me, so it made sure that I actually went and, and got some more help as well.

Yeah. Yeah. It teaches that awareness, doesn't it? And I love that idea of what your, your baseline is, you know, normal for Amy.

Which is different to everyone, right?

Yeah, absolutely. But you knew that that wasn't you thriving and you felt that you had more, that you could give yourself and you know, this new relationship that you've got with your little boy you know, to supercharge that as well and just help everything flow that much easier.

Yeah. We're getting there. It's still not, it's still, you know, it was only, I mean, lockdown didn't help because a lot of my anxiety was around actually leaving the house. So I had friends, this is another important thing about mindfulness actually is communication. I am not afraid to communicate and I understand what I probably need to communicate. Not always my, my ADHD brain also is not good at that. So it's a, it is a give and take, but I would talk to friends about it and they'd start to open up to me. And it, I, I never even knew some of my bestest friends were experiencing what they were experiencing and someone at the time, we'd not long had our babies you know, from each other. And she said, I feel exactly the same, except when I'm indoors and staying at home.

So we had the same symptoms, but the trigger for us was completely different. And again, it's about that understanding and knowing that it's different for everybody. And I knew that I needed help to get out of the house and she knew she needed help to stay in the house. And like now I just don't think the pandemic helped me, particularly because it meant that I could stay in the house and I was safe in my mind. And so I think that's elongated my process to where we are now, but I'm very happy to say that I have a picture of it actually, that I took into the garden center for lunch on our own. And that was only a few months ago. And I got a picture of us and that was a big deal for me. So it's not just practicing mindfulness and working in the mental health space doesn't mean that we all have it all together, but it means I understand when I need help and I took my time and yeah, I'm happy to say we've been out and about now in the summer. So it's really good.

oh, I'm really pleased to hear that. And I know you've been starting to use mindfulness with your, with your little boy as well. And that's something that you really advocate teaching young people, mindfulness, and that might be something that our audience can either do with their own children or in services they might be working with with children and young people. Could you give us a few top tips for how to build that into working with little ones?

Yeah. Do you know what, and I mentioned this to you before got started, but they just don't question things so much as adults do. If you ask, it will just stay with me forever. I had this group of beavers on zoom and they're all messing about, I can see them all on their screens and doing this, that and the other. And I asked them just to notice their breathing. So we did some breathing, we were counting it and they all just stopped. And did it, no, like don't question anything. And I talked about mindfulness and I talked about paying attention to, you know, nice things that kids are gonna wanna be involved in. And I just really think that we can lead by example with this. So when it comes to kids, like make things fun. So with my little boy, for example, if we're out and about, I've said to him before mindfulness means we have a little book that we read and I say, what does mindfulness?

And he says, what? I can see what I can smell, what I can hear. So when we're out on a walk, I'll just say to him, what can we smell? What can we see? What can we hear? So he's just practicing a bit of mindfulness. Doesn't need to know why or how or whatever we're just practicing. And then the same with his breathing. And he even does this. I posted on LinkedIn this morning. He does this to me. So how wonderful is that? Like I've taught him something and when he is really upset or crying or say, he's fallen over whatever it is or he's probably having a tantrum and we do the breathing technique and hand on the heart. And the other day I really hurt my knee. I bash, I really bashed my knee and I had a couple of tears and he just came over to me and put his hand on me and went it's OK, don't worry.

Just breathe. Nice thought. , that's my boy. And you know, like I say, just make it fun. And the breath is a wonderful one to come back to because everybody's got breath, everybody's got breathing and it's something that we can get them to count, or we can do it with them sometimes as well. If they're really little ones, you can put your hand on their heart and ask them to notice the rise and fall. But there's so many lovely things that we can do with kids. And I think it starts with us actually. If we have a bit of a practice, then we can share that with them and then we can practice together. And what's nicer than that.

Yeah, absolutely. It sounds like golden moments there, but you're right. You know, breathing is really one of the things that is truly mindful because you can't breathe in the past and you can't breathe the present. It's only right now. I love that. Is there anything I haven't asked you that you hoped I would?

I don't think so. I hope that, I always get so in the zone and I feel like, oh, did I say everything I wanted to say? I think my overarching thing is I just want people to switch the view of mindfulness into knowing that it's something that is for anybody and everybody. And yes, some people find it easier than others. Some people resonate with certain things than others, but it really is for everybody. And I just implore people to get started to just look into it and don't believe that it's this empty mind, Zen robot. It isn't, it's just a practice to understand how your brain works, to get to know you a little bit better and then learn some techniques to help you manage the stresses and strains of everyday life which we all have. So yeah, and once you've learned whether you do a course or whatever you decide to do, it's free forever. Like you've got it forever. So actually it's just bloody amazing and I love it.

you get to keep that in your head, don't you, you know? Yeah. And it becomes part of yourself and your future interactions. And I used it even, you know, this weekend just gone. I was a lovely little cottage with some of my friends, a hot tub in the Morgan Hills. It was gorgeous. And we were like, well, let's just, just take a moment to just soak this in because you can use it on days that feel tough in future.

Yeah. And do you know what, one of the things, sorry, that's just reminded me. One of the things that I say often is use mindfulness in the good times. So of most of the time people come to learn mindfulness because they want to deal with stress or burn out anxiety or whatever it is. But actually we can practice moment when the times are good as well. So like yesterday I I've gone paddle boarding for the third time. A new hobby. And I'd been out, I spent some time with my partner and, and I just sat in the car and I just said, I'm really, I feel really happy today. And he said, why? And we talked about it. And it was like that acknowledgement, that awareness and that being present with the feeling of joy, with the feeling of happiness and just when I'm with my friends, because, you know, we are all quite, so I say it to them often.

I'm like, I love you. I'm so happy I'm with you. And we acknowledge that as well. We don't just have to acknowledge the feelings that are unhelpful, acknowledge the good we can use mindfulness in the good times as well. And the final thing, if it's okay, I'll just say is, if you feel like you do want to practice mindfulness, sometimes it feels a bit self-indulgent to do a mindfulness course, but it's just for you. But I think actually we should invest in ourselves. And if you can find an eight week course, that really is the start of a habit. And I've took many people through an eight week course doing one off sessions and stuff is nice. But you either have to commit to doing a course or you need to commit yourself to take the time every week because you need that time to practice. And it will form a habit and you will have it forever. So yeah, invest in you.

I love that. How can people connect with you or learn more about your work, Amy, if they like to?

Sure. So I am on Instagram. That's mostly my mum audience. I do a lot of work with mums. This is Amy Polly. I'm on LinkedIn, Amy Polly, and my website is Amy polly.com.

Thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you, and I know people will find this super useful. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you again.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for listening. We do do elements of mindfulness and, you know, compassion and guided imagery within the aspiring psychologist membership. And we might well have Amy coming to the membership shortly to if you would like more information or to jump on the waiting list so that you are there ready when the next spaces are available on the 2nd of September, then do head to the link on the show notes which will tell you how to join the waiting list. Or you can head to any of my social medias and the link tree link there for link tree, Dr. Marianne Trent will also guide you straight there, but yeah, hope you are having a lovely summer. You're being kind to yourself and you're taking time for rest and relaxation. Please do know that whatever service you are working in can cope for long enough for you to take some much needed annual leave. So thank you for being part of my world. And I will look forward to catching up with you again very soon for our next episode of the podcast, which comes around at 6:00 AM on Mondays, but it will be there for you when you are ready. Thank you for being part of my world and speak soon. Take care.