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Welcome to the Anxiety Coaches Podcast,

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a relaxing and informative show where

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we explore anxiety, panic and PTSD,

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sharing how you can overcome them

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for life. Aloha,

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welcome back to the Anxiety

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Coaches Podcast. I'm your

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host and coach Gina Ryan, and I

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am so happy to be with

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you again today as together

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we can consider the many

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ways to bring your mind

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and body back to its

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natural peace and calm. Welcome

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everybody to episode 1000. This

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episode is entitled, 1000 Steps

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Toward Peace and Calm, the

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Story of Our Show. I

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am so happy to share with you

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just a little bit different

1:00

kind of episode today as I wanted

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to add to the bits and

1:07

pieces of my story that is

1:09

already sprinkled throughout all of these

1:12

episodes that are available online or

1:14

on your podcast apps. And

1:17

I wanted to share a little bit

1:19

about my anxiety history, a little bit

1:21

about my story. I know you've heard

1:23

bits and pieces of it, and

1:25

then a little bit about the show because

1:28

this is kind of remarkable in

1:30

my mind to be doing episode 1000. So

1:36

my anxiety history

1:38

briefly is

1:40

that I became anxious

1:43

as a young adult. I'm thinking it was

1:45

19 or 20. I

1:48

don't quite remember exactly. It

1:51

was a long time ago. And there

1:54

was a very specific alarming

1:56

situation that I remember setting

1:58

me off into those panic

2:01

feelings and then I

2:03

just kept revisiting

2:06

that. Now there were other things

2:08

that were going on that in my mind I have kind

2:10

of clued into oh I wonder

2:13

if it was this that set it off. It's never really one

2:15

thing I think I was

2:17

already carrying a little bit of a heavy

2:19

load of stress and probably some other

2:23

anxious kinds of situations but

2:25

I was not anxious as a child. I

2:27

did not have

2:30

anxiety or any of those things. I had

2:33

a pretty normal nice childhood

2:35

nothing extraordinary on one end

2:37

of the spectrum or the

2:39

other and I really recall

2:42

all of this starting as a young adult

2:44

after I graduated from high school. I went

2:46

to college when I was 17 and

2:49

then you know so I was pretty young.

2:51

I was just a little young thing and

2:53

but this

2:55

alarming event was

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my grandfather was sick in the hospital

3:01

in New York City lived in Manhattan

3:03

and my father and I were going

3:05

to fly down there and be

3:09

with grandpa as he went through the surgery

3:11

and get him back home. Well as it

3:13

turned out the surgery wasn't going to happen

3:15

on the exact days that we were there.

3:17

I could stay longer but my dad couldn't

3:20

so he flew back to home and I stayed

3:23

alone at my grandpa's

3:25

apartment and I

3:28

went to see him you know the day of the surgery

3:30

and everything and then I

3:32

was going up the last day that I was there

3:34

to visit him. He was going to have a visiting

3:36

nurse be bringing him home because I had at that

3:39

point get back and I left

3:41

the apartment so that's stressful right. I was it

3:44

traveled with my dad. I'm staying at my grandpa's.

3:46

We're in New York City. I had to

3:49

lock up the door. This

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is the last day I'm leaving I'm going to go

3:53

visit him at the hospital and then go to the

3:55

airport to fly home and I

3:58

am outside of the apartment door. I'm

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turning the key to lock it and

4:02

I hadn't set the alarm thing right

4:04

that time and this Horribly loud alarm

4:06

went off. Well, let me tell you

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that was enough to scare anybody But

4:11

once I gathered myself and realized oh my

4:14

god, it was so frightening my heart's beating

4:16

You know, I can barely breathe. It was

4:18

so loud then I got scared again Because

4:22

I realized that loud alarm and

4:24

nobody came like it wouldn't matter

4:26

if something was happening or somebody

4:28

was breaking in because nothing Changed

4:31

nobody came so I eventually

4:33

figure it all out I locked the

4:35

place up turn the alarms off and

4:38

I head out of the building Oh

4:40

into this very busy street

4:42

with cars honking big bright lights, then

4:45

I go to a hospital It was all can

4:47

you see it was just like I talked about

4:49

the straws on the camel's back Not

4:51

to mention whatever else I was carrying up

4:54

to that point But I do

4:56

remember this very specifically as being a

4:58

place that I got set off and

5:01

really felt those panicked feelings I

5:03

was panicked for sure So,

5:06

you know, you just kind of go along. I

5:08

had to white knuckles through I had to get

5:10

myself home and but I learned

5:12

that Eventually,

5:14

I was more

5:16

on alert after that, you know

5:18

I was always just kind of

5:20

looking around and feeling off not

5:23

Understanding or knowing what to do or

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even that that event had anything to

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do with how I might be

5:30

feeling So eventually because

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I'm not and then you're talking

5:35

many years. I'm working. I'm Trying

5:38

to keep myself together But

5:40

I began finding for me

5:42

peace and calm in

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reading philosophy and

5:47

reading spiritual books

5:50

and having spiritual pursuits Because

5:53

this was way back when this was 1974

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there was no internet people didn't even talk about

5:59

English So

6:01

I was kind of alone, but

6:03

eventually I found nobody, the doctors, oh

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you're nervous, you're nervous, you'll be

6:08

fine. Here's some sleeping pills,

6:10

which I knew intuitively for

6:12

me, my personality, not to take

6:14

them. So I really was kind

6:16

of just out there raw and

6:18

ragged and

6:21

very, very anxious. But

6:23

then after reading philosophy, finding some

6:25

spiritual books and pursuits, and then

6:27

I find yoga in 1980. And

6:32

eventually I learned breathing there, right?

6:35

And believe it or not, the

6:37

yogi who was teaching us yoga

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was a fellow draftsman of mine

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at Carrier. He was draftsman

6:44

by day, yogi by night. And so, you know,

6:46

it was awesome. But I learned

6:48

how to breathe. I learned how to have

6:50

the longer, slower exhalation and to let my

6:53

belly relax. Now this was not

6:55

a cure-all because again, I don't even know

6:57

what's going on. I'm not even connecting those

6:59

things, right? But I did

7:01

learn that. And that let me

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see light outside the wormhole

7:05

because I would feel good after doing

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that. And over time with

7:10

awareness from meditation and

7:12

mindfulness in my life, I

7:14

saw many different meditation teachers.

7:17

I fell in love with

7:19

John Kabat-Zinn's information. I

7:22

had a Tibetan meditation teacher

7:24

and followed him for a

7:27

while. And I just started

7:29

learning from all these different milieu's.

7:32

And with this meditation

7:34

and mindfulness, my life and

7:36

stress challenges no longer

7:38

seem to be sending me down

7:40

the wormhole. I

7:43

could be with a difficulty

7:45

and use the energy of

7:47

the stress hormones, but

7:50

not to react and take

7:53

on that second arrow or the second

7:55

fear, as Claire Weeks would say. I

7:58

could actually let my body relax.

8:01

parasympathetic side of my nervous system

8:03

arise again. I was not feeding

8:05

it constantly with more

8:08

fear keeping me down the

8:10

wormhole. So no longer fearing

8:12

the things that I thought might trigger

8:14

my anxiety and a panic attack, I

8:17

was able to eventually crawl

8:19

my way out of the wormhole.

8:22

Now there's a lot that happens in there,

8:25

believe me, because I

8:27

was probably anxious for 20 years. So you know

8:30

I am talking to you and telling you you

8:33

do not have anything wrong with you and

8:35

you can get out of this. You don't

8:37

need to spend 20 years like I did.

8:39

Those were the dark ages. Nobody knew what

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was going on and

8:43

you have so many resources

8:45

available to you. So just

8:47

keep practicing. So after

8:49

moving to Maui, you know there's a lot

8:51

that happens obviously in there in all those

8:53

years. But I moved to Maui and

8:56

then I start working with eating

8:58

disorder clients because at that point

9:00

I was a nutritionist and

9:03

I worked for many years, 12 years

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with eating disorder clients here on the island.

9:08

And at some point during that

9:10

I stumbled across a podcast on

9:13

Stitcher. I think it was back

9:16

in 2015 and I

9:18

was not really quite familiar with how

9:20

it all worked. I just knew my

9:22

phone would do this Stitcher thing or

9:24

I could do it online. I could

9:26

listen to this quote show and it

9:28

was about anxiety. Well that piqued my

9:30

interest of course because I had struggled

9:33

for so long with anxiety and

9:36

everybody I worked with in

9:38

eating disorders was anxious. So

9:41

I was just like oh this is so big I

9:43

got to hear what these people have to say.

9:46

So I actually reached out to the

9:49

host of this podcast offering

9:52

if he had any questions about nutrition to

9:54

feel free to ask me or if

9:56

he had any one some ideas

9:58

for topics I'd be glad to answer. to send

10:00

him some ideas around you know anxiety

10:02

and nutrition. Well he got me

10:05

on the phone and he said

10:07

how about coming on as a guest. So

10:09

there I was my first

10:12

time on what the anxiety

10:14

coaches podcast. So there

10:16

I was I was a guest and

10:18

then I was a guest again a

10:20

couple more times. Then I was

10:23

asked if I would be the co-host. There

10:25

were so many changes happening in that show at

10:27

that time and within

10:29

a few months the host of

10:32

the anxiety coaches podcast decided to

10:34

leave the show. Well I was

10:36

heartbroken because I had

10:38

really come to enjoy doing those

10:40

shows with him and I enjoyed

10:43

the emails that were coming in and

10:45

people wanted to see me as clients

10:48

and it was actually a wonderful opening

10:51

for me. So I was disappointed that he

10:53

was going to close the show and leave. So

10:56

I was shocked

10:58

actually when he asked

11:00

me if I wanted to take over

11:03

the show because why don't you just do

11:05

it. Well that sounds so simple doesn't it

11:07

and so I was both terrified

11:10

and excited to take over at

11:12

60 years old

11:15

and not exactly a high-tech

11:17

person. Like I said I

11:19

was terrified and excited but

11:22

the emails had shown that people were

11:25

wanting to work with me and enjoyed the

11:27

shows that I was on. So I said

11:29

okay I'll give it a try. So

11:33

here we are now at episode 1000

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and it has been a blessed

11:40

and inspiring ride. I have

11:44

to thank each and every one of you for

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listening and sending your awesome

11:49

reviews and your emails

11:51

your questions. It's

11:54

all fodder for the show and I

11:56

love answering your emails the best that

11:58

we can. Every year

12:00

we get more and more And

12:03

I have to say that when

12:05

I was back there anxious as could be

12:08

White knuckling it totally nobody knew anything

12:10

was wrong with me Well,

12:13

except maybe maybe those closest to me

12:15

did but I was

12:17

holding it up, right? I was still on

12:19

the board of the PTC.

12:21

I was running stores. I mean I

12:23

was still doing it. I had

12:27

always prayed When

12:29

I was in the deep darkness of the wormhole

12:32

that if I ever got out and

12:35

I could feel alive and calm again

12:38

That I would write a book to help

12:41

others do the same because I

12:43

had no information Very little as

12:45

time went on little tiny things came about

12:47

but I had nothing I was like if

12:49

I can get over this Everybody

12:51

else can do it, too. I'll

12:54

write a book, right? Isn't that what we all

12:56

wanted to do write a book? Well,

12:58

this show is my way of doing

13:00

that. It's not a book but

13:03

sharing two episodes a week

13:05

of Not

13:07

only what helped me but what has

13:09

helped the thousands of people that I've

13:12

worked with over all these years Whether

13:15

we meet one-on-one in the group or here

13:17

on the podcast We

13:19

are taking another step towards more

13:22

peace and calm together It's

13:25

not a quick fix and we

13:27

will all need to be reminded of

13:29

what helps and what hurts But

13:32

the journey is a beautiful one if

13:34

we keep helping each other along the

13:36

way Never

13:38

hesitate to reach out to us here

13:40

at ACP You

13:43

know having had a family business

13:45

back in skinny Atlas. It was

13:47

new health natural products and It

13:51

was a family business my kids worked

13:53

there my husband and I and

13:57

It's no surprise that my

13:59

awesome kids are helping

14:01

me here with the show also. I want

14:05

to say a big mahalo to all

14:07

of my support team. My

14:09

son Sean for his editing,

14:11

his post-production, and his coaching

14:13

expertise day in and day

14:15

out. My daughter Allie

14:17

for her creativity, her ability to

14:20

see the big picture, and

14:22

her listening gifts of when I need

14:25

to share the

14:27

questions and problems. All

14:30

of my podcast friends and colleagues

14:32

who have helped me keep going

14:35

year after year. And those guys, I

14:38

know they're not listening to this show,

14:40

but those early days when I didn't

14:42

know what the heck I was doing,

14:45

podcast people are the nicest people in

14:47

the world. I have been

14:49

helped by so many.

14:51

I cannot thank you all

14:53

enough. And finally, my

14:55

partners over at Trenator's Media who

14:58

really helped me to keep the lights on. And

15:01

now, my sincere gratitude to

15:04

you, my precious listener. Each

15:06

of you are so important to

15:08

me and ACP. And

15:11

we would not be here without you.

15:14

Your continuous support and presence means

15:17

the world to all of us

15:19

here at ACP. Your

15:21

feedback has been what shaped the show,

15:24

and I'm looking forward to more from

15:26

you. Don't ever hesitate to

15:28

send us an email anxietycoachespodcast.gmail.com

15:34

or message us through the

15:37

website, theanxietycoachespodcast.com.

15:40

Once again, Mahalo for making

15:42

these 1,000 episodes

15:45

so awesome. May

15:47

you find your way back to

15:50

your natural peace and calm. And

15:54

now for today's quote. is

16:00

the result of retraining

16:02

your mind to

16:04

process life as it is rather

16:08

than how you think it should be.

16:11

And that's from Wayne Dyer. I'll

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be back in a few more days with another

16:16

podcast. Until then, be well

16:18

and Aloha. Thanks

16:22

so much for joining us for

16:25

today's episode of the Anxiety Coaches

16:27

Podcast. Find more information at the

16:29

anxietycoachespodcast.com.