53: What if anxiety was a superpower? Georgie Collinson helps us reframe the anxious brain

00:00:00:05 - 00:00:24:09

Lyndi

Okay. I would like to tell you, your your weight is not the problem. It really isn't. I know you've been made to think your weight is a problem your entire life, but honestly, it's just been a red herring making you focus on diets that really suck and your weight is not. The problem is the title of my new book and I would really like you to read it if you've ever been made to feel like you need to worry about your weight that you're fixating on your weight is going to help you lose weight, which is nonsense.

00:00:24:16 - 00:00:47:04

Lyndi

This is the book you need to read. We tackle body image. We help you with practical strategies to feel normal, relaxed, and freedom around food, which are all fabulous things you also deserve. Please go to my website, Lyndi Cohen dot com and check out my new book. It's available from all great retailers. Please check it out. Oh, hey everyone and welcome to today's episode of the new Wellness Lingerie Podcast.

00:00:47:04 - 00:01:05:13

Lyndi

It's so good to have you here. I'm Linda Cohen, your dietitian, nutritionist, and just the person who's planning to help you maybe mellow out with your anxiety, help you feel better. And I've got the perfect guest here today is Georgie Collinson, and she is an anxiety mindset coach, a hypnotherapist and nutritionist at Naturopathy. She's a whole bunch of things.

00:01:05:13 - 00:01:32:04

Lyndi

And she's also a recovering perfectionist and proud high achiever. I think she's kind of this perfect example of what high functioning anxiety looks like. She experienced it when starting from troubled, I think as from the age of 19, and she started to unpack what was causing the anxiety. She found a breakthrough for herself and ultimately helped her clients as well, which is a bit of an holistic mind body approach.

00:01:32:21 - 00:01:52:10

Lyndi

And she's here to share it with us and I'm really pleased. So if you feel like you struggle with anxiety, high functioning anxiety or just stress, that feels like it's gone a little bit too too crazy for you. Then I'm really glad you listened to this podcast. Also, Georgie has a new book called The Anxiety Reset Method and it is so good.

00:01:52:10 - 00:02:07:18

Lyndi

I've, I've read the manuscript already and I'm a big fan and she also has a very successful online anxiety reset program. I'm so happy to have Georgie on the podcast. You can listen to her podcast Inside the Anxiety Reset podcast. Welcome to the podcast.

00:02:07:18 - 00:02:11:15

Georgie

Georgie Thank you so much, Lyndi. What a beautiful intro.

00:02:12:15 - 00:02:17:11

Lyndi

I you've got a new book coming out which is When is it coming out?

00:02:17:13 - 00:02:22:05

Georgie

My book is coming out on the 28th of March like so soon. So it's.

00:02:22:11 - 00:02:42:21

Lyndi

Amazing. So by the time you're listening to this episode, the anxiety reset method is going to be available for you to purchase. And I've been lucky enough to get an early manuscript of it. And I want to I was just saying to Georgie, before you hit record, I'm loving it. I have I learned so much just from, you know, my, my, I'm only a quarter of the way through it.

00:02:42:21 - 00:02:56:02

Lyndi

I've learned so much. So I'm getting a lot of value. And I hope if you feel like you're someone who has anxiety, high functioning anxiety, a bit of a perfectionist, then I do hope that you'll enjoy this chat and that you'll go and pick up a copy of her book.

00:02:56:15 - 00:03:21:24

Georgie

Thank you so much, Lyndi. And you know, it's one of those things I share some vulnerable personal stories in that book, and it's an interesting thing putting that out there, as I'm sure you're familiar with the experience, too, but to hear those who have read the manuscript and that early feedback coming through that it's, you know, full of valuable information is is really, really settling that part of me that that's like what the what do we call it?

00:03:21:24 - 00:03:27:01

Georgie

Vulnerability hangover like I heard I haven't said too much.

00:03:27:01 - 00:03:41:13

Lyndi

You certainly have it. In fact, all it does is it helps us feel connected and relate to you. But I know I know that feeling all too well. I want to hear more about you. Can you tell me tell me about your experience of high functioning anxiety. When did it all start for you?

00:03:41:23 - 00:04:09:13

Georgie

Yeah. So, look, I went through my sort of high school years as a high achiever, wanting to kind of get the best results and impress the boys and have a lot of friends and basically be perfect. And that's where it began. But when my parents split up in 2010, so when I was 19 years old, that really set my anxiety into a whole new level.

00:04:09:13 - 00:04:33:01

Georgie

And so those tendencies that had already been there went into overdrive. It was, I can't control the world around me, but I can control food was one part of how I tried to control things and I guess in a good way. It led me to studying nutrition and naturopathy, which was great, but ultimately that was fueled from a place of Maybe I can control everything.

00:04:33:05 - 00:05:13:09

Georgie

Maybe if I have the best health and I eat the perfect diet, then life will be better because I'll be slimmer and I'll have more energy and my brain like it was coming from this place of trying to be this ideal that didn't really exist. I was also okay, maybe if I continue to achieve things and be really successful, I'm going to control more and ultimately realizing that that was making me miserable, it was I'd go through these crippling spirals of self-doubt, even though from the outside I looked like I had it all together and everyone would have looked at me and thought, you know, she's she's got her self sorted.

00:05:13:15 - 00:05:35:05

Georgie

It's very different on the inside and it's quite an invisible kind of experience because in the inside I wasn't feeling that. I was feeling like I wasn't good enough, I was feeling insecurities and it was all coming from a place of ultimately survival, wanting to control life as much as I can so that I could feel a sense of control and certainty.

00:05:35:05 - 00:06:07:13

Georgie

And so I went on a bit of a journey and I tried all the things, everything under the sun, including I didn't put this in the book, but there was an experience in Costa Rica with like a shaman in a jungle that was quite scary. Like, I tried everything, Lyndi. I promise I'll give it a go and put together a process and a method that covers every, every piece of this anxiety puzzle so that we leave no stone unturned and we can sort of check out where that anxiety is coming from.

00:06:07:13 - 00:06:27:03

Georgie

I discovered where it was coming from for me in it and it shifts. It's almost like anxiety. Is this warning signal when we're driving too close to the edge of the highway of life, you know, when the road makes that bumpy sound and it kind of warns you you're going too far off the edge of the road, that thing's diety.

00:06:27:06 - 00:06:47:10

Georgie

And it's not to say there's nothing terribly wrong with you or you need to go and leave your job or divorce your husband or anything crazy like that. It's just saying, Hey, there's some things to look at. Maybe you need more sleep. Maybe we need to look at how you are taking care of yourself. Maybe we need some more kindness happening in our inner dialog as well.

00:06:47:10 - 00:06:50:10

Georgie

So various things that we can look at.

00:06:50:22 - 00:07:07:12

Lyndi

I love that. So in a way it's kind of bringing bringing you back to intuitive eating. It's this idea that our body is constantly giving us feedback about how to look after it. And anxiety can be one of those feedback loops of your body that is kind of tugging at you, saying, Hey, we might need to do things a bit differently.

00:07:07:22 - 00:07:16:08

Lyndi

Can you explain to me a little bit about the difference between stress windows, stress become anxiety and what is high functioning anxiety?

00:07:16:17 - 00:07:36:00

Georgie

Beautiful question. So stress can be a good thing and especially if we perceive it as good. There's a phrase to show that makes the stress better for us, but essentially stresses that help us perform well. It's there to help us gather our thoughts in the moment, such as on a podcast interview. Right now there is a level of stress.

00:07:36:00 - 00:08:08:10

Georgie

I'm not completely relaxed, chilling out, reclined somewhere, but it's so that I can gather my thoughts, articulate clearly, and get the point across and perform. Now there's this kind of element where we go into high functioning society and of course, stress long term can have its implications, and we've got to be mindful of that. But high functioning anxiety is where even though the stressful event like the work presentation or the deadline has passed that lingering, I can't switch off.

00:08:08:10 - 00:08:38:24

Georgie

I've got this pressure. I'm running from something one of my clients always says, What am I running from? I'm running from something. And it's that feeling like you're being maybe you're being chased on a on a very like subtle level, but those who know the feeling will relate. Something's coming, and you got to prepare for it. That kind of feeling that doesn't go away, despite the circumstances changing, despite right now, you know, logically, you are safe and you're allowed to switch off and rest.

00:08:39:06 - 00:08:43:05

Georgie

It doesn't feel like you can feels like we've got to keep going.

00:08:43:15 - 00:09:05:00

Lyndi

So I know that feeling so well for me. Feels like I'm running out of time and I don't know what clock is ticking, but, you know, there is there is a very much a sense of urgency of things needing to get done. And in a way, I think it's clear I love this refrain that you providing us with this idea that what if anxiety wasn't this villain, but it was kind of this feedback loop?

00:09:05:00 - 00:09:13:20

Lyndi

And what if we could start to see that perhaps the things that it does contribute to us? Can you talk us through how we might be able to change how we think about anxiety.

00:09:14:05 - 00:09:43:24

Georgie

Totally and changing how we relate to anxiety like our relationship with anxiety is so much of a huge part of mastering it because we have to change how we see it. When we see anxiety as this terrible thing and you're experiencing it and you can feel maybe you feel the butterflies in your tummy, maybe you feel your heart rate increasing, you're feeling this anxiety and it's possibly related to a social situation, closely related to work.

00:09:43:24 - 00:10:03:09

Georgie

It could be so many different things, but we tend to tell ourselves, this is really bad and I need to stop this feeling as quickly as possible and get out of it and numb away from it and distract from it. I hate anxiety. We come at it from that place. Yes. What happens with sensation? It tries it tries to get your attention even more.

00:10:03:24 - 00:10:23:12

Georgie

It increases. This is how often when we do experience, if there are panic attacks as part of the experience, it's not for everyone. But that can be something that happens. The panic builds because of the inner resistance in the inner battle of, Oh no, I'm going to have a panic attack. This is terrible. This is the worst thing.

00:10:23:12 - 00:10:57:18

Georgie

And it builds and builds and builds. So if we can find a way to relax around the sensation, to have acceptance for the sensation of anxiety in your body and not label it as good, bad, anything, it's just a sensation. Just like if I put my hand in hot water, I would think, Oh, that's hot. Oh, there's a sensation of anxiety in my body, and maybe we can befriend it as well, and maybe we can start to look at it as, okay, yeah, this is here because I'm actually due for my period in two days.

00:10:57:18 - 00:11:18:21

Georgie

Or actually I slept terribly last night or I haven't eaten lunch all like I forgot to eat lunch. These kind of elements, I mean, they're the quick kind of easy ones to to go to. But how amazing. We have a response in our body that is alerting us to those things and helping us to take care of ourselves better.

00:11:18:24 - 00:11:42:09

Georgie

And when we see anxiety that way, there's a peace, a contentment around it that allows us to live with it. I don't like to say the word manage anxiety. I find that really boring. I like to say laughs anxiety because it's so much more empowering. It's like, Yeah, I got this. And I'm like using this as my is as fuel to help me be the best person I can be.

00:11:42:24 - 00:12:11:03

Lyndi

Oh, I love this. I love that. Thank you for that. Reframe. You know, in a way, anxiety really does feel like this way of when when the external environment feels like it's chaotic. We try to control it and we've anxiety, feels like it helps us feel like we have a sense of control over things that aren't always controllable and I want to relate this back to food because food and body image and how we can so often, you know, the rest of our life can be out of control.

00:12:11:03 - 00:12:27:24

Lyndi

This food feels like sometimes something that we can try and control. We can go right. We can control what goes inside my body. And can you talk to me a little bit more detail? I know you touched on it that your relationship with food, your relationship with anxiety, and how what you've kind of realized since going on this journey.

00:12:28:17 - 00:12:54:12

Georgie

Well, as I understood it, food was always there for me emotionally when no one else was. And I do love exploring the inner child dynamic. That's where we develop this relationship with food as and we're often kind of trained to see food as the comforter or, you know, a little child pulls over and and cuts their knee and it's like, oh, mommy, we'll give you a lollipop, you know, and make you feel better.

00:12:54:12 - 00:13:20:19

Georgie

I'll give you some ice cream. And I certainly had those moments, in fact, doing some hypnotherapy on this, Lindsay, I unearthed some memories that they come up so vivid, you suddenly realize things and make connections. You didn't realize. I had this memory of being three or four years old and bumping my head on the coffee table. I was like sitting in front of the TV as a little kid and whoever was looking after me handed me chocolate biscuits straightaway.

00:13:21:00 - 00:13:37:17

Georgie

So I'm crying cause I bumped my head and it hurt. And I remembered viscerally, not feeling hungry, not wanting the food, not wanting anything sugary. In that moment I just was crying and I was just in pain. But all of a sudden that connection was formed. It was almost shoved in my face, like this will make you feel better.

00:13:38:06 - 00:14:08:18

Georgie

And so amazing and bizarre to have that that vivid memory of almost I would say that's when it began, when that connection started to be formed for me. But remembering how it didn't feel like something I wanted at that time, and then it became something that I wanted automatically. So fast forward to my teenage years and and particularly around that time when my family was going through so much turmoil, my mom couldn't be there for me.

00:14:08:18 - 00:14:33:04

Georgie

She was going through her own grief. My dad was well, I was angry at him. And, you know, that was he wasn't around. So who was there for me? Food was there for me. And it I was in a bit of a cycle of I mean, I was in a binge eating cycle. I had bulimia as well through high school and it evolved into a care one like I was trying to be loving to myself.

00:14:33:04 - 00:14:52:12

Georgie

I was, you know, Instagram was really starting to kick off around that time. And it was all these all these wellness lingerie around, like girls in bikinis telling me how I should eat. And I thought, Oh, I want to be like them. I want to live that life. I want to be this kind of person. And so that's obviously how I have to eat.

00:14:52:18 - 00:15:20:08

Georgie

And so I started to take on all these food roles and the the binge eating and bulimia kind of like took on Orthorexia, too, which was controlling what I ate based on specific rules. So I never overly restricted, but my it's not like I wasn't eating food, but my brain felt the restriction. It still perceived restriction because I'd look at a sandwich or a cake and go, No, not allowed.

00:15:20:14 - 00:15:47:23

Georgie

Can't have that ever again. Can't have a chocolate cookie. And the thing is though, the set up was already that emotionally for me, that when I was sad, when I was anxious or feeling any kind of unpleasant sensation, I want chocolate cookies or I want whatever that equivalent is. And so I would find myself binge eating on those foods after two weeks of being so good and then getting in this cycle.

00:15:47:23 - 00:16:03:06

Georgie

Or I would actually even be at nutrition lectures and I wonder how many other people were in this part too. I would drive home, stop at the health food store, buy all of that really expensive, healthy chocolate that, you know, there's so many expensive.

00:16:03:06 - 00:16:03:24

Lyndi

It's so.

00:16:03:24 - 00:16:22:08

Georgie

Expensive. And I would binge eat it to comfort myself because maybe I was feeling tired or stressed or anxious and then I would like hide the wrappers, put them in the bin, in the street, like the public bean and then go home so no one would know, like all these things we do, right? It's crazy.

00:16:22:08 - 00:16:30:19

Lyndi

So relatable. What was what was important for you to start to unwind all of this disordered eating that was happening.

00:16:31:11 - 00:16:59:23

Georgie

Honestly, for me, doing the work on my subconscious mind and looking at where those beliefs were originally formed was amazing. It just created the awareness and then the ability to disrupt that behavior, not in a forceful way, but just like, Oh, this is senseless. Like I need to. I just need to feel right now eating all of this chocolate isn't going to actually make me feel better.

00:17:00:03 - 00:17:21:02

Georgie

What's going to make me feel better is if I just let myself have a bit of a cry or I call someone or I write in my journal and I express how I'm feeling. And it was it's really been a process of connecting to my feelings, my emotions, and feeling safe to do that and parenting myself. So, you know, my inner child is like scared or stressed.

00:17:21:02 - 00:17:32:14

Georgie

She needs love and she needs someone to just or part of me to hold her and say, it's okay, all right, I'm with you. And then I don't feel like I need it so much.

00:17:33:01 - 00:17:50:21

Lyndi

I love this because food is a coping it's one coping strategy for dealing with hard emotions. The issue becomes when it becomes a primary coping strategy, it's allowed to be part of this tool belt that we have. But what we end up happening is when we've got all these food rules, it ends up becoming our primary coping strategy.

00:17:50:21 - 00:18:11:19

Lyndi

And it sounds like you got to a point where you started to, like, unwind those food roles so that they didn't control your mind. And then you learned other ways of coping because, you know, when it comes to disordered eating, it's really not about the food, you know, it's really about the thoughts and our reactions and our predispositions and yeah, feelings towards food.

00:18:12:01 - 00:18:36:06

Georgie

And so seeing that urge to binge eat just as an example, as a kind of anxiety and it's this energy in our system, it's an emotionally charged energy. So if we cry or another favorite of mine is screaming into a pillow or jumping up and down and shaking the body to move the energy, there's all these different techniques we can use to and to reduce the charge.

00:18:36:06 - 00:18:54:15

Georgie

And then once the charge has been reduced, I always still have the option. I can eat the chocolate if I want. Yeah, that's the key too. It's not like, Oh, I've won because I didn't eat any. It's just I'm just going to parent my inner child first and then if I still want it, I can have it. Of course, kill me.

00:18:55:04 - 00:19:08:01

Lyndi

One of those coping strategies that you talk about is movement and you give this really awesome analogy of a dog in the book. I hope you know I'm referring to. If so, can you please explain? Yeah.

00:19:08:01 - 00:19:34:17

Georgie

So, I mean, we forget sometimes that we are animals too. Like, we look at our pets and we think that's an animal and I'm a human and I need to be using my brain all the time and thinking about complex human task that ultimately we have this this animal body. And if you had a dog and I'm sure a lot of listeners do, especially if they follow you, Lyndi, with your golden retriever pool parties, anyone here content on Instagram?

00:19:34:23 - 00:20:00:19

Georgie

Anyway, if you didn't take your dog for a walk, what happens to the dog? And I'm talking about a younger dog. I think sometimes older dogs are sort of okay, but usually they lack water. They get restless. Next thing that chewing up your shoes or they do it, they're misbehaving in some way or scratching at something because they've got anxiety or there's there's a pent up energy looks like restlessness or anxiety.

00:20:01:00 - 00:20:34:17

Georgie

And we are somewhat the same if we don't walk ourselves, whatever that means for you, that anxiety can can build up in your body as well. And so one way we can release that is through moving your body. And I like to be very loose and vague about what the has to look like. I think it's cool when we can go into all the best scientific research around hit training and weight training and all of this that is going and getting to the gym and having to deal with all the people that are looking at themselves in the mirror is not your vibe and it stops you.

00:20:34:23 - 00:20:55:15

Georgie

But if you just give yourself permission to do a 15 minute walk and let that be okay, go do the 15 minute walk. You know, whatever feels good. Some days my only activity is putting on a song for 5 minutes and dancing around like crazy. Making my body Beyonce say works really well. It's something you have to do.

00:20:55:24 - 00:21:04:07

Georgie

Yeah. Something that just I mean, you get that endorphin hit, you get you get a sense of upliftment anyway, but it's moving the anxious energy out of your body.

00:21:04:22 - 00:21:29:05

Lyndi

Yeah. And it really sounds like it doesn't matter how you do it, you just find a way your body has this energy. We need to kind of release the energy in some way. We call it exercise, we call it movement. Screw that idea of whatever that's meant to look like. It can take any form for you. I think this sounds like one way in which you're really kind to yourself, and I think we have a really hard time being kind to ourselves, especially the anxious brain can tell you all the ways like that at night.

00:21:29:05 - 00:21:43:00

Lyndi

You think all the ways in which you're an adequate or that you've screwed up or you've you've kind of left something that you should have controlled. What are some ways that you're kind to yourself and any tips you have for being kinder to ourselves so good?

00:21:43:00 - 00:22:10:22

Georgie

Well, I think the relationship with food is such a beautiful way to move through self kindness. And that is taking away rules, taking away you have to or you should or guilt, you know. And that's so easily said. I know. But the best way I can think to teach this and to visualize it too is literally to think of myself as having two parts.

00:22:10:22 - 00:22:34:17

Georgie

I have a scared part that is my inner child that is like this delicate, precious, beautiful little, little part of me. And I visual. I literally have an image in my mind of five year old me, and it can be really helpful to see a photograph of yourself when you were younger and visualize so you can anchor on to that and also this parent that I am and comforting myself.

00:22:35:19 - 00:23:15:07

Georgie

It's such a strange thing to say, but yeah, comforting that part of myself with the loving parent out of myself saying very kind words to myself. It's always okay. I'm always enough. I don't have to do anything or be anything to have love for myself. And that's something that I know can sound challenging to reach. But I do think there's something said for just saying it and pretending until it starts to feel more real, it can also be helpful to imagine the inner child in you the way you would speak to your own child or a child in your life that you love or a beloved pet.

00:23:15:15 - 00:23:22:19

Georgie

You know, we don't yell at our pets. The making a mistake on the rug right like old sometimes those we might times.

00:23:23:10 - 00:23:24:07

Lyndi

That we try not to.

00:23:25:05 - 00:23:50:01

Georgie

Shout against them and ultimately we understand that they made a mistake and that's okay and we are the same and we just have to bring that to ourselves all the time. Meditation can be beautiful to bring this in as well. And just things like simple things like just placing a hand on your heart towards at some point in your meditation all through day, closing your eyes and just saying some kind words like you I loved, I love you.

00:23:50:01 - 00:24:12:15

Georgie

I'm here with you so that you don't feel like you're leaving yourself all the time. So much of the time when we feel rejected or abandoned, it's just we're kind of rejecting and abandoning ourselves. We are grieving with someone that's hurt us. We're saying, Oh, yeah, that's that's true. I'm not with with being around or of course they fired me from this job or because I'm not good enough.

00:24:12:15 - 00:24:30:21

Georgie

And you're you're going with that. You're abandoning your self, rejecting yourself. So if you can put your hand on your heart and say, I'm here with you through everything and I love you regardless, you are not, it just means that you're still standing by your inside. And that's that's how we develop that kindness.

00:24:31:09 - 00:24:49:04

Lyndi

I love this is so a huge part of this is becoming aware of the thoughts in your brain. Something I've gotten particularly good at is noticing when a thought gets stuck in my brain and loops over, I think about a way in which I failed, in which I said the wrong thing, I did the wrong thing, and I beat myself up over it.

00:24:49:14 - 00:25:03:17

Lyndi

And I reach a point where I say to myself, Linda, are you willing to forgive yourself over this? Then I at this point, I have a decision where I can make anger. Yes, I do forgive myself of. Right. And then I think there's like an instant of like relief in my body to kind of go, you know what?

00:25:03:17 - 00:25:13:02

Lyndi

Okay, we we choose to forgive ourselves here. So it's this talking to ourselves and reminding ourselves of the things that we know. That's kind of what it sounds like. You're saying.

00:25:13:02 - 00:25:32:04

Georgie

Yeah, definitely. And awareness of thoughts is a really key component to this whole process because you get to see that your mind is going to spew out junk at you all the time. It's going to extend the invitation for you to hate yourself all the time. And I know hate yourself sounds like a strong word for some people they like.

00:25:32:06 - 00:26:13:11

Georgie

I don't I don't hate myself. I used to think I didn't hate myself, but I would judge myself and I would guilt myself. And all of that is a form of hate. So, you know, I'm picking it out the sections, picking up the pimples on our face in the mirror. I and those are all forms of self-hate. And so noticing that tendency and bringing the awareness and knowing you don't have to go with that, you don't have to accept that invitation, that thought can drift on by and you can choose a different thought and you can choose to move in the direction of love, which I feel is the most true, truthful direction we can

00:26:13:11 - 00:26:31:14

Georgie

go. There's something about love that just feels true. It feels good. It feels like our true nature. It's the opposite of anxiety to be in that energy of love. And if we can choose love more of the time, the loving choice for ourselves and for others, you can't go wrong.

00:26:31:14 - 00:26:50:03

Lyndi

I think that's spot on. You know, this idea that we can hate ourselves into a version of ourselves that we like is so, you know, we've just destroyed that idea that doesn't exist. People who like themselves take really good care of themselves because they want to, not because they feel guilted or pressured into that. I know of conscious of time.

00:26:50:03 - 00:27:01:15

Lyndi

So I've got one more question. Like I really want to talk about this idea of anxiety and alcohol and wanted to hear any thoughts that you had on this topic. Because I'd love to hear it.

00:27:02:00 - 00:27:24:15

Georgie

And alcohol's an interesting one and very commonly used. I mean, it's almost commonplace in society. We've had a hard day, go pour yourself a drink, go have a cocktail or oh, god, I need a drink today. Right. We we've all heard those things said, if not said them ourselves at times. And of course, there's a varying degree of this being a problem and being an occasional thing.

00:27:24:15 - 00:27:56:14

Georgie

And we all want to allow freedom. You know, I think it's okay to drink alcohol. You don't have to go cold turkey. But just noticing the effects of alcohol and noticing that it will throw your resilience out, meaning that in the moment that let's say you go out for Friday night drinks after work, you have those drinks and you feel the release of the stress, the tension from your body, because what alcohol's doing is it's binding to these receptors in your brain called GABA receptors that create a calming effect.

00:27:56:14 - 00:28:28:13

Georgie

It switches off our anxious thinking and it's has us feeling temporarily relaxed, but it's not actually GABA. It's not true GABA, it's just pretending to be GABA. So it's not actually creating a healthy, lasting, natural response to our brain. It's a very temporary one. And that means that the next day we get this rubber band effect where essentially you've all of a sudden got that that pretend gaba of alcohol isn't there anymore.

00:28:29:03 - 00:28:51:10

Georgie

And in the absence we feel in the rebound more anxious. I coined this term anxiety feeling or like hangover anxiety. Right. And this is where we are experiencing when we're when we've had some drinks and some people are more sensitive to this than others. But we will we you're pretty much guaranteed to feel some anxiety. The next day after drinking alcohol.

00:28:51:20 - 00:29:14:10

Georgie

And it's nice to know that, because if you have if you're like the day after drinking and you're wondering why you feel so anxious and you're thinking the world is against you and that you're a terrible person, well, at least you know that the alcohol is the reason that the anxiety has picked up and that you're feeling that state and that you can you can choose not to drink and not feel that again for a period of time.

00:29:14:19 - 00:29:30:13

Georgie

You also know that there's almost like a trade off. So if you do drink, you're going to feel that experience. And are you willing to kind of have that if you're okay with it, if you feel like you're in a good frame of mind, that's okay. And we just get this sense of power so we don't have to sort of blame ourselves in the same way.

00:29:30:13 - 00:29:49:11

Georgie

It's like understanding in the lead up to your period, you're going to feel more anxiety and knowing that's a shift in your hormones. It's not. You take the personal blame out of it. That means we don't have to go with the sensation. We don't have to think, Oh, my gosh, I'm heading into an anxious spiral. This is going to take me down.

00:29:49:11 - 00:29:53:15

Georgie

It's just very clearly because of a few circumstances.

00:29:54:20 - 00:30:22:17

Lyndi

I think that's so nice for us to become aware of. How is alcohol impacting a whole raft of things from our anxiety sleep, which is all into a very, very interrelated and as well as eating. There's something interesting that happens between emotional eating and alcohol. Typical advice is to kind of go cold turkey on it. And sometimes I think it's it becomes a bit of like a a binge restrict cycle with alcohol where it's what if we just had a healthier relationship with alcohol?

00:30:23:01 - 00:30:45:21

Lyndi

We start to unpack, you know, how much do we want to drink? Not how much should we drink, but start to change that a little bit. I feel like I've learned so much from listening to you, Georgie. I'm, I'm a big fan and I really hope that your book, which is the anxiety reset method, which I, I can't wait to read in full, I hope everyone listening to this goes and checks it out.

00:30:45:21 - 00:30:47:22

Lyndi

Where can we get a copy of your new book?

00:30:48:13 - 00:30:57:10

Georgie

My book is available in all good bookstores and we have a link that I believe I'll share with you and you'll be able to come on the show notes as well.

00:30:57:10 - 00:31:06:24

Lyndi

Yeah, check the show notes for that. Thank you, everyone, for listening to today's episode of the New Wellness Winery podcast. It's been so good having you on, Georgie. Thank you so much.

00:31:10:20 - 00:31:29:10

Lyndi

Hey, everyone. And before we get started in the podcast episode, I just want to tell you a little bit about how I might be able to help you if you want to get a healthy relationship with food because oh my goodness, there's a whole lot of stuff that's working against us all the time. Hello, diet culture. So if you ever want to do a little bit more personalized support, check out my program.

00:31:29:10 - 00:31:45:00

Lyndi

Keep it real. Especially if you're struggling with binge eating. You feel like every Monday you're starting from scratch. If you feel like you know what you should be eating, but you just can't stick to it if you feel like you want to eat healthier. But honestly, it just feels like you're out of control over your face planting into the fridge or the pantry.

00:31:45:07 - 00:32:02:08

Lyndi

I can help. I used to you binge either and I really do. I do get it. So check out keep it. Really use the code podcast to get 20% off if you if you get it by the the website and also I've also got my app called back to basics. Back to basics is an app to help you be healthy without dieting and will help you work in your body.

00:32:02:08 - 00:32:23:17

Lyndi

Image gives you a whole bunch of hundreds of recipes that are super quick and easy to make so you can just be healthy without having to get obsessed with that at all, without it taking over your life, because that's the way it should be. Plus, you get mindset support for me inside the app. You also get a whole bunch of workouts that you can do at home, or you can still just do your normal workouts.

00:32:24:01 - 00:32:36:15

Lyndi

But check out back to basics. You can get it for free for seven days. Check out Back to Basics on my website, use the Code Again podcast to get 20% off. And I'd love to see in there I'd love to see in there. I'd love to see in there.