Episode 490: 5 Quick Ways To Feel Good Now (Mindset & Self-Care) with Megan Porta

EBT490 – Feel Good Now

Intro  00:01

Hey, food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self care focused episode here on a blog talk. One of the reasons I started a blog talk was to hold a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about SEO, Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the rest.

Sponsor (Kara Meyers)  00:37

Hey, bloggers, are you feeling overwhelmed by your blogging business and unsure where to focus your efforts to grow? Do you have trouble finding systems that work for you? I’m Kara, food blogger at sweetlysplendid.com. And full service blogging business coach, there’s so much that goes into blogging and finding what works best for you is the key to growing and making profit. I don’t believe in a one size fits all solution. It’s about what’s right for your business, not what the industry says you need. With my person first approach, I see the person not just the business, because at the end of the day, burnout won’t make you profitable. We’ll work together to pinpoint bottlenecks, make customized solutions and provide actionable steps in a one to one environment that fits in with your life and your time constraints. your blog and your success are the priority and main focus of every coaching session. My coaching program isn’t just another blog coaching system where you get a generic list of things to do. I would love to chat with you about how we could work together to grow your business for any questions or to sign up, just head over to sweetlysplendid.com/coaching to get started.

Megan Porta  01:42

Hello awesome food bloggers Welcome to this mindset and self care focused episode of Eat BlogTalk. Today, we are going to talk through five quick ways to feel good now.

Megan Porta  01:57

We all have those times I think when we just have that need to feel good. Now in this moment, overwhelm drudgery, those feelings of stress or anxiety can creep in on us so easily, at least for me. And I at times just need a really quick pick me up, I’m looking for a way that I can feel good now. Not necessarily ways that are going to pan out over time and make me feel good in the future. But sometimes I just need to feel good in the moment.

Megan Porta  02:31

Personally and kind of Ironically, when I’m in a really bad funk, I tend to resist the things that I know are going to make me feel good. I don’t know why this is. But I’ve noticed this trend in my life. So I need a little bit of hand holding. And that often falls on me I need to direct myself a lot of the time. Feeling good is good for us. It brings good things into our lives. When we feel bad. We bring bad things into our lives. It’s that whole Law of Attraction thing, which is you attract what you emit. So the thoughts and feelings you emit are returned to you with the same energy. The better you feel, the more you attract good things into your life. This is a really good reason to be in tune with how you’re feeling and to give yourself bursts of feeling good when you need it. If you have that feeling, you just need to do something now to improve your energy and to improve the way you feel overall, I have a few ideas for you. I will talk through five general ideas, but I also encourage you to create your own list that is more catered to you.

Megan Porta  03:49

To do this, as you move through the next week or so just start writing down those things that make you feel good as they happen. Sitting on your quiet deck for five minutes, hugging your partner hugging a kid, snuggling with your dog or cat walking around the block, blaring a great 80s tune on your speakers. I love doing that. Taking a succulent bite of that dark chocolate that’s hiding in your pantry squeezing your stress ball violently watching an ASMR video on YouTube. Have you guys seen those? Oh my gosh, I love those things. look those up. They always put me in a good mood. Doing 50 Jumping Jacks the list can go on and on. And obviously your list will be unique to you which is even better. Hopefully my list will jumpstart some ideas for you. So let’s talk through five quick ways to feel good now. 

Megan Porta  03:49

Number one, breathe. This one is probably the easiest option by far because it is something you’re already doing. You are breathing right now in this moment and you’re not even and thinking about it. Have you ever had someone tell you in a stressful moment to breathe? I’ve had people tell me that before. And I can remember thinking in that moment, what a stupid thing to say to me. Of course, I’m breathing, stop telling me to breathe. But outside of those stressful moments looking in, it makes so much sense. I might have been technically breathing. But the breaths I was taking during those stressful times were not quality breaths. They were not allowing me to pull adequate oxygen into my lungs and brain and body. Looking at it from that perspective, it makes us really think through how we are breathing in every moment when we give it our thought. How often do you take intentional quality breaths? I don’t very often, but when I do, wow, it is an incredible feeling, isn’t it? Actually giving my body plentiful oxygen while slowing down those choppy, shallow little breaths. It is gold, it is total magic. Intentional breathing is something that takes just a couple of seconds and can entirely change the way you feel. And not just that, but in an instant. There’s a book that I bought my husband for Christmas. It’s called Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James nester. I have not read it yet, but he’s been immersed in it and he has been loving it. He keeps relaying all of these snippets from the book that talk about how mindfully breathing and changing the way that we take in oxygen and hold oxygen can literally change our bodies, it can change our energy it can change our lives, and how we should never underestimate the power of breathing. 

Megan Porta  06:51

Since I haven’t read the book, I wanted to give you a little snippet of it because just seeing how much my husband loves it. It seems to be a powerful book, and it’s on my list. But I did take this description from Amazon. Just a little quote here to describe it. “Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jumpstart athletic performance, rejuvenate internal organs, halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease, and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible. And yet it is”. If this intrigues you definitely research more about the power of breathing. At any rate, though, just a few minutes or seconds of giving this your attention every day can be a game changer. And it can really help to make you feel good now in this moment. If you are sitting somewhere comfortable right now, where you are up for trying this, just try the simple breathing exercise for a few seconds with me. So we are going to breathe in for four seconds, we’re going to hold it for five seconds, and we’re going to breathe out for six seconds. We will do it once together. And then maybe you can pause and do it a few more times. But see how you feel after this. Breathe in 234. Now hold. 2345. Now breathe out. 23456. Do this as many times as you’re able and denote how you feel after you should feel so much better. Just giving your brain and your body and your lungs that oxygen that it really craves and needs. 

Megan Porta  08:45

Something I started doing is putting reminders either in my watch or in my phone just to remind myself to do this a couple times throughout the day. And it really does rejuvenate me in the moment. Number two is express gratitude for another human. Gratitude is my favorite all time way to feel good quickly because it is so easy. And because it just feels good. It always feels good. There is never a time for me when gratitude feels bad. General gratitude for anything in your life will make you feel better in any given moment guaranteed. Do you know what’s even better than overarching gratitude, general gratitude, feeling gratitude for another person in your life. Do you know what’s even better than feeling gratitude for another person? Telling that person how thankful you are for them? If you are looking for a quick feel good now moment, close your eyes right now as you’re listening. Who is the first person who pops into your mind when you feel feelings of love and appreciation? Maybe it’s a kid, a spouse, a partner, a friend, a neighbor, a parent, maybe it’s even someone who sent you a harsh email recently, or someone who gave you unwelcome feedback about something you created, whoever it is, trust your intuition that that first person who came to your mind is the person you should focus on now. Now take a minute to just feel gratitude for that person. visualize them in your mind, standing before you now feel the love that they give, or the way that they help you, take your trash cans to the curb, or the way they helped you to grow in some way, or the gift they gave you recently, or whatever it is, you are feeling grateful for about that person, just sit for a minute and feel it. When you open your eyes. When you’re done feeling that now you need to act. So take action immediately. Do not wait on this or it might not happen. It will float away, you’ll forget about it, it won’t be important anymore. So immediately send a text, write out a card, a thank you note, an email, make a phone call, just do something, express that gratitude, get it out so that that person hears it from you now. 

Megan Porta  11:21

The recipient will feel your love. And that is a very powerful thing all around. Not only did you just instantly improve your own mode, but you made someone else feel good too.

Megan Porta  11:32

Number three is hydrate. Here’s another really quick way to feel good within just a couple of seconds. Go found some water, it’s as easy as that our bodies need water, we all know this. It’s one of the only things our bodies actually need. Yet, we so often deprive our bodies of consuming adequate amounts of water. It’s kind of silly when you think about it. Those days when I’m just on top of hydration, I’m drinking two or three big bottles of water throughout the day. Those are the days when I feel energized and just really good. But I know it’s so easy to forget this or just not do it right. I don’t quite know how we instill this in our youngest son Sammy, but he is such a water drinker. He loves his water bottle. It’s with him all the time. Literally, you don’t see him without it. And it serves him so well. I’ve probably mentioned on this podcast before that Sammy is also an amazing chess player. He’s in middle school, and he wins tournaments. He has taken home championships a couple times this year. He did great in nationals. He’s so smart and strategic, and well versed in the game of chess. But I always tell him one of the things that gives him an edge or an advantage in chess, is the fact that he is a natural hydrator that he drinks water all the time. And he keeps his body nice and hydrated. I remember before a chess match. I think it was a big tournament or something about a year ago, I made this observation. And I told him this. I said, Sammy, yes, you’re a great chess player. But the thing that sets you apart from your competitors is the fact that you drink so much water. I don’t see any other kid here drinking water like you do. So this is something to keep in mind before you go into a match. I suggested to him that he take a few huge gulps of water right before a match and see what happens. After the match was done. He was like Mom, that actually worked. I felt so clear and I won and everything went smoothly. So he still does that to this day. And there’s something to that all of us are so fortunate to have access to clean drinkable water in any given moment. So we should be drinking it we should be filling our bodies with this resource that it needs. So right now go fill up a glass or a water bottle full of water. Take a few big glorious sips and see how you feel. And to take it just a step further envision it as it spreads to your body giving your body the hydration it needs replenishing it and making you feel good now. 

Megan Porta  14:18

Number four is a quick workout first. We all know how regular exercise is so good for our bodies. It not only improves our bodies but it also improves our energy and our mood and a bunch of other good things. But if you’re looking for a way to feel good now in this moment, a really quick burst of exercise will do the trick for you. It doesn’t have to last long. Try it just one minute minimum and up to five minutes. This is not overwhelming. It’s not daunting. It’s not going to tax you it’s not going to force you to go take a shower but it is going to give you a really good burst of energy and it’s going to improve the way that you feel. You can try jumping jacks, push ups, jog in place, walk in place, high knees, pull ups, sit ups, lunges, stretching whatever feels good for your body, in short bursts. And you can do a combination of these as well. You don’t have to just pick one. Sometimes in the mornings when I have a full day of podcast interviews in front of me, honestly, I feel tired and a bit like, Ugh, I am going to be sitting at my desk all day long. I feel a little low and energy with a day sitting at my desk in front of me. Sometimes I will just do a really quick little bursts of exercise to kickstart my body and my brain. It’s like it connects them after a disconnection. After just a few minutes, I feel like everything is ready to go. It improves my mood instantly, and sets me on a good path for the day and I get that instant burst of feeling good. 

Megan Porta  16:00

Number five is getting out in nature. Nature is the most comforting place for me, I love being in nature. I love even just observing nature from my window when it’s cold, and I’m sitting in our living room. We as humans have so much to learn from the world around us in nature. It’s always incredible to me to watch birds flying around with just total intuition. They have no thought as we know it as humans. How do they know where to go? Obviously, they communicate with each other somehow and they know where to fly and when. But how does this happen? Then there are the trees and the flowers and plants all complete miracles in my opinion, the way they grow during some seasons and lie dormant and others. How do flowers stay intact through storms and hail and rain when you can just touch one and break it? Or the way a simple seed that you can hold in your hand can turn into a giant purple flower with a distinct pattern and distinct shape. It’s all such a miracle to me. And for this reason, nature is instant comfort. It’s even better when you experience it without thought which I know can be hard. But just allowing yourself to be in nature, be surrounded by it be observing it. That is where the magic happens. If you are able to go outside and immerse yourself in nature, even if it’s just sitting in your backyard for a few minutes. Let the sun shine onto your skin. Observe the sounds. Notice the animals and birds take off your shoes and put your feet to the ground. There’s so much power in putting your feet in the dirt or the grass. You connect yourself with the earth with nature when you do this. And honestly five minutes is all you need to feel good and to elevate your mood and the way you feel. When it’s nice out in the middle of the day when I’m feeling a little bit anxious or stressed or just needing a break and needing to feel better to improve my mood. This is how I do it. I go outside and I just sit and observe and be. So to recap. The five quick ways you can feel good now are to breathe. Just take a moment or a few minutes to intentionally breathe. Express gratitude for another human.

Megan Porta  18:30

Don’t forget to act take action on that too. Don’t just feel it. Hydrate, go drink a few big gulps of water right now. Do a quick workout first one to five minutes and go experience nature for just a couple of minutes. I will also reiterate that this is my list. You can create your own list that you can refer to any time you just need to feel good in the moment your list is catered to you so it’ll be the most effective. I hope this inspired you and I also hope that you have a good rest of your week. Thank you so much for listening food bloggers. I will see you back here next time. 

Outro  19:11

Thank you so much for listening to this mindset and self-care episode here on eat blog talk. If you are a food blogger providing a service for other food bloggers, and you want to spread the word about the value that you offer. I would love to offer you a free way to do just this. Send me a 60 second audio clip to be featured in a mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk in 2024. Go to eatblogtalk.com/audioclip to learn more.