As a business owner, wife, and mom, I totally get how easy it is to fall into cycles of stress, overwhelm, and anxiety. I’ve been there myself—it’s tough to climb out of those dark moments. That’s why I’m excited to share some super practical tips you can try in just five minutes to reset your mindset and recharge your energy. Whether you’re feeling a little off or spiraling into full-on stress mode, these simple distractions can help you get back on track.
Listen on the player in this post or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or your favorite podcast player. Or scroll down to read a full transcript.
Write Blog Posts that Rank on Google’s 1st Page
RankIQ is an AI-powered SEO tool built just for bloggers. It tells you what to put inside your post and title, so you can write perfectly optimized content in half the time. RankIQ contains a hand-picked library with the lowest competition, high traffic keywords for every niche.
Takeaways
- 5 minutes of moving your body: Engaging in a quick physical activity like dancing, walking, stretching, or strength training can shift your mood and focus.
- 5 minutes of creativity: Tapping into your creative side through doodling, writing, or making something can help you get out of a negative mindset.
- 5 minutes connecting with a loved one: Reaching out to someone you care about, whether through a text, call, or making plans, can provide a healthy distraction.
- 5 minutes of gratitude: Intentionally reflecting on things you’re grateful for, either by writing a list or visualizing, can pull you out of a negative rut.
- 5 minutes of mindful breathing: Practicing deep, conscious breathing exercises can help calm your mind and body when you’re feeling stressed or anxious.
Resources Mentioned
Instagram Growth Hacks for Food Bloggers
Food Blog Writing at Maes Media (Chelsea Plummer)
Promote your food blogging services: www.eatblogtalk.com/audioclip
Megan’s recommended books and resources at eatblogtalk.com/books.
Transcript
Click for script.
EBT640 – 5 Ideas for Healthy Distractions (so you stop focusing on the negative stuff)
Intro 00:01
Hey food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self-care focused episode here on Eat 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 (Chelsea Plummer) 00:36
Hi. My name is Chelsea Plummer. I blog at maesmenu.com and I also run a boutique content creation agency, Maes Media. At Maes Media, we are a small team of experienced cooks and bakers who love to write, and we’d love to help you create new blog posts, whether you’re looking for help with writing new blogs or optimizing existing let’s partner together to grow your blog. We have an in-house SEO specialist, and pride ourselves in writing high quality content that your readers will enjoy reading as much as the search engines will enjoy ranking it. Everything is written 100% by humans and an in-house editor copy edits and finalizes all posts, making it a full service offering for you. Take blog post creation off your plate and let us handle it for you. Email me at [email protected] to schedule a free content maximizing strategy call today. That’s Chelsea, C, H, E, L, S, E, A at Maes Media, M, A, E, S media.co Thanks so much, and I look forward to talking with you soon.
Megan Porta 01:41
Hello, food bloggers. How’s it going this week? Welcome to another mindset and self care focused episode of Eat Blog Talk. I hope the new year is starting off well for you. In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about some ideas for healthy distractions so you can stop focusing on the negative stuff. I need this reminder all the time, speaking for myself, being an entrepreneur and a wife and a mom, and not just a mom, but a mom to a special needs kiddo and a medically needy kiddo, also, I’m a business partner and just somebody who interacts with people a lot. I also overthink said interactions way too often. I find myself going down the road of negativity too frequently. This stems from overwhelm, anxiety, obsessing, things like that, where my mind just starts to go to dark places. I wish I could say I was better able to stop these cycles, and I am constantly working on this. I am definitely a work in progress. In last week’s mindset episode I shared about my week of unfortunate events that happened recently, leading to some emotional and mental turmoil that honestly has taken some serious intention to climb out of. Once I feel that I’m caught in that spiral of craziness or anxiety or negativity, I will admit that it is really hard for me to pull out of it. It is not an easy task for me, personally. I’m currently in my recovery phase from all the crap that went down last week, which is a good place to be. It’s a better place to be than when I was in the middle of it. In this phase, I’ve been focusing on being grateful for the challenges, because lessons always emerge from hard times, right? And just resting because, oh my gosh, it was a massive drain on my system. But this is life. It’s not just me. We all endure stretches from time to time that are challenging and tough, and sometimes they’re way more dire and way longer and more painful than mine was. It felt like it was the end of the world in the middle of my issues, but things could have been so much worse. So whether you are caught up in a little bit of negativity, like I was, or maybe you are in full spin mode on the hamster wheel, and it just feels absolutely impossible to get out of whatever negativity you’re in, I would love to offer up five ideas for healthy distractions that will help you get back on track. Sometimes all we need is a little interruption in our unhealthy cycles to pull us back to a place of positivity where we can attract more positive energy and set things straight. All of the points in this episode will require no more than five minutes of your time, so there’s really no excuse not to try them if you are being tossed around on a hamster wheel of negativity. Let’s get to the five healthy distractions.
Megan Porta 04:51
Number one is five minutes of moving your body. Do not underestimate the power of moving your body in short bursts. There is something so invigorating about moving your body, even if it is just a five minute burst. If you’re in a cycle of over analyzing or overthinking something or maybe someone, sent you an email this morning that you cannot stop obsessing over, get your butt out of your chair and commit to five minutes of moving your body. This isn’t very much time, I’m going to run through a list of ideas for you just to get the wheels turning. You could throw yourself a little dance party, if you love dancing, play your favorite high energy music and just dance your heart out for five minutes. You could also go to YouTube and search a particular type of dance to learn in the next few minutes, get your body moving that way. You could go for a power walk, put on your walking shoes and step outside for a brisk walk around the block. If you have a treadmill, you could hop on there as well, or just run or high knee walk in place where you are now. You could stretch for five minutes, do a quick sequence of stretches. You could do toe touches, side stretches, hamstring stretches, those are my favorite focus on the body parts that are tightest for you and give them a good five minute stretch. Or how about a mini strength training session? You could do a series of body weight exercises, such as squats, push ups, jumping jacks, burpees, repeat as many rounds as you can in five minutes. Or what about yoga? You could do a quick mini yoga session. You could go from downward dog to plank to Cobra to child’s pose, and then just repeat that until you reach five minutes. I have actually done this one before stair sprints. We have a huge set of stairs in our house, so occasionally I will just run or walk up and down the stairs as much as I can for a set number of minutes. Or just stand up and shake it off. This one might sound really silly, but I love doing this. Stand up and shake out your arms, shake out your legs, shake your entire body like you’re just shaking off all that bad energy that’s built up inside of you. It works wonders for releasing tension. Or maybe you have another idea, each of these activities that I mentioned is super quick and will shift your focus and boost your mood.
Megan Porta 07:17
Number Two, five minutes of creativity. I always love the way a burst of creativity can totally transform my mood and my thoughts. It does not take long to get into that creative flow, and there’s so much magic there. Your incessant thoughts completely shut down and you move into a more positive space where thoughts just become more intuitive and connected to a good place. Every time I tap into this healthy distraction, I end up going way beyond five minutes, and it does wonders for both my mood and the thoughts I’m thinking. Here are a few ideas for a five minute creativity boost, doodle or sketch, pull out a pen or a pencil and paper and just let your hand move freely. Draw shapes, patterns, words, anything that comes out naturally. I used to have one of those Wacom tablets. I don’t know if you remember those. I don’t know if they’re still around. Actually, occasionally I would pull it out and just start doodling or drawing over a photo on my computer, on that, if you have one of those or something similar, that might be really fun. You could write a mini story. So set a timer for five minutes and just start writing a short story about anything that comes into your head. Don’t overthink this or worry about sentence structure or perfection or anything at all. Just let your imagination go wild. This is something my 14 year old does frequently, and I love seeing what a healthy distraction this can be for him. He writes about totally ridiculous things. It’s so funny and really serves him. You could make an inspiring desktop pattern in Canva. I love doing this. I do this often. Actually, you can gather ideas from Pinterest or just from your brain to create an inspiration board based on your dreams or your goals or places you want to go in the future. You could focus on colors, themes, words, vacations, places, people that make you feel good, and then upload it to your desktop so you can see it all the time. You could create lyrics or music. Here’s another one my 14 year old taps into regularly. He loves to open garage band and just start creating a song. You could write lyrics instead. Or if creating words or music isn’t your thing, just immerse yourself in listening to inspiring music for five minutes. Here’s an idea that I don’t do enough, but I should do this soon, create origami. Go onto YouTube for simple origami instructions and follow the directions for turning a simple piece of paper into something fun. You could even give it to a kid as a gift and. It doesn’t have to be a kid. You could give it as a fun gift to somebody. You could also photograph something unique, or just take photos of anything, grab your phone or your camera and snap a few creative shots of objects, maybe from unique angles or in unique lighting or something. This is something my 17 year old has been doing this year. It’s been an ongoing science class assignment for him, his teacher gives the students weekly challenges to capture beauty outside and in unexpected places. I think it’s so good for his brain to do this regularly. You could also create a recipe because you want to make something in the kitchen that inspires you and not that you need to create, because it has a good keyword, even if it’s just a quick, delicious salad or a sandwich, kitchen time, especially for us food bloggers, can be one of those really cathartic, healthy distractions. Hopefully you can pick one of these bursts of creativity to help shift your focus and maybe even spark some joy, even in just a few minutes.
Megan Porta 11:08
Number three, five minutes connecting with a loved one. Do you ever think back on a previous version of you and realize that you were doing things that were good for you at the time and maybe unintentionally so? I often think back to this time that was decades ago when I would start feeling negative about something, usually back then it was work related, when I was in the corporate world, and I just knew that I needed to reach out to someone I cared about. I can remember taking just a few minutes over my lunch break to send emails. Back then texting was not a thing. I would send these emails to a friend or a family member just saying, Hey, I miss you. How are you? I hope things are going well. When can I see you again? People love this, by the way. This always provided a good distraction from whatever was going on at work. For me, it got me excited about the idea of seeing or connecting with this person again, and it just made me feel good. There were times when I wouldn’t exactly know who to reach out to, so I would open my contacts list and run down it until the name inspired me. Here are a few ideas for connecting with loved ones in just five minutes. Send a quick text or leave an audio message, whether through text or audio message, people love audio messages, by the way, so much myself included. Share a short snippet with someone, letting them know you’re thinking about them. It could be as simple as, hey, I hope you’re having a great day. You popped into my mind and just wanted to say hello. You could make a thinking of you call actually pick up the phone. I know who actually picks up the phone these days and call someone just to say hi. Keep it short. Keep it light. Let them know you just have a couple of minutes, so you’re not going to take a ton of their time and that you wanted to hear their voice and tell them that you’re thinking of them that’s really meaningful and it will make you feel so good. You could also plan a meet up, send a message to a friend or family member to set a coffee date, or maybe a dinner date or a fun outing of some sort. I find that the anticipation of quality time with people I love immediately lifts my spirits. You could also share a memory or a photo with somebody. I love it when people do this for me, text a photo from a shared memory with someone along with just a little note like this popped up and it made me smile. I miss you. Rekindling those happy moments can really spark joy, not just for you, but for the person you’re sharing it with. Compliment or show gratitude. You could send a note of appreciation to someone who has recently helped you or inspired you. Just a simple note of gratitude can go a really long way, and can be such a good, healthy distraction for you. Write a just because email like the ones I referred to earlier, take just a few minutes to write a short email to a loved one, sharing something positive or just asking how they’re doing. Also reconnect with someone you’ve lost touch with. You can scroll through your contact list or the contacts on your phone and just find someone you haven’t spoken to in a while. Reach out with a simple Hey, it’s been too long. How are you when can we catch up, share something you love with someone, send a friend or family member a link to a song or a funny video or an article you think they would really like, simply ask about someone’s day. This one’s so easy. It can be with someone right in your household, or you can text or message or talk in person to anyone in your neighborhood, in your home, at work, a thoughtful question like, how’s your day been going? Or has anything exciting happened today? Shows you actually cared, and it invites in connection and a healthy distraction for you. Here’s one I love, and I’ve been doing this often recently. Definitely pray or meditate over someone specific. Take just a few minutes to send positive thoughts, prayers and love someone’s way. You can close your eyes and picture this person in your mind. Picture them receiving tons of love, or just write their name in a journal and write good wishes around their name that you have for them, all of these small gestures that don’t take too much time remind us of the joy and support our loved ones bring to our lives, even if we’re having a tough day, and this is such a great healthy distraction for us.
Megan Porta 15:35
Number four, five minutes of gratitude. Of all the points discussed in this episode, this is the one I turn to most often. When I’m able to see that I need to pull myself out of some sort of negative rut, I will automatically start rattling off things I’m grateful for. Sometimes the negativity wins, but if I’m persistent for a good five minutes, I can usually pull myself together and land in a more positive place. It could be super simple. I’m grateful for my safe, cozy home. I’m grateful for my family, who I love and who loves me. I am grateful for Schedule freedom and flexibility. I’m grateful for upcoming vacation. I’m grateful for the snuggly kitty sitting on my lap, the key with a gratitude dump and just making sure it serves its purpose of getting you back on a positive track. Is authenticity. The more sincere you feel about the things you’re saying and that you are expressing gratitude for, the more likely you are to pull yourself out of the rut if there’s even a hint of sarcasm, or if you don’t actually mean the words you’re saying or thinking it’s kind of pointless to even talk or think or write through this, authenticity is key. Here are a few ideas for five minutes of gratitude. You could just write out a gratitude list, grab a notebook or your journal or your phone, and jot down everything you’re genuinely grateful for, as much as you can think of in five minutes, like I kind of rattled through earlier, start with basics. If you’re having a hard time coming up with anything that you’re grateful for. I’m grateful for clean water. I’m grateful for warm food and a roof over my head. Let it flow freely. There’s no need to be profound, just sincere. You could take a gratitude walk, go for a short walk outside, and with every step you take silently, name something you feel grateful for. You could even focus on your surroundings to simplify this exercise. I’m grateful for sunshine, grateful for fresh air, the sound of birds chirping, etc. You could do a gratitude visualization, so close your eyes and picture the things or people you are super thankful for. Imagine a scene or individuals vividly in your mind and just feel the joy this brings to you. You could also write a gratitude text, send a note to someone expressing your gratitude for them, such as, just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you thank you for being there. A simple message goes a long way and can really be a great healthy distraction. You could also do a gratitude meditation, spend five minutes just sitting quietly, focusing on your breath and repeating a gratitude mantra, such as, I am grateful for everything in my life. Thank you for the abundance in my life. Something like that.
Megan Porta 18:32
appreciation for small things you could focus on simple, everyday joys, such as a warm cup of coffee, cozy socks that you’re wearing, the way the light is shining through your window, the way the snow is sparkling outside, you could come up with so much appreciation for the little things if you spend five minutes doing this, also gratitude for challenges. I know this one’s hard, but do your best to think of a recent struggle or a challenge and just reflect on what it taught you or how it has helped you to grow, such as I’m really grateful for that tough conversation that sucked last week. It helped me set boundaries. There’s always something to be grateful for in those challenges. You could write a gratitude letter, even if you don’t send it, write a short note to someone who has impacted your life in a positive way, whether or not you actually send it, just expressing your feelings can be such a good reset and gratitude for the present moment. This kind of goes back to the simple things. Reflect on what is good about right now, the quiet in the room, the opportunity to be breathing the fact that you’ve given yourself these five minutes what is happening right now be grateful for that. These gratitude exercises work best when you focus on sincerity and when you truly feel the appreciation for what is in your life and what you are expressing gratitude about. Even tiny moments of gratitude can create a big shift for you. Gratitude is extremely powerful.
Megan Porta 20:08
And number five, five minutes of mindful breathing, the power of focusing on your breath is insane when I’m tense or stressed or anxious or tired, or insert any icky feeling or emotion if I stop to assess my body during these times, I’m never breathing properly, I find that I’m taking very shallow breaths, barely giving my body the oxygen it needs, especially when it’s in a stressed state, taking just a few minutes to breathe really deeply, allowing oxygen to seep into every corner of your body feels so incredibly good. I have unfortunately experienced panic attacks in my past. Thinking back on those, I think I could have probably avoided them just by taking a couple minutes to actually breathe. There was a moment recently, after I had this little dental surgery that I’ve talked about recently, my husband was in the hospital just having a super small medical procedure. I had taken him to that a few days later, when I went up to get him from recovery, I had a moment where I was like, Okay, I’m on floor one. He was on floor four. I did what I would normally do, and I walked up the stairs. However, I didn’t take into account that my body was still healing from this dental procedure, and it was not ready for this little burst of exercise. When I got to the top, I felt like I couldn’t breathe for just a few seconds, which caused me to start to panic. I had that feeling like, oh my gosh, I’m going to have a panic attack. Thankfully, I had the quick nudge to just stop and focus on my breathing. This saved me, especially if you’ve experienced panic attacks or anything like that in the past, you know there’s a moment where you just know you’re either going to go there or you’re not, and that’s my cue to breathe. Just a couple days before my mom died, my sister and my mom’s partner and I were with her in their house. We had called the ambulance because she was just very sick. She wasn’t doing well, so as the paramedics for preparing her to take her to the hospital. My sister and my mom’s partner and I went into the kitchen because we were massively overwhelmed and stressed out. As we were standing there, I looked at her partner and saw that he wasn’t breathing. I mean, he was technically breathing, but he was barely breathing. He looked pale, white. He looked awful. I mean, understandably so, because there was a lot of chaos going on. But I said to him, you’re not breathing. You need to breathe. And I remember him looking at me like I had just said the stupidest thing in the world. Because, of course, he was breathing. He was alive, but he wasn’t breathing. I wanted him to take a deep breath and to get some oxygen into his body so he could think a little bit more clearly in that moment. That moment comes to my mind a lot when I think about how important breath is, and how our bodies just don’t get the oxygen that it needs so much of the time.
Megan Porta 23:23
So whether you are feeling massively stressed or you just want to stay on top of this thing we should all be doing, which is deeply breathing and giving our body what it needs. Here are a few ideas for five minutes of mindful breathing, just simple deep breathing. Find somewhere you can sit comfortably, close your eyes, and take slow, deliberate breaths, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Do this for five minutes, counting to four as you inhale, hold for four and exhale for four. Repeat. You can try box breathing. This one is just a little bit different. You’re going to inhale for four counts, hold for four counts, exhale for four counts and pause for four counts before starting again. Breath awareness is also a good one. You can sit quietly and just observe your natural breath. This one is super low key, but very effective. Notice how it feels entering and leaving your body without trying to change it, just observing it. Try affirmation breathing so sync your breath with positive affirmations. As you inhale, you can think I am calm as you exhale, think I release negativity, and do that over and over until you reach five minutes. Try visualization with breath. Imagine each inhale, bringing in positivity and light, and each exhale, releasing tension and dark thoughts. There’s something I do occasionally that’s very aligned with this, where I’ll imagine a just bright white, sparkly ball, kind of moving through my body as I breathe, that is almost purifying things. Things inside of me, including my thoughts, and getting rid of all of the icky stuff. And last suggestion is five count gratitude breathing. So with each inhale, think of one thing you’re grateful for. By the time you finish five breaths, you’ve named five points of gratitude. You can go on with this for five minutes and list 100 points of gratitude if you want. Do not underestimate the power of doing conscious, deliberate breathing. It’s such an easy and powerful way to turn things around if you are having a bad day.
Megan Porta 25:34
Let’s summarize the five healthy distractions we covered today so you can stop focusing on negativity if you’ve gone down that road, five minutes of moving your body, five minutes of creativity, five minutes of connecting with a loved one, five minutes of gratitude and five minutes of mindful breathing. As you know, you’ve been a human for a while, challenges are inevitable here in this world. It’s super easy for us humans to get caught up in the negativity, though I totally get it, but with intention, in just five minutes, you can create a healthy distraction and reclaim your positive energy that you want in your life. I hope these ideas inspire you to try something new the next time you are feeling overwhelmed or sad or frustrated or stressed, you’ve got this food bloggers, we’ve got this always in the weeds with you. Until next time, take care of yourself, and I will see you back here next week.
Outro
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.
💥 Join the free EBT community, where you will connect with food bloggers, and gain confidence and clarity as a food blogger so you don’t feel so overwhelmed by ALL THE THINGS!
Want to achieve your goals faster than you ever thought possible? Stop by Eat Blog Talk to get the details on our Mastermind program. This transformative 12-month experience will help you accomplish more than you would be able to in 5+ years when forging ahead alone.
Click the button below to learn what a mastermind program is, what your commitment is, and what Eat Blog Talk’s commitment to you is. Learn More About The Mastermind Program
✍️ Reach out to connect with Heather Eberle, a copywriter for food bloggers. As much as you enjoy your business, maybe writing or marketing isn’t your cup of tea. Maybe you’d rather spend more time in the kitchen and less time on your laptop. Heather is here to clear your plate! Let Heather help you share your content with the world.