Better begins in the mind - The Mindshine Podcast

Today on the podcast, I'm talking to Anna Peterson Macsalka, the inventor and founder of Zenimal, meditation aid which aims to get little kids thinking about breath and mindfulness . We spoke about how suffering from anxiety as a kid go her started on her own mindfulness journey, and how she's aiming to share that with the world via a sweet little silicon turtle with a speaker in the top of its shell.

Today on the podcast, Charlie is talking to George Taktak and Joe Thomson, from How Mental, who are ona mission to improve the world's mental health and link up mental health service providers to make talking about and taking steps to work on our mental health easier, less stigmatized, and ultimately more enjoyable. To find out what drove them both to get involved in the mental health space, and how George tried to make an app to communicate with his grandfather via touch, listen to the episode.

Today's guest is Zain Peer from London Nootropics, a company aiming to bring us the brain boosting benefits of nootropics squeezed into a cup of coffee. I met with Zain Fresh from a winning performance on the BBCs dragon's den, during which they managed to persuade two of the dragons to invest 50 grand in their business. We met up in the appropriately named shroom town, their pop up adaptogenic coffee bar in the heart of piccadilly Circus, so apologies for the background noise.

We've been off the air for the summer break but we're back with another season, and kicking it off this week is Mr Bhairav Shankar, inventor of the Dhyana meditation ring, a piece of wearable tech which promises to answer a question we have long wanted to know the answer to, how effectively are we actually meditating when we're sitting. Through tracking changes in heart rate variability, The Dhyana ring can apparently measure mindfulness, and then track your progress as you use it over time, to show you how you're improving. He chatted to Charlie from his base in India about all things meditation and technology. To hear all about it, including how Charlie got on testing out the ring, listen here. How to find the Dhyana Ring

We've had a lot to deal with over the past couple of years, health pandemics, political turmoil and conflict, environmental and economic instability, and now a war in Europe which is threatening to spin out of control. And with all that uncertainty levels of stress and worry around the world have been rocketing. This week, we're trying something a bit different. I'm going to be chatting to Monika Mayer, one of our business psychologists and writers in the Mindshine app about how we can help ourselves when we're feeling overwhelmed with worry and to share some of the tips and techniques which come out of a course which we've just released in the app to help deal specifically with this problem. We've called it worrying about the world.

This week's guest is Brenda Sarai Zuniga. Comedian, artist, motivational speaker and mindfulness coach and Miss Burbank 2019. At the age of 1, she was smuggled into the United states by her teenage parents from Mexico, and got through 11 schools and 15 different homes before she was finally diagnosed with ADHD and started getting treatment. She has since, among other things, become a US citizen, become a mindfulness teacher, started a podcast, Getting Metal with Brenda Sarai Zuniga, written, produced and starred in a one woman comedy show about mental health on the livestream. As you might imagine given an intro like that, Brenda had a whole lot to say, Listen to find out.

This week's guest is Dr Shama Rahman. A multidisciplinary artist, scientist and creative technologist whose work combines her various interests in AI, music, interaction design, theatre performance, science and visual art. Her research has led her to explore the nature of flow and creativity in musicians through physics-based analysis to investigate emergent neural systemic patterns in the electrical brain activity of Jazz and Classical pianists as they play. She has explored the use of wearable brain reading tech in music performances, and through her creative technology company Neuro Create she is pushing the boundaries of how computers can collaborate with us to make us more creative. We had a fascinating chat about her work, which led us down all sorts of rabbit holes including whether a computer could see the creativity in minimal techno.

This week's guest is tapping expert Poppy Delbridge, award-winning professional coach and the woman who according to the London Evening Standard is “taking over tapping”. Her international clients refer to her as “a supercoach”, “the white witch of results'“ and “the life-changer”, poppy's proprietary rapid tapping technique promises to raise your emotional ‘baseline' in order to create your goals. As her website putsa it: “ Based on the clinical phenomenon of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), it neutralises unhelpful triggers and memory responses in minutes, and is backed by cognitive psychology, neuroscience and energy medicine. The main intention within Rapid Tapping is to open up possibilities, so we can manifest what we want to feel, have and become.” As well as teaching me her rapid tapping technique, Poppy chatted to me about all sorts of things including the origins of tapping, her forthcoming book Tapping In, and the dangers of throwing the word energy around.

This week's guest is Artist Manager turned coach, Jade Mitchell. Jade spent years helping artists like Jonathan Yeo along the road to international acclaim and commercial success, before a tragic and horribly traumatic experience in her life prompted something of an epiphany, and made her decide to train as a coach, and start Blank Canvas Coaching, coaching and mentoring creative people for personal and professional development. She's fascinated by the link between creativity, positivity and resilience and we chatted about all sorts of things, including the personal loss which moved her to become a coach, and the list of saboteurs which lurk in our minds ready to get us in our own ways and hinder our progress.

This week's guest is the fabulous Traci Ruble, a hugely experienced psychotherapist, and founder of Sidewalk Talk, a hugely inspiring community listening initiative that started with her inviting a group of fellow therapists to literally take their chairs into the streets and listen for free to what people passing by needed to get off their chests. What started as a brilliant idea in San Francisco has exploded into a global movement with Sidewalk Talk sessions happening in major cities around the world. As you might expect from someone who set up a worldwide conversation starting phenomenon, Traci is an excellent conversationalist, and During our fun and engaging conversation we spoke about all sorts of things, including why she quit the tech rat-race to become a therapist and how she survived six divorces as a child. About the importance of us all being allowed to exist as flawed humans, and the worst thing for the happiness of romantic relationships.

This week, Charlie is in conversation with another of our excellent Mindshine community Champions, Alison Tetrick. Alison is an NCAA tennis player, turned biochemist, turned professional cyclist. She has ridden on the roads at the highest levels, riding in team USA in the pan american games, and winning medals at the UCI road world Championships before a traumatic brain injury suffered in a crash ended her road career, and almost ended her life. In this conversation she told me how she got through the depression and cognitive struggles that followed to get herself back on the bike and to where she is now. Excelling again in a different kind of cycling, 3 times gravel world champion, and giving back to the sport and the community, serving on the board of directors for USA cycling, and working to create engagement, access and opportunity through scholarships and community engagement.

This week Charlie chatted to author and comedian Rosie Wilby about her latest book, The Breakup Monologues. Rosie is an award-winning comedian, author and podcaster who has appeared many times on BBC Radio 4 programmes including Woman's Hour, Saturday Live and Four Thought. Her first book Is Monogamy Dead? was longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize and followed a trilogy of solo shows investigating the psychology of love and relationships. Her new book The Breakup Monologues is based on her acclaimed podcast of the same name and is published globally by Bloomsbury.

This week, Charlie chatted to writer, poet, memoir writing coach Maryann Samreth. Maryann originally published her poetry incognito on instagram under the name Sincerely Miss Mary, as a way of processing her own feelings following the abuse she suffered in a romantic relationship. Her words struck a chord with millions of people around the world, and she now uses her position not just to inspire, but to help other people find the words they need to heal. It was a fascinating conversation that touched on a host of topics from trauma and recovery, to the somatic trauma writing method she has devised to help people bring their stories to life in a safe, embodied, and healing way.

This week, it being Stress Awareness Month, Charlie spoke to our Chief Science Officer Dr Marsha Chinichian about all things stress-related. They spoke about what stress is, how it effects us both mentally and physically, the kinds of ways it shows up in our lives, and perhaps most importantly, what we can do to change our attitude towards it, and lessen its effect. Marsha's challenge got Charlie thinking about his pwn relationship with the stress of parenthood. Listen in to hear more…

This week's guest is one of our Mindshine community Champions. She's a board certified NLP and mindset coach, a qualified hypnotherapist, a mum, and 4x Brazilian Jiu Jitsu champion of the world Adelita Montero. We spoke about all sorts of things from the power of hypnosis, to the effect of unhappy relationships, to how the mum who took her kid to jiu jitsu class ended up joining in and becoming a quadruple world champion!

This week's guest is Claire Dale, Movement specialist, Founder of the Physical Intelligence Institute, and Award Winning co-author of A hefty, handsome and fascinating tome I'm currently working my way thorough called Phsical Intelligence published by Simon and Schuster. With a background in dancer and choreography Claire is now one of the leading exponents of Physical Intelligence a way of actively managing our physiology to detect and strategically influence the balance of chemicals in our bodies and brains in order to feel better and perform better. We chatted about all sorts of things, from how to influence our bodies production of neurotransmitters and hormones, to simple tips on how to develop inner fortitude and feel more confidence, and a great exercise called the serotonin swing.

This week Charlie was joined by Dr Marsha Chinichian our Chief Science Officer, and Paul Epstein, leadership coach, podcaster, keynote speaker, and bestselling author of the Power of playing offense. As a pro sports executive for multiple NFL and NBA teams, Paul has spent 15 years helping huge sports teams achieve their goals and developing their motivation to find their why and work “on purpose”. Listen to find out how he discovered his own purpose, why it's more important to be interested than interesting, and how we can develop more motivation and purpose in our lives.

This week Charlie chatted with Wellness expert and health coach Edie Horstman, the woman behind the wildly successful blog and instagram handle wellness with Edie. Their chat touched on health fads, diet and exercise addiction, blood sugar and fasting, the trials of modern parenting, the perils of being a social media entrepreneur, and the fact that we all need to realize we're all different.

This week's guest is founder of Inner Camp, Alexis Alcala. Alexis teaches teachers from all over the world to teach things like breathwork, pranayama and Tantra at his base down in the south of spain and we had a great chat that touched on all sorts of things like the power of breath, how breathing can lead you into altered states of consciousness, the importance of music to our state of mind, and whether tantra is really just about Sting keeping going for hours on end.

This week's podcast is not one to listen to with the Toddlers. Charlie is in conversation with Johnny B.A.N.G. Reilly, film maker, martial artist, fighter, dancer, poet, rapper, sartorialist, writer. He's hard to pin down in words, but there's a great deal more to Johnny than face tattoos and ferocity, as Charlie found out in a chat which touched on all sorts of things, from Johnny's own troubled childhood, during which he suffered mental and physical abuse, to his time in prison and relationship with violence and aggression, to his deep understanding of the dark side of his own character, and the techniques he uses to keep it in check. Trigger and swear warnings - there is a discussion of physical abuse and a very brief passing reference to suicide, and both Johnny and Charlie indulge in the occasional bit of colourful language. Make sure you check his YouTube films in the links.

This week Charlie is chatting to excellent antipodean, ex human rights lawyer, strategy director, and author of the fascinating and useful, “How to be a creative thinker”, available now at all good bookstores, and some evil ones too. As usual, the chat rambled all over the place from art school exercises, to job titles, to strange ways of organizing a library. If you want some excellent advice on how to think creatively, and to hear how Charlie's challenge ended up scratching the sounds of crows talking, then have a listen.

This week Charlie is chatting to Psychologist, relationahip therapist, and Couples counselor Pam Custers. We spoke about all sorts of things, from her work as a documentary filmmaker back in Apartheid South Africa, to her many years of experience getting couples to learn to love each other a little bit better, and as she puts it recalibrate and co-create their relationships.

This weeks podcast guest is Julie Leonard, Life Coach, self proclaimed Happiness Evangelist and author of a book entitled Intentional Happiness - the life changing guide to being happy and staying happy. This is actually the second podcast I recorded with Julie, after the first one got mangled by the podcast software we use, leaving us with the excruciating task of asking her if she'd come back on and do it all again. luckily, as you're about to hear, Julie is a lovely person, and not only agreed at once, but made us feel better about having to ask. We chatted about all sorts of things, from how to live more intentionally, to what it means to be happy, to why you should give yourself permission to have more fun.

This week Charlie and Marsha spoke to Dr. Santor Nishizaki, an American academic and author specialising in Millenials and Gen Z and the workplace. He's currently a professor at Pepperdine University in California. Listen to hear about the future of work, how the pandemic has affected our happiness, the challenges facing Gen Z and Millenials in the workplace and the new book he's writing with our very own Dr Marsha.

Charlie's guest this week is Joel Parkes, a Bristol-based sculptor with a lot of interesting things to say about life, recovery, art and practice. In this fascinating chat, Joel tells us about his process of filling and beautifying the cracks and breakages in his work, and allowing them to become the defining feature of the finished piece, and how this has parallels in all human existence. Their unguarded conversation covered a range of subjects, from art, to pain, to addiction and recovery, to how we are all like trees, and whether we can and ultimately should be trying to get better. A fascinating chat with a fascinating artist. You can see a film Charlie made about Joel Parkes' process here: https://vimeo.com/110256608

This week's podcast is an absolute corker. Charlie chatted for well over an hour to meditation teacher, author of The Effortless Mind, and founder of World Meditation Day, Will Williams. The conversation went all over the place, from what Darth Vader has to do with ancient Indian Meditation practices, to spontaneous meditative orgasms, to trying to meditate sitting on top of rotting corpses (yes you did read that sentence right!). This is not one to miss. Get yourself a nice cuppa and get stuck in!

This week's podcast was taken from the interview Charlie did with 5 Time Muay Thai world champion and 4 time and current Glory Kickboxing World Champion Tiffany “Time Bomb” Van Soest for a film they made about her for our Better Begins in the Mind YouTube series. You can watch the film HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxMiQ5j0XdE Tiffany is tough as they come, both physically and mentally, but she's far from your average scrapper. Our podcasts starts with a poem she wrote for the film and continues with a chat which rambled happily round a wide range of subjects ranging from grief to gratitude to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Listen to learn about how Tiffany uses visualisation to help her in the ring, how allowing herself to feel was the key to getting over the death of her grandmother and allowing her to dance her way back to a world title, and what she does to become, as she puts it, unfuckwithable.

This week's guest is therapist, coach and bestselling author Jack Williamson. Jack's new book, The Shitty Committee, describes itself as “your go-to guide on how to stop feeling like Shit and start living a fulfilling life”, and was recently recommended by Oprah. Praise really doesn't get higher than that! Our conversation touched on all sorts of interesting topics from how he was motivated to get involved in working in the mental health area by his personal experience of depression and his brother's suicide, to how you can find purpose and direction in your life, ways of quieting our inner critic, and how to avoid comparing ourselves to others. Listen to the end to hear if Charlie did better than Dr Marsha in the cold showers challenge (warning: don't listen if you don't like squealing!).

Welcome to episode 6 of the Better Begins in the Mind podcast, brought to you by Mindshine, the happiness app, I'm Charlie Inman, creative director and English voice of the app, and in this series I talk to interesting people from all over the world about how to live our lives a little bit happier. In Today's episode, we're talking to executive coach Omeed Rezaian, a Global Organizational Development Lead: at Google. We chatted about all sorts of things including the importance of us instead of them and what he learned from a brush with death at the beginning of lockdown.

This week MDr Marsha and I chatted to award-winning Film Director Lotje Sodderland about the brain hemorrhage in 2011 which left her unable to speak read or write, how she went on to document the experience in the multi award-winning feature documentary entitled My Beautiful Broken Brain, from 2014 (you can see it on Netflix at the moment, and it's well worth a watch.)

This week we're chatting to Resilience Coach Charlie Cannon. Charlie now teaches everyone from international sportspeople to the London Metropolitan Police force how to deal with hardship and challenging situations in life, and bounce back better.

This week Charlie and Marsha are chatting to Charlotte Cramer, award-winning author of The Purpose Myth - Change the world, not your job. This was a really enjoyable chat that rambled all over the place, touching on all sorts of topics like advertising, job satisfaction, homelesness and the need for finding Purpose in our lives (if not necessarily in our jobs).

Getting into freezing cold water in midwinter in just a pair of swimming trunks seems like a ridiculous idea, but that's exactly what Arthur and a group of his friends do every day throughout the winter months. What started as a dare has become a mental fitness practice which has taught him a lot about resilience and brought him many hours of joy and camaraderie. As Arthur says, “it's all about suffering… every cell in your body is screaming at you to get out”. So why on earth does he do it? Listen to find out.

Prepare to find out about the gold standard scientific way to measure how much stress is being held in your body that you can calculate with your smartphone! This week Charlie is chatting with Mindshine's very own Chief Science Officer and clinical psychologist Dr. Marsha Chinichian. They get into all sorts of happiness-related areas, including why they do what they do, and share their own personal wellbeing routines.