Thyroid Basics

I was out birding the other day, and I heard a bird call that I didn’t recognize, so I pulled out an app on my phone to identify it. And after about 3 minutes of being sucked into the app, the self-talk started: Sandy you're supposed to be present right now, and one with nature - not staring at your phone. So now I wasn't just having a lovely day of birding. I was failing miserably at it. I think a lot of us do this. Not just with nature walks, but with meditation, with emotional regulation, optimizing our health… We take something meant to help us, and turn it into a new standard to meet - AND something else we can fail at. I think the name of the game is balance. But it's not even about PERFECT balance. It's finding a balance between challenging yourself and letting yourself off the hook when things don’t go exactly according to plan. I get into this more in the newest episode of Beyond the Type, including a moment at the circus that changed how I think about balance and perfection.. Link in bio if you want to give it a listen. #pressure #optimize #failure #balance #podcast

We've gotten really good at turning the things that are supposed to relax us into one more thing to get right. For example: - Meditation becomes something you can be bad at. - Trying to be more emotionally aware only makes us more annoyed. - A walk outside becomes a test of how "present" you are. New episode of "Beyond the Type" is up on why chasing perfect presence might be the actual problem, and what I learned from a stubborn bird on a hiking trail who did not want to be identified. Link in bio, or find "Beyond the Type wherever you listen to podcasts. #perfection #pressure #balance #comparison #optimize #swansoncoaching #beyondthetype #podcast

Stop looking out the window at others, and start looking in the mirror at your own life. What do you have, right here and now, no matter how small? If you're having a hard time focusing on YOU, there may be a bit of a scarcity mindset at play. Which is totally normal. And, that can be shifted. In the latest episode of Beyond The Type, I offer an exercise to move you out of scarcity an into its opposite. Anyone wanna guess what that is?? Link to Beyond the Type in my bio, or find it wherever you listen to podcasts. #comparison #envy #scarcity #refocus #selfgrowth

I was walking a lake path the other day, admiring the gardens and these huge, beautiful houses, and I noticed my own "admiring" turn into something else pretty fast. I started getting really envious of other people. Their money, success, houses, and possessions. That feeling wasn't really about the houses. It was my nervous system doing exactly what nervous systems do when we compare: reacting like something's at stake, even when nothing actually is. Good news is, there's a way out of the comparison trap, and in the latest episode of Beyond the Type, I walk you through an exercise to do just that. Link in my profile, or find Beyond the Type wherever you listen to podcasts. #comparison #envy #enneagramtype4 #selfgrowth #selfconfidence #selfdevelopment

Why does everyone else seem to be doing better than me? The bigger house. The better career. The more flexible body at yoga. The version of you from ten years ago, with more energy than you have right now. There's a psychology theory from 1954 that explains why this happens, and why the comparisons closest to us (a neighbor, a friend, a former classmate) hit so much harder than a stranger's life ever could. Unfortunately this also pertains to social media - the more we see someone in our feeds, the more we may compare to them, even if we've never met them! In the newest episode of Beyond the Type, I dig into all of it, including what I believe is the real opposite of comparison. HINT: It's not confidence.... it's something else. Something we ALL have. Link in bio, or find Beyond the Type wherever you listen to podcasts. #comparison #psychology #selfgrowth #personalgrowth

Someone just got promoted. Someone else landed the job you've been trying to get. Another person is celebrating a big career milestone, announcing a new business, or talking about how much they love the work they're doing. And suddenly you are feeling like crap. You start questioning yourself: Am I behind? Did I make the wrong choices? Should I be doing more? Why don't I have what they have? That's the strange thing about comparison. Someone else's life can be going along just fine, completely separate from ours, but then we start scrolling and feel like we're failing. Comparison isn't always a bad thing. Someone else's success can inspire us and motivate us - or show us something we hadn't yet considered! The trouble starts when we use someone else's life as the measuring stick for our own life. I talk about why we do this and how to move OUT of comparison in this week's episode of Beyond the Type; it’s called The Comparison Trap: The Trouble With Measuring Your Life Against Someone Else's. Link in bio, or find Beyond the Type wherever you listen to podcasts. #comparison #envy #selfgrowth #personaldevelopment