00:00
Hi. I’m Katie Bradbury, a nutritional therapist and registered nurse. Today’s podcast episode is called, I’m taking a short break, and so should you.
00:14
So Hello, good evening. I’m saying good evening because I’m recording this on a Sunday evening, as usual. I would love to hear from you, actually, where you listen to the podcast and when I know that I do have quite a few loyal listeners. But I’d love to hear a bit more about where you tend to listen to the podcast, whether you sit down and listen, whether you listen to podcasts in the evening when you’re all doing your relaxing, or whether you listen to them on the go, like maybe on your commute to work, or while you’re out walking the dog or while you’re prepping food. I’d really love to hear where you listen. You can always tag me on Instagram at KatyBradburyHealth.com or do a story and tag me into that story. So that I can hear from you as to when and where you listen, I’d love that.
01:33
But to get on with the contents of the show today. Some of my regular listeners might have been expecting a podcast to start talking about some of the B vitamins today, which is part of the micronutrient series I’ve been doing. I’ve been really enjoying it so far, actually. So I’ve covered fat-soluble vitamins, which are vitamins A, D, E, and K. Last week, I spoke about vitamin C, which is the first of the water-soluble vitamins. My plan for the next instalments of the series is to run through the B vitamins. However, I’ve decided to take a very, very short break from the podcast, mostly because I’m going to be away next week, so I’m not going to be here anyway to record next week. I’m just going to share with you why I’m not going to do a proper episode this week and why I’ve decided to come and talk to you briefly about this instead because I’m pretty sure that lots of you will relate to this. So as I just mentioned, I am going away next week, this coming week rather and in the lead up to me going away, so over the last couple of days, I’ve noticed that I started feeling quite stressed. I started getting a bit anxious, and I realised that it’s because I’ve got a lot to do still before I go away, and I’ve had to slot in quite a lot of one-to-one clients; well, I haven’t had to, but I wanted to, who were keen to get an appointment in before I went away. And over the last couple of days, like yesterday morning, I woke up, and I found myself being a little bit irritable with my husband. He was like, Oh, what’s the matter? You know, he recognised this, he said, What’s the matter? And I said, oh gosh, I’m just like, I said, Danny, I’m really sorry if I’m like a bit agitated over the next couple of days, it’s because my mind is now starting to ramp up over basically just thinking ahead to the next three days and wondering how on earth I am going to fit in everything that I need to do before I go away, and that’s like in terms of sorting out the house stuff, sorting out the washing stuff, sorting out family stuff, sorting out clients stuff, sorting out my stuff, and not even thinking about packing and sorting out who’s gonna look after the cat and yada yada yada, making lists and sorting out travel stuff. We’ve seemingly barely any time to do it, and I was starting to get quite anxious, and I said look, you’re just going to have to bear with me over the next couple of days because I might be a bit irritable, so I’m sorry in advance. I started thinking today, again, my mind was wearing with all the things, and I was like, oh gosh, thinking about all the things I had to do and on my list of things to do today, of course, with it being Sunday was to plan and record the latest podcast. And I just thought you know what, I’m going to lead by example here because I’m always saying to people, you need to do what you need to do. And a big, big theme for me over the last six months, so over 2022, has been looking after myself a lot better, being a lot more boundaries, trying to really, really reduce my own stress levels. I’ve like, implemented some really solid morning routines. I have really started meditating a lot more seriously, a lot more regularly, doing breath work a lot more and really, really trying to buffer my own stress levels. And lead by example, in that respect, and I’ve had the help of a fantastic coach who I’ve been working with. And I just thought you know what, sod it, I’m not going to do the podcast today. I will come because I love coming in talking to you each week, but I would just come and do a very quick episode and explain where my head’s at.
06:31
A big thing for me is that, with regards to stress and well-being, is that I know from some of the genetic testing that I’ve done on myself, because I know I’m always talking to you guys about testing, and I do, I’ve done all the tests on myself as well. So I’ve done genetic testing on myself, and I know from that, that I have some genes that predispose me to have slow clearance of catecholamines. With catecholamines being some of the big fight or flight response hormones that are produced by the adrenal glands, so adrenaline, noradrenaline, and I clear those slowly. So once they’re there, once they’re in my system, once my body has had that release of those stress hormones in my body, it tends to, and this isn’t always the case, the genes are the gun, and the environment is the trigger, right. But I know this to be true for myself, is that once those stress hormones, once those fight or flight responses have happened in me, it takes me a long time to calm down, and I get really anxious, and I get really jittery. And I know all of these things about myself, and I woke up this morning, I found myself getting anxious and jittery, and I said, you know what, I’m going to pare down wherever I can, I’m going to really take the time to not stress because what I really don’t want to do and what none of you should be doing is that classic thing, where you, and I’d love to know if you can relate to this, I know a lot of people that I work with do, is where you go all out, you feel as though, there’s thing isn’t there, there’s almost a cultural thing, even where, if we know we’re going to have some time off, which we know we’re going away we feel like we need to like work ourselves into the ground before we do. And it’s almost; there’s almost like a self-worth piece in there. Like, oh, I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve to go away, and I don’t deserve a break. I’m not worthy of that break, and therefore I must, must, must, must, must, must, must just like almost burn myself out before I go to even vaguely deserve it. And I know that’s not true. I know that’s not true for me. I know I deserve a break, and I know you do too.
09:06
So I’m here to ask of you today, and I’m going to wrap up in just a second, to use the time that you would usually spend listening to this podcast and thank you, by the way, for showing up and for being here as one of my wonderful listeners, I really, really appreciate you. So what I ask is that you spend the remainder of the time that you would normally be spending listening to me every week, so you know, half an hour or so. Do it today. This time that you’ve allocated, just spend the next 15 minutes or so doing something that’s going to help you slow down. That’s going to help you take a break. So whether that’s sitting and doing meditation, whether it’s just sitting and contemplating, whether it’s just going outside in nature and looking at the trees and just admiring what they look like, whether it’s maybe even just doing a little bit of meal planning and thinking about how you can next nourish your body, whatever it might look like but something that is really gentle and really nourishing for either your body or your soul. Just spend that time, spend the rest of the time this week and also, because I’m not here next week, allocate yourself half an hour next weekend, or whenever you would typically listen to the podcast to just do some deep breathing, whatever it looks like for you take that break, because you honestly, you honestly do deserve it. And the repercussions that you get from prioritising yourself and for just slowing down and giving yourself that space, that loving space, are huge. They’re golden, actually, and we so rarely do it enough.
10:53
So that’s what I’ve come to say to you today. I would love to hear from you. I’d love to hear what you’re doing to hold you accountable. I’d love to hear what you’re doing at this time and how you’re going to use his time today, now, and also next week in my absence. So that’s it; I’m gonna wrap up to give you your space and your time. And I will be back again in a couple of weeks, coming and resuming the micronutrient series to talk to you all about those really super important B vitamins and how they relate to fertility.
11:33 Over and out. Bye bye
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