Diane Brown learnt the importance of taking care of herself following her recovery from burnout a number of years ago. In 2019 she was living her happy ever after as a wellbeing coach until she was suddenly struck down very severely with Eco-anxiety. This may be difficult for some listens to hear. Diane is a solutions focused person and was seeking out the answer to the huge problem of climate change and hoping to fix it herself, but one day whilst reading on the subject something clicked that meant she realised and accepted within her mind that this was a problem too big for her to solve. She became very unwell, very quickly and felt like she was in her own emergency situation. She managed to drag herself to the doctors and was diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression. She talks about her step by step recovery.

KEY LEARNS

“It can happen to anybody. Whatever training and experience and things you’ve had, it really can happen to anybody”.  “Humans have self protection mechanisms built in. And part of that self protection, psychologically, is to not see and not accept certain things and deny them. Because if you think it through logically, which I’m inclined to do, if you’re going to sit there and say, Oh, I can see that the human species is about to become extinct. How do you get your mind around that? I mean, it’s completely cataclysmic stuff, isn’t it? So your brain is built to resist that, it’s programmed to resist that and denying it, subconsciously, is part of that programming”

“I was shocked. How did I not see this coming? How did I not spot any warning signs? Nobody’s perfect. But I was looking after myself relatively well. But I kind of didn’t have too much time to think about that, as I say, because it was more of a hit the emergency button situation. I was going downhill so fast. I just knew I had to take action. And I think, looking back, I can now see that actually, because of my training and experience. I knew what to do. And I knew to do it quickly. Because had I not had that training of being a well being life coach, had I not had that experience and conversations with other women and things. Would I have picked myself up and dragged myself to the doctors as quickly as I did, I don’t think I would, I really don’t think I would. So I really took it seriously and treated it as an emergency straightaway. And looking back at the steps I took in my recovery, I can now say it was almost becoming a well being life coach was some kind of universe preparation, so that I would have all these tools at hand ready to help myself back out of this hole”

“Whatever that did for me being outside, that just elevated me to a whole other level of how I felt. And it might have only lasted for 10 minutes or 15 minutes. But at that point, being able to feel good for 10 or 15 minutes was a real big achievement.”

“Let’s say there’s a year left, let’s say there’s six months left, let’s say we’re all going up in a fireball next weekend. That would be horrendous. Life is so precious. And the time between now and the weekend for billions and billions of people on the planet is still precious and something we can still appreciate and enjoy. And that’s what I became really focused on is that none of us know what’s going to happen. And of course, this was all before the pandemic, which kind of proved my point. But nobody knows what’s going to happen. All we can really control is what’s happening right now and making the best of right now.”

RECOMMENDATIONS – Book

The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of inner peace by Dalai Lama’s https://amzn.to/2SQ9suM

ABOUT DIANE

Diane Brown is a Wellbeing Life Coach and Exercise Psychology Coach, dedicated to helping women move forward in their lives. She has blended her learning and experience to create ‘Active Wellbeing’, a coaching philosophy which guides women to wellbeing with an active lifestyle as its foundation. Diane’s vast experience includes Workplace Coaching, Triathlon Coaching, Wellbeing Life Coaching and Sports & Exercise Psychology. She also spent 15 years in commercial management, alongside 12 years of competing in multi-sport events. Diane’s new book: The Little Book of Active Wellbeing is available from Amazon at https://amzn.to/34D2QTi

CONNECT WITH DIANE www.facebook.com/fitbee.co.uk www.facebook.com/groups/findtimefeelgood/ www.instagram.com/active_wellbeing_for_women/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianebrownfitbee/  www.fitbee.co.uk

ABOUT THE HOST Emma Last is a qualified Mental Health and Wellbeing Trainer and Coach. She has co-written both the First Aid Industry body’s accredited First Aid for Mental Health and Wellbeing training for Adults in the workplace and those working with children.   Emma also has over 20-years, experience in leading teams and developing strategies for change. She worked in Senior leadership for a large corporate until early 2018, when she came to a turning point in her career due to being on the brink of burnout and wanted to gain more of a balance in her life. She then rebooted her life and founded her company Progressive Minds.  Emma also works with workplaces and schools on their Mental Health and Wellbeing strategies and provides training and coaching to support employees through challenging and changing times. Emma also works with individuals to help them to perform at their best by working on their mental fitness, which incorporates stress/burnout prevention and resilience and agility development through her Human Reboot Movement Coaching Programme. Her clients say they have become more mentally fit, happier and gain the results they want in their lives.  Her Human Reboot podcast achieved number 22 in the Mental Health category in Mental Health Awareness week

CONNECT WITH EMMA https://thehumanrebootmovement.com https://linktr.ee/EmmaLast DISCLAIMER The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to the host and guest speakers. Please conduct your own due diligence.  Trigger warning -Some elements of this episode may be hard for listeners to hear. *As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.