Episode 59: Managing anxiety with Trish Beauchamp

Trish Beauchamp is a coach who helps women navigate change in relationships due to divorce, death or disconnection. She spent 35 years as a teacher and then experienced her own midlife unravelling facing personal challenges with health, relationships and her change in career. She joins me to talk about anxiety, cos I thought we could all do with some help in that particular area. You can read a summary of this interview here.

• Why anxiety can be such an issue in midlife for many women
• How midlife can be less of a crisis and more of an unravelling
• Allowing ourselves to feel the feelings not fighting against them
• The vagus nerve and how it can decrease our heighted levels of stress
• Taking the time to create what we need to bring ourselves back into balance
• Depression being about the past and anxiety about the future
• Recognising the impact of sensory overload on our wellbeing
• Recognising when overwhelm is getting to dangerous levels
• Adding in self-care options to ensure we can live well
• Identifying the triggers for anxiety
• Reframing thoughts and changing neural pathways
• Staying curious about what’s going on and ditching any sense of shame
• Not feeling guilty about how we’re responding to Covid
• Controlling what we can and not worrying about the rest
• Looking for the elements that can bring us hope for the future
• Not allowing fear to compromise our immune system
• Being gentle and compassionate towards ourselves
• The three coping Cs – curiosity, compassion, connection
• Remembering we have a choice in how we respond
• Instant ways to shift your mind and emotions to another state when you’re totally overwhelmed by anxiety