What Am I Listening To??

Hey guys! I just want this one to be a bit of a follow up from my last post about nourishing your mind - I wanted to share a little bit about what I fill my brain with, and how it works for me! Now everyone is different, and some things may work well for one person but not another. However, I actually have a range of sources and topics that I consume regularly, so hopefully one thing or another is helpful for someone! I don't have a lot of spare screen time, since most of my spare minutes are spent building my online business, so I mostly listen to things while I'm doing mindless tasks, rather than sitting down to watch things! I do usually watch one movie a week with my hubby though, and while I sometimes end up in the scroll hole, I do try to remove all negativity from my news feed; so although it's definitely not productive, it's not necessarily toxic either! I think the 80-20 rule can be applied to all areas of life, not just food. If 80% of the time we're conscious consumers online, 20% of mind numbing every now and again shouldn't be something you beat yourself up over! One of my favourite things to listen to is podcasts, although I have limited phone reception through the day, so I don't get to listen to podcasts as much as I'd like! Podcasts are great for learning something new, or for topics of personal development. Two that I'm really loving right now are the Happy Lifestyles podcast, and the Babes Talking Business podcast. The Happy Lifestyles Podcast is great for broadening my knowledge of holistic health, since the author, Louise, is studying to become an holistic nutritionist! I also feel like Louise is kind of my spirit animal, since the way she talks about starting a podcast is kind of how I felt about starting my blog!! I listen to this one using the free version of Spotify. The Babes Talking Business is so great for motivation, especially when you're needing a little kick start to your day! They interview women entrepreneurs (mostly, there's a few men), and the stories are so inspiring - and real! It's not just about the successes, but about the failures and the struggles too! They're real people who have worked so hard to get to where they're at - who wouldn't want to listen to that!? I usually listen to these ones directly off the website; they are available on Spotify, but not every episode for some reason!? You can check the podcast out here: https://babesinbusiness.net/podcast I also LOVE audio books! I first started listening to audio books when my hubby and I moved out west; when we had to drive 2 hours to town, the best way to pass the time was to listen to a good book! We started an Audible subscription, and we've still got it! With Audible, you pay a monthly fee, recieve one credit per month to put towards any book you like, plus members prices for anything else after that, all the podcasts and Audible original shows are completely free for members, and, late last year they added the editors extra, which is ANOTHER free audio book per month, chosen by them! I absolutely love the value and variety, since there's always something to listen to, no matter what mood you're in; and the best part!? You don't need phone reception to listen!! Just download the audio file and use the app to play it whenever, wherever! For the most part, I listen to fiction books - it's a great outlet for me to just switch off and get lost in a novel, especially on days where I'm checking fences on the fourwheeler all day or something similar (hello noise cancelling headphones!!). I enjoy Nora Roberts, Lee Child and David Baldacci, among others, but what I'm loving about the free editors extra each month is that it's getting me listening to things I wouldn't normally chose for myself, and that's not necessarily a bad thing! The editors extras have been a good mix of fiction and non-fiction; two of my favourite listens that have been super helpful for me are Kick Ass by Mel Robbins (great for when you actually need a kick in the you-know-where!!), and Gut by Giulia Enders (did you know, your gut is actually an entire ecosystem!?!). And several authors that I'm loving, that I've only discovered because their work was chosen as an editor's extra - I may not have found them otherwise, are Jane Harper, Graeme Simsion and Fiona Barton! And that's not even mentioning the podcasts and audio shows! In amongst the comedy and other random things, are nuggets of gold - such as Habits for Happiness by Dr Tim Sharp! And if you're like me and can read a book over and over again if you love it, once you've added a book to your Audible library, you can listen to it as many times as you like! So if you're a total bookworm, and you don't have as much time for reading as you'd like, have you considered audio books!? Now, I can't write a blog about what I'm listening to without talking about music, now can I!? I truly think that music is one of the most soothing tools for our mind - except for when you've got that song stuck in your head that you only know one line of!! (PSA: a method that works for me for getting a song unstuck is to just go and listen to it! Sometimes it takes a few replays, sing along, dance and get it out of your system - works for me!). But seriously, music has been a massive part of my life - I actually learnt to play the trombone and violin while I was at school, and I dabble in a bit of one handed piano! I don't get to make music much any more, so I settle for listening to it. Music is great since you can find something to suit pretty much any mood you might have - I love country music, but I enjoy a lot of songs from other genres too; bottom line for me, if I can sing along to it, I enjoy it! There is no right or wrong music to listen to, as long as it makes you feel good! Am I the only weirdo who can listen to sad songs to cheer me up?? I keep a selection of my favourite songs on my phone, so that I can listen without reception, but I'm currently trying to calibrate my Spotify to my liking, although the algorithm doesn't seem to like me too much - my favourite music streaming app was Pandora, but it's not available in Australia anymore! I had my algorithm on it just perfect, I could listen all day without hardly skipping a song! I thought about sharing my favourite artists, but to be honest, I don't really have favourites, I'll usually like a couple of songs from one person, and that's it, rarely a whole album! Although I must admit, Taylor Swift has been a longtime favourite, ever since Love Story first came out and I was in like, year 9!! Even though her music has changed, I still enjoy it, just not all of it! Some of my other favourite songs are Most People are Good by Luke Bryan, What About Us by Pink, Roar by Katy Perry, Fight Song by Rachel Plattern, and Rollercoaster by The Jonas Brothers (Ok, I only heard this one for the first time last week on Spotify, and it's currently stuck in my head, driving me insane, since I'm out of service and can't listen to it!). There's really no rhyme or reason to what songs and artists I like and what I listen to when, it's just what fits the mood, what I enjoy, and go with the flow! Is there any better way to enjoy music!? Of course something else I listen to on a regular basis is the team trainings in my online business! We have live trainings weekly on a Tuesday night, and all the recordings are saved in our training page so that we can catch up with them or rewatch them any time! Now when I say 'training' I don't mean like lectures, I mean like personal development, hanging out with the girls, massive freaking action sessions, as we all collaborate, share and grow in our businesses together! It's one of my favourite times of the week, and even if I'm strapped for time and can't sit down and engage in the training, I'll usually listen while I cook tea or fold the washing or whatever else needs doing! So while we're on the topic of things to listen to, there's one thing that's constantly in the background - our own thoughts! I touched on this topic briefly in my last blog, but I think it's really important that we're able to hang out in the company of ourselves without it being an overwhelmingly toxic place. I'm not an expert, so if you do struggle with mindset and negative self talk, I can only offer tips, not advice, but get the help you need! There are some excercises you can try at home for overcoming a toxic mindset, Mel Robbins actually outlines a few in Kick Ass; it really is worth a listen! The first step is identifying the toxic behaviour, the next step is to name it, and then, tell it to go away - for example, "Shut up Sharon," every time your brain tells you you can't do it or you're not good enough; or, "Go away Gary," every time you take on a negative outlook of the world around you. But the first step is to identify it! Once you're aware it's happening, you can start to take back some control. I think for me, what caused the biggest shift, was having something to focus on! When I started my online business, I was reminded of all the things I want to do for ME, the dreams and goals I had for myself, that had somehow been pushed aside in the day in day out grind of work and adulting. Once I got my vision back, I had something to focus on, a passion and a project - and so I've thrown myself into my side hustle and it's changed my whole attitude towards life! Instead of brooding about that frustrating thing that happened at work (and the frustrating things still happen!), I focus on what I'm working to create for myself. I'm building a future where I don't have to deal with the frustrations of a workplace, and that focus has been able to help me through the current frustrations; and honestly, it's made my head a lot nicer place to hang out in! As humans, we crave purpose, so when we end up in a rut of work, eat, sleep, with seemingly no end in sight and no reason behind it all, it's no wonder our mindset takes a hit! Well, happy listening! I hope this post helps you in one way or another!

If you have recommendations to add, I'd love to hear them; maybe I'll even do a follow up blog post of everything you guys are listening to! So let me know!