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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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Speaker 1: tip is to turn down the volume. By consciously substituting

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Speaker 1: less stimulating activities for more stimulating ones, we can feel

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Speaker 1: less anxious and more calm. Today's tip, like some others

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Speaker 1: this week, comes from Chris Bailey's new book, How to

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Speaker 1: Calm Your Mind. In this book, Chris shares strategies for

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Speaker 1: being more productive by reducing anxiety.

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Speaker 2: When your mind is racing, it is hard to accomplish much.

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Speaker 2: But when you aren't flitting from thing to thing, you

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Speaker 2: can relax and get more done. Notes that some activities

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Speaker 2: are far more stimulating than others. Our brains get a

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Speaker 2: dopamine hit from things that are novel or changing quickly,

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Speaker 2: or are alarming in some way. Picture the hyped up

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Speaker 2: face of a child interacting with two screens at once,

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Speaker 2: a game on a Kindle and streaming a video on

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Speaker 2: an iPad. We could laugh about that, but honestly, many

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Speaker 2: adults do similar things all the time, theoretically watching a

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Speaker 2: zoom meeting while checking email, or scrolling social media while

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Speaker 2: watching a TV show, or having podcasts on in the

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Speaker 2: background while you're doing something you are trying to focus on.

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Speaker 2: Just as with a kid, it can get you in

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Speaker 2: a hyper charged frame of mind. The antidote is to

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Speaker 2: go on a stimulation fast, as Chris calls it in

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Speaker 2: How to Calm your Mind. While stimulation sounds like something

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Speaker 2: of a good thing, too much of it can make

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Speaker 2: you agitated. You can consciously substitute less stimulating activities for

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Speaker 2: more stimulating activities. So instead of checking news online, read

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Speaker 2: a real newspaper. The news is still there and you

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Speaker 2: will still be informed, but you won't also see a

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Speaker 2: million ads and see things trying to make you click

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Speaker 2: this way and that. Instead of checking email constantly through

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Speaker 2: the day, designate a few times when you will deal

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Speaker 2: with it. Four or five check ins per day is

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Speaker 2: still quite frequent. You will see anything within an hour

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Speaker 2: or two, which allows for a rapid response, but you

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Speaker 2: will lower the volume on how much stimulation you are getting.

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Speaker 2: If you are looking to interact with people, talk with

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Speaker 2: a friend or two instead of diving into an online chat.

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Speaker 2: Now there might be places for both.

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Speaker 1: In life, but I would recommend starting with the real

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Speaker 1: life friends and then giving social media the time left over.

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Speaker 1: A real conversation with real people.

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Speaker 3: Is nice, but is inherently less hyped up than one

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Speaker 3: yanking you from place to place online. Even shopping comes

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Speaker 3: in more stimulating and less stimulating versions. Chris noted that

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Speaker 3: online windows shopping was constantly making him feel more stimulated,

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Speaker 3: so he cut back on that. Now he only goes

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Speaker 3: online to shop if he knows exactly what he is

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Speaker 3: buying ahead of time. I'd add that many people make

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Speaker 3: themselves anxious by trying to speed things up. There is

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Speaker 3: nothing wrong with being expeditious, but if you don't have

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Speaker 3: time to listen to a podcast at the speed the

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Speaker 3: podcaster spoke, maybe you don't have time for that podcast.

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Speaker 3: Yanking it up to two x speed is just going

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Speaker 3: to make you feel more hyped up, so turn down

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Speaker 3: the volume on over stimulating things. At first, you might

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Speaker 3: feel a little bored, like shouldn't I be multitasking? Shouldn't

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Speaker 3: I get more done? Reading a newspaper is obviously doing

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Speaker 3: one thing, whereas when we are online reading the news,

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Speaker 3: we might also be checking email at the same time

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Speaker 3: and other messages, and maybe half working on a project,

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Speaker 3: which all feels better, but you are probably not doing

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Speaker 3: much of consequence. Read the paper, then go on to

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Speaker 3: the other things. Do it all in sequence. As Chris

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Speaker 3: notes in How to Calm Your Mind, you will feel

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Speaker 3: less anxious and far more calm. That is worth playing

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Speaker 3: with a little boredom to achieve. In the meantime, this

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Speaker 3: is Laura.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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Speaker 2: our time.

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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you. You can

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Speaker 1: send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.

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Speaker 2: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook.

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Speaker 1: And Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E the

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Speaker 1: number four then breakfast pod. You can also shoot me

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Speaker 1: an email at Before Breakfast.

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Speaker 2: Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com. That before Breakfast is spelled

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Speaker 2: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, should I

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Speaker 2: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a

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Speaker 2: production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.