Perfectly Panicked - The Podcast on Anxiety, Panic, Mental Health and Stigma

Are you still waiting for permission to take that leap? To build that boundary? To leave your box and step into the life that's waiting for you on the other side? In this episode I am joined by Nancy Levin - bestselling author of Jump and Your Life will Appear, master life coach, founder of Levin Life Coach Academy, and host of Your Permission Prescription Podcast.

She shares her courageous story of living behind the veil of perfectionism, over-achieving and people-pleasing and how infidelity, divorce and breaking down led to her own breaking open to find her true self and calling.

She shares her wisdom in this inspiring conversation! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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Welcome to the first episode of season 2 of the Perfectly Pan!cked podcast! To kick things off, I invited the most lovely, smart, courageous woman, Donya Feizbakhsh to share her powerful story of transformation, awakening and stepping into the life that's waiting for you. I always love my conversations with Donya and come away so inspired, and I know you will too!

Donya is an Aquarius and lawyer, in that order. Following her training in private practice at Shook, Hardy and Bacon in Washington, D.C., Donya sought to find peace in her legal career. While at Shook, she pushed boundaries by starting conversations and initiatives about supporting mental health within the legal world and erasing the stigma. Donya made a career shift into the television industry, as a lifetime fan of the escapism offered by television. Now, as legal counsel at BBC Studios in New York City, Donya continues to champion the importance of mental health. She is open about her personal journey and continues to step out into courageous vulnerability. 

We talk about OCD (in a pandemic!), suicide ideation, and depression, so if those are triggers for you please skip this episode and protect your peace. The silver lining of COVID in finally having the time and space to reflect on your life and reimagine your future. We discuss Big Law - the lifestyle, the competition to see who can be the most miserable and the goal. 

We ask big questions like "what's the goal?" "Is seeking happiness ok or does it add more pressure?" 

And of course, we hear exactly what inspired Donya to turn her shameful secret into your superpower.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: 📣 CAVE Club registration is open! CAVE Club virtual doors open March 1. This is my wellness community exclusively for professional women. It's what I needed and what you've asked for. One place to get your coaching, meditations, experts, wellness workshops, peer support from like-minded women and even yoga! You deserve this. You belong here! 

This is the final episode of Perfectly Pan!cked in 2022 and we're going out with a bang! 💥 This episode with Ken Walsh is SO powerful, you don't want to miss it. 

We discuss ... Ken's childhood trauma caused by the addiction and mental illness all around him; losing his mother and sister to suicide; his journey to sobriety and thriving despite his own Bipolar 2 diagnosis. He also reframes masculinity from toxic to vulnerable, emphasizing that through courageous vulnerability we find the healing, support and genuine connection we've been searching for. 

More about Ken... he works as an expert in project and program management as well as data and analytics. He is a motivational speaker inside and outside of work, using his story of perseverance and hope to inspire others who may be struggling and to fight the stigma associated with mental illness and addiction.

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ANNOUNCEMENT: 📣 Pre-registration for CAVE Club is open! I created this wellness community exclusively for professional women with so many of you in mind. It's what I needed and what you've asked for. One place to get your coaching, meditations, experts, wellness workshops and peer support from like-minded women. You deserve this. You belong here! 

Have you ever tried EFT Tapping to reduce your anxiety or release a block? I try it in this episode and dive in deep with my guest Theresa Lear Levine, Master EFT Coach. We answer all your questions like - "What in the hell is tapping and how does it work?". We even dispel some myths.  

More about Theresa... she lives in Maryland with her husband and their 4 boys. As an entrepreneur with a background in psychology, nutrition and fitness, she has been helping women work on various aspects of their mental and physical health for over 25 years. Her struggles with ADHD, trauma, and the chaos and overwhelm of being a mompreneur with big goals and responsibilities led her how to cultivate the success, clarity, and inner peace that used to feel so elusive to her. Using a unique blend of Energy, Psychology, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) Tapping and Strategy, Theresa empowers other mompreneurs to overcome anxiety, distractions, and limiting patterns so they can feel happy, present, and fulfilled as they align their beliefs, actions values and vision for the business and daily life!

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THERESA'S RESOURCES: 

Are you feeling anxious or depressed because of how lonely you are? Are you wondering "What's wrong with me?" Or maybe your anxiety and depression have caused you to isolate and create a sense of loneliness you never felt before. Do you feel like no one knows the real you? Well, you're not alone.

And why do you feel so alone when you're in a room with family and friends who love you? Or at a concert with tons of people? 

Because it's not about the quantity of your relationships, it's about the quality. The depth of our connections is all in our mind and that is what's driving whether or not we feel fundamentally lonely. 

Chronic loneliness is an epidemic that can be both mentally and physically devastating. It's been likened to smoking 15 cigarettes a day!

I talk about it all - how loneliness shows up, it's effects on our body and mind, and how to cultivate its invitation to deeper connection.  

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Micha Shaw is my amazing guest on Episode 17. She's a former professional open water swimmer, mindfulness coach for athletes, speaker, model and certified pilates, yoga and meditation instructor, wife and mom of 2. 

We talk about her swimming journey from the pool, to the Pacific and all the way to the Olympics. Micah Shaw now teaches athletes how to strengthen their mindset with mindfulness and meditation. 

Micah swam competitively at Cal Berkeley, trained for the 2008 and 2012 Olympics in open water swimming, and has traveled the world competing in open water and lifesaving competitions. And despite thriving as an athlete and making her way to the top of her sport, Micah, like many of us dealt with her share of mental struggles along the way and turned those experiences into something amazing. 

Now she coaches athletes in mindfulness techniques that can help them improve focus, performance and get the competitive edge they're after. She works to empower athletes to dream big, work hard, but also create space for gratitude and self-compassion.  

You won't want to miss her amazing perspective on being a model in LA, and how she's dealing with body image as she ages.

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Virginia Buckingham was the CEO of MassPort (governs Boston's Logan International Airport) on 9/11. She shares a behind the scenes glimpse at what happened that day and in the months after. She also courageously shares how she carried the weight of this historic tragedy and internalized not only her own trauma, but the collective trauma of a nation. 

Ginny was the first woman to be Chief of Staff to two consecutive Massachusetts governors (Weld + Cellucci) and the first woman to be CEO of the Massachusetts Port Authority. When she resigned from that position in the wake of 9/11, she went on to work for The Boston Herald. She then worked at Pfizer for 14 years, where she pioneered multiple innovative public affairs strategies to support biopharma innovation in the US and abroad, including strategically driving digital advocacy and communications around Pfizer’s Covid response. After this remarkable 35-year career as an innovative leader across government, media and industry, she founded Goldthwait Advisors LLC. 

Ginny wrote the Amazon #1 Bestseller On My Watch which chronicles her leadership through the response to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and her personal journey, in particular, her mental health struggles in the years after. She still writes and speaks extensively on lessons of resilience, crisis management, and leadership.  She’s a member of the American College of Corporate Directors and a member of the highly selective Presidential Leadership Scholars leadership development initiative sponsored by the libraries of four former US Presidents.

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Loneliness Is a major factor in physical and mental decline. Connection, often referred to as the opposite of addiction, is vitally important to our happiness and longevity. One in three adults report feeling lonely, so if you are one of those three, you are not alone. 

This meditation will invite you to lean into the loneliness and listen. Listen to what is seeks and promises. Deeper connection with yourself, more genuine connection with others and more stimulating connection with the world around you is available on the other side of fear. This meditation will also invite you to pour into your heart the love and gratitude that is always accessible if we are still and quiet enough to feel it.   

I hope you enjoy!

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There is a mental health crisis in the legal industry, so I invited Dr. Shawn Healy, Ph.D, a clinical psychologist at Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers (LCL) to join me on the podcast. We talk about... why lawyers are so stressed and overwhelmed, why law firms aren't providing the resources and support lawyers are asking for and why the stigma surrounding mental health is the biggest barrier to help-seeking behaviors. 

LCL provides confidential and free services to lawyers, judges and law students. Prior to joining LCL in 2014, Shawn worked in a private group practice in Cambridge, MA. Prior to private practice, Shawn worked at the May Institute for 10 years where he initially completed his pre-doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship. He later became the Director of Clinical Services and Operations for the Behavioral Health Division of May Institute. Shawn graduated from Suffolk University in Boston, MA in 2006 with his Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. 

Shawn co-authored the book The Full Weight of the Law: How Legal Professionals Can Recognize and Rebound from Depression (ABA publication, 2017). Shawn runs our ADHD Support Group Meetings & Workshops and our Job Search Support Group. 

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Are you struggling with health or illness anxiety or love someone who is? Do people call you a hyperchondriac? Did you listen to Episode 12 and relate like crazy? 

My conversation with Dr. Karen Cassiday is not only educational, it's empowering. She gets us! She's like a breath of fresh air. She was born to do this work. She approaches each patient with enthusiasm, persistence, and a keen sense of humor, crafting individualized, research-based treatment plans for each person. Her goal is to make each patient an expert at managing their own anxiety, so that they can face any future event with confidence and courage.

Dr. Cassiday received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 1990 from the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. She is a nationally recognized expert in the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders, the past president of the prestigious Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), and served on the board of Beyond OCD Chicago. She is a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy (A-CBT). In addition, she serves on the faculty of the International Obsessive Compulsive Foundation Behavior Therapy Institute and at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. A sought after national speaker on television, radio and at professional training seminars, Dr. Cassiday has appeared as an expert consultant on Animal Hoarders on TNT and on NBC’s Today Show. Her expertise has been tapped through commentary in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and numerous other publications.

She is a sought after speaker who enjoys talking about parenting, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and mental wellness. Dr. Cassiday also founded and owns the Anxiety Treatment Center of Greater Chicago. 

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Hey and welcome to Episode 12, all about health anxiety. This is my own "rant" about the voices that won't stop focusing on worst case scenarios, threats and bad outcomes. And it's all theoretical until it actually happens. You won't want to miss this validation of everything you've ever thought made you different than all these people walking around completely comfortable in these bodies. 

And if you want to do some homework before next week's episode with Dr. Karen Cassiday, check out her work below. 

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Are you in college or have a child in college who's struggling with anxiety, depression or substance abuse? Or maybe college is on the horizon and you're wondering how you will cope? Well... you're not alone! There is a mental health crisis in our colleges with students reporting unprecedented levels of mental health distress. In this episode I talk to someone on the front lines! Courtney Joly-Lowdermilk, M.S.Ed, Boston University is trailblazing the effort to relieve the pressure and re-think how we look at the college experience. This conversation is refreshing, eye-opening, offers practical resources, as well as hope and healing for students and their families. 

Anxiety, worry and fear cannot co-exist with love and gratitude. This meditation is both a practice and an invitation. Both are inspired by the healing properties of gratitude - both physical and mental. In this practice I guide you through a list of simple pleasures and profound treasures that are just a few things I love and am so grateful for. I'm sure you will love them too! The invitation is then open for you to sit in your own space of gratitude and create a list of what you truly love. What makes your heart sing? Uncovering and rediscovering all the wonders we look past, all the small but significant gifts that we once adored and now have simply adapted to. What dazzles and enchants you? What makes you feel alive and safe and loved and grateful beyond measure? In this space our anxieties melt away and remind us to open and soften and love again. 

Sending love! 

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In Episode 9, I talk to Ashley Haseotes about childhood trauma and emotional abuse, mom-issues, chronic pain, healing and reconciliation. 

Ashley is an intuitive energy healer and Chopra Center certified meditation coach as well as the author of The Unspoken. She also founded One Mission in 2009 with her husband Ari after their son Nicholas was diagnosed with AML-leukemia. Ashley was acutely aware of the families she left behind once Nicholas finished treatment, and she has since helped over 30,000 families as they navigate childhood cancer. One Mission programs make living in the hospital less lonely and stressful, bring joy and hope back in a time of fear and uncertainty and give children and their families the support they need to get through the emotional distress and financial challenges pediatric cancer brings.  From the moment of diagnosis, through treatment and beyond, One Mission is there to help children and their families every step of the way. 

Ashley offers One Mission families free meditation coaching and one on one healing sessions. People work with Ashley when they are feeling stuck or struggling on their life path, in pain, or going through a major life shift.

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What if you could use anxiety to find your true North? Are you constantly resisting and saying NO to everything because it may cause anxiety? Are you just paralyzed with fear and worry? Or maybe you're in a season of relative calm and your anxiety is on hiatus? In Episode 8 I talk about what you can do in all of these circumstances to find your way back to true north using a compass as your metaphorical guide. And what does true North north look like for anxiety sufferers? You'll have to listen to find out! It's not how much anxiety you have, it's how you think about it and what you do with it that counts! 

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If you are feeling anxious, depressed, tired or maybe itchy and gassy - nice! Well it could be your body telling you it needs a change. It’s our job to listen closely and intuitively to how our bodies are responding to what we expose ourselves to everyday, whether its food, chemicals, exercise or stress. 

If you're dabbling with diets, supplements, exercise trends and feel like you’re on a rollercoaster of pros and cons, my guests today are board certified integrative health practitioners and wellness coaches who offer a holistic approach to you health care and self care.

Stephanie May Potter and Marnie Dachis Marmet are also certified yoga instructors and together, they founded The Art of Living Well Podcast and community. Each Wednesday they bring inspiring and motivating conversations to help you find more joy and purpose in your life. They feature candid interviews with amazing experts and dive deep into health and wellness topics including fitness, mindset, food, travel, product reviews and strategies. 

They also offer a variety of community based programs and workshops focused on a mind, body and spirit approach to wellness and motivate others to take charge of their own health.

We talk about identifying "dis-ease" in the body. gut health, how each body is a unique science experiment and the life-changing attributes of yoga. I also reveal the unexpected (and much needed!) mental bonus I received from intermittent fasting. 

Feeling overwhelmed, anxious, angry, frustrated and hopeless by all that has been happening in the world? Then this episode is for you. I talk to Mindset Coach Lauren Balukjian about how to recognize, release and refocus these difficult emotions. I share specific tools on how to recognize when your carrying too much and how to process and release them in healthy ways in order to find a sense of purpose and peace. 

And this episode is a two for one! After I share my strategies with Lauren on her Live Coffee Break, I ask Lauren to share her own story of courage and transformation after an unexpected divorce with 4 kids under the age of 6. She shares her professional pivot (another one ladies!) from racing up the corporate ladder three rungs at a time to coaching women. Now Lauren teaches business owners and corporate executives how to set healthy boundaries and live a fulfilling life. As a former Ivy League athlete, Lauren realized in her corporate job that she was competing against the one person she would never beat: Herself.

As a certified coach, Lauren guides women back home to their truth through a unique process that overcomes self-sabotage and perfectionism. She founded and leads 7x7 Sisterhood - a global community for badass change-makers to gather and connect in a safe space that honors vulnerability and authenticity.

In this meditation I invite you into pure relaxation and beyond, to imagine and embody the renewal, growth and possibilities of the Spring season. To turn inward and feel your own layers peeling back and the armor melting away, revealing the parts of you that are finding their way into the light. To explore the places within that are calling to be set free - to reveal your truest expression and the next best version of your most authentic self. Offering the affirmation "I embrace this time of change and transformation, growth and renewal. I manifest and accept the gifts the Universe has for me. My body is healthy, my mind is clear and my heart is whole. I am ready, I am worthy, I am enough."

I lead virtual guided meditations 2x week for my law firm and I've gotten such great feedback, that I'm not only sharing this one with you, but I've decided to share one meditation per month going forward. Enjoy! 

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Anxiety, obesity, addiction, recovery, redemption and lot's of laughs are what's in store in Episode 4 with my special guest, Jim Trick.  

Morbidly obese at 430 pounds, Jim was trapped in a life, body, and mindset from which he thought there was no escape. Now over 220 pounds lighter, Jim has devoted his life to empowering individuals, companies, and organizations, to change what’s possible. This story is so inspiring, informative and introspective it will leave feeling like anything is possible. 

Through his extensive work with Banding People Together, Jim has impacted the way companies empower their employees to step into the best version of themselves when working with others. Jim speaks annually to graduating seniors at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music and tours as a professional, performing songwriter.

We’ve all heard people say “I know what to do, but I don’t do it.” Jim 's coaching eradicates that statement and provides a powerful, fresh, effective methodology for change. Because we all deserve to live a life we don’t want to escape from.

His methodology is Co-Active - trained by the prestigious Coach Training Institute, at which time he was certified by the International Coaching Federation.

❓ What does a life controlled by anxiety look like?

❓ How does someone end up there?

❓ What does freedom from anxiety look like?

In Episode 3, I explore what a life controlled by anxiety looks and feels like. I talk specifically about the cause, the triggers, the thoughts, and the mental and social constructs that perpetuated it. And then I talk about the flip side. What it looks and feels like to leave your comfort zone, to escape from your safe place which is now your prison and to dismantle the walls of your box and step into the life waiting for you on the other side.