The anxious type’s guide to 2020
Stay-at-home Stalwarts! Graham here.
Remember how we made a spiffy, award-winning podcast with the ABC a couple years back?
No Feeling Is Final was our mental health opus. A deeply personal memoir about Honor’s experiences of big, scary feelings.
Well I’ve just teamed up with the same crack team at the ABC to make a special one-off episode about the 'pandemic + big feels' equation.
It’ll air first as part of the ABC’s flagship mental health show, All In The Mind, then as a special ep in the No Feeling feed.
As Honor put it, in No Feeling I was cast as the calm and presumably not-crazy boyfriend (HA!). This was our chance to give my own neuroses the full airing they deserve, on the national broadcaster.
(Life goals, people.)
One small wrinkle though... I had no idea if I could actually do it
When Joel Werner - Executive Producer of No Feeling Is Final - first asked me to make this episode with him, my first thought was a familiar one:
I’m going to fuck this up aren’t I?
Because here’s the thing. Sure, I co-wrote No Feeling Is Final, but by any objective measure, Honor was the real podcaster in our household.
Plus, the last time I appeared on All In The Mind, I did the interview, then proceeded to spend the next few days in a perfectionist shame spiral, convinced I had totally bombed it.
Back then, all I had to do was rock up for an interview. This time, I was going to write and host the whole show myself. Not to mention record it from home, since the ABC studios in Melbourne were no longer open.
GOOD GOD.
So on that first video call with Joel, he asked if I was keen, and I smiled and nodded while having absolutely no idea if I could actually pull this off.
Flow state (by way of panic)
Joel asked for a half-page outline of what the episode might look like. So I proceeded to instead send him a full 12-page script.
As soon as I got off the call with him, I had sat down with my notepad and written out what more or less ended up being the full episode.
I was so filled with doubt about whether or not I could pull this off, this was the only way I could think of to be sure either way.
It's like I achieved a kind of flow state, by way of panicky self-doubt. And somehow, that worked?
(I should start a productivity blog. Panic Your Way to Success.)
We made a really cool little episode. I'm really proud of it (and Joel is too).
Life imitating podcast
I wrote and recorded the ep just as our home town, Melbourne, went back into lockdown for the rest of July and August. So what started as an archival project - hey remember that weird time lol? - became more of a letter to myself.
Hey that weird time you’re about to go through again? Remember you got through it once, and here’s how you did it…
As many of us face the daunting prospect of another six weeks of lockdown, I hope you find it useful to hear from a few other sensitive cats navigating the weirdness of life right now. Thanks to Big Feels Clubbers Patrick, Amie and Gareth who helped contribute to the show by sharing what they've been going through themselves.
How to listen
It’s up now in the All In The Mind podcast feed. Search ‘all in the mind’ in your podcast player, or click here to launch in Apple podcasts.
If you’re not a regular podcast listener, you can still listen! Click here to launch the episode right here in your browser.
It’ll also turn up in the No Feeling Is Final feed sometime later this month, along with a special intro from Honor.
I’d love to know what you think once you've had a listen. Hit reply to this email to tell me.
Kinder Mind is back!
We’re bringing back Kinder Mind - our guided audio course to help calm your inner critic.
We first developed this course last year, after spending more than 100 hours on the phone with Big Feels Clubbers across the globe.
The number one thing we heard from you?
‘I know what I’m supposed to be doing to look after my mental health. But I can’t bring myself to do it (and that makes me feel like even more of a failure.)’
If you’re anything like me, the events of the last few months have only turned the volume up on that particularly big feels dilemma. So we figured, time to run Kinder Mind again...
The course is simple. Small self-kindness exercises, made by people who’ve tried and failed all the usual self-care / gratitude / wellness stuff washing through your Instagram feed.
Plus guided audio to help you actually do them. Because when your mind’s a scary place, you shouldn’t have to go there alone.
Grab your spot (and your discount)
The course will run over three weeks in August, and we’ll open up sign-ups shortly. It's pretty much the same as the last time we ran it, with a few improvements based on the feedback we got.
Last time we ran Kinder Mind, we sold out all 100 spots in less than an hour. We opened up more spots and sold all 300 that same day.
So to make sure you get a spot this time, click the big pink button below to have more info and the sign up link sent straight to your inbox, as soon as the course opens. For your trouble you’ll also get a 50% off discount code, just for Big Feels Clubbers.
Card-carrying members - you’ll get Kinder Mind for free. Watch out for a Patreon update from us soon with instructions on how to access your special reserved spots.
And if this is something you need in your life right now, but money’s a barrier, hit reply to this email and I will hook you up, no questions asked.
Finally, thanks to Victoria’s DHHS, we also have a small amount of funding to cover any Victorians working in mental health or addictions. Hit reply and I’ll let you know how you can sign up for free.
