Refreshed from a brief retreat and equipped with newfound wisdom, I've returned to our cherished space. Let's unwrap the essentials that are missing from our everyday learning—those crucial life hacks that warrant a spotlight. Discover with me how tweaking your caffeine routine can profoundly affect your sleep patterns and anxiety levels. Together, we'll confront the hidden impact of social media on our self-worth, and reveal the liberating effects of unplugging. And in a candid discussion, I'll stress the importance of educating on the proper disposal of feminine products—a subject vital for both personal hygiene and environmental consideration.
This episode isn't your average listen; it's an invitation to engage with the unexpected truths unearthed in therapy and beyond. As we unpack these topics, your involvement is more than just welcome—it's essential. Share your insights or propose new areas to explore. Looking ahead, we'll dive into the compelling world of trauma, unraveling its many layers and how it shapes our lives. Your voice is an integral part of this journey, and I can't wait to hear from you as we continue to enrich our dialogue and grow together.
This podcast is meant to be a resource for the general public, as well as fellow therapists/psychologists. It is NOT meant to replace the meaningful work of individual or family therapy. Please seek professional help in your area if you are struggling. #breakthestigma #makewordsmatter #thingsyoulearnintherapy #thingsyoulearnintherapypodcast
Hello listener, welcome back. I'm your host, dr Beth Tramell, and this is Things you Learned Therapy. Today I am back in the recording studio and am excited to be here. I had a couple of weeks off where I was just sort of trying to recalibrate and find some yeah, just find some space for some things, and I'm happy to be back. So I am hoping to have some new content for you each week and I already have some guests scheduled to do some recording. So I'm excited to be back and I hope that I have some good episodes for you coming up here.
Speaker 1:
As always, I'm looking for ideas. You have things you want to hear about, you want to learn about? Would love to hear from you. Just feel free to give me an email, beth, at makersmatterforgoodcom. And yeah, today I'm actually sharing a few things that I've recently shared in some sessions with folks that maybe think like, wow, you know, these are things that probably a lot of people need to know about and they might feel kind of random, because in some ways, they are kind of random, but I'm going to share just a few things, three things that I think we need to be a little more intentional about teaching explicitly to the people around us. So that might mean if you have teenage kids, it might mean if you are a mentor in some way, it might mean that if you are a therapist, you might have to have this conversation pretty explicitly, because what I've learned in the last couple of weeks is that somewhere along the way we are kind of forgetting to teach some of these things.
Speaker 1:
So the first thing is that caffeine intake can impact your sleeping habits. So I was kind of realizing that some folks may not realize that drinking caffeine late at night or even as late as sort of early afternoon may be disrupting your sleep. So if you are struggling with falling asleep, if you want to try to go to bed earlier, one of the first things that I talk with clients about is is to try to think about how much caffeine you're having in the afternoon or even after kind of late morning. So if you're a person who drinks soda in the afternoon, or maybe you are kind of a coffee drinker late into the morning and you're struggling with sleep, you might try to back up. When you have your last caffeinated soda, maybe switch to a non caffeinated soda. I've had some clients who have said certain medications may have some caffeine in it that will keep them awake. So you know, it may not feel like the simplest thing, or to some people it is a really simple shift to kind of reduce the amount of caffeine that they drink in exchange for maybe getting better sleep. So, first thing, pay attention to how much caffeine you're drinking. If you're also really anxious, if you're a person who has a high level of anxiety or worry, you might do the same thing. Realize that caffeine may be contributing to some of your anxiety, particularly in the afternoon or evening.
Speaker 1:
The second thing I want to talk about today is about If you're a person who is struggling with self-esteem, self-image. Maybe you got a little bit of FOMO, fear of missing out, maybe you are kind of not realizing it, but that sometimes you compare yourself to other people and then you realize, gosh, when I'm scrolling social media, I tend to feel like I need to do something else, or I feel like I want more, or maybe you go shopping because you want more after you've been scrolling social media. I want to say another kind of small intervention that you might try is to limit or even delete off of your device whatever those social media accounts are, for you know, give yourself a week or two. Say I'm going to commit two weeks to not being on social media, because I think sometimes we don't realize how easily our brain tricks us into feeling FOMO or feeling anxious, or feeling like we're not as good as other people because we're just scrolling. I think we always realize it.
Speaker 1:
Sometimes I think we just get off of social media and realize I'm kind of grumpy or I'm just feeling this urge to do something else, or maybe I'm feeling a little bit anxious. I think it's subtle and I think it can sneak up on us. And so if you're struggling with feelings of self-doubt self-worth, take a break. You know, take a break from social media and see how it goes. Like I said, give yourself a week or two and do a little fast of social media and pay attention to how you feel At the end of the day. Jot down some notes in the journal about how you feel after spending a little bit more time just refraining from allowing your brain to compare your life to the lives of other people or to the lives of other people that they share on social media. And that's really the thing, right. It's that our brains don't fill in the gaps of what other things are happening. We just see the pictures on social media and we think everybody else's life is great and mine is a struggle, and we don't realize that that's only a snapshot of what other people are managing in their own lives as well.
Speaker 1:
So the third thing I'm going to talk about, you know, is going to be a little bit random. Actually, it might be a lot random, but one thing that, especially if you're a woman or you identify as female and you go into female restrooms, the most common thing that you see in a female restroom is do not flush anything down the toilet. Do not flush feminine products down the toilet. It's literally in just about every bathroom stall I've ever been in my whole life. It strikes me that somewhere along the way, right, we are failing our young girls, we are failing our females, who are not learning explicitly what to do with those feminine products. And so, folks, here we are.
Speaker 1:
This is something you learn in therapy, because you know that's the title of the podcast things you learn in therapy. We've got to teach our girls what to do with those things. And if you're listening and you're like, yeah, I flushed them down the toilet, I am here to ask you to stop that For the sake of the plumbing. I was at an organization not too long ago and they said that they are having to spend tens of thousands of dollars on plumbing repairs because of things that are being flushed down the toilet. So instead of putting them in the toilet, there's a trash can in every stall. That's where they go. I know it's just. We've got to teach this explicitly and again, I'm sharing this example because one I think it's important. Clearly it's important. Our plumbing really is is in need of an intervention.
Speaker 1:
But I think also there are many things that we just think, oh gosh, I don't wanna talk about those things, or I'm uncomfortable talking about menstrual cycles or sexual intimacy or gender identity, and I think we're that which we're afraid to talk about. Our young people are filling in the gaps by learning it on other and other avenues right. So they're learning from their friends, who also are not experts. So they're learning from social media platforms, or they're learning from searching it up, and who knows what's coming up right. And so today I am challenging all of us to step outside of our comfort zone and have that conversation explicitly.
Speaker 1:
You might start the conversation by saying hey, you know what I heard on this podcast that in toilet stalls this is one thing that it always says right, if you're like I'm kind of uncomfortable to bring up a menstrual cycle with my teenage daughter, that's how you can bring it up. Say, hey, I heard about this and I just wanna make sure that you know. This is what we do with that. This is what we do. We wrap it in toilet tissue, we put it in the trash. Can? This conversation ain't gotta be long, friends, it just has to happen. So if you have access to it a teenage girl or a young adult female and you feel like you can have this conversation, I'd encourage you to do it.
Speaker 1:
Anyway, this is the most random episode you might ever heard on Things you Learned Therapy and I'm glad you are here for the end of it. I look forward to seeing you or hearing from you. If you have thoughts or feedback and, again, if you have ideas for topics, we'd love to hear from you. We're gonna talk about trauma again. We're gonna talk more about additional child topics coming up, and until next week, I hope y'all stay safe and stay well.