130. Transform Anxiety into Strength: Simple Tips for Mind, Body, and Spirit

Welcome to Mind Power Meets Mystic. The show where practical mind power and mystical wisdom collide with humor and wild curiosity. Yeah,

we're not here to play it safe. I'm Cinthia Varkevisser, your resident spiritual shit disturber. I stir things up with mystic power and bold action.

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d these days in the spring of: 2025

think this is fantastic. I didn't talk to you about this beforehand, but I did get a there's a group text going around because of the anxiety that's that's been happening and there are, and it's a group of women, they're trying to manage anxiety for each other, but you can tell that it's not really getting down to that space, because, right? Because it's an anxious person trying to help an anxious person. So I'm glad you brought this up, and

I think, I think a lot of people are just anxious right now and and I don't think that makes you unusual or a bad person or anything like that. I can easily see where people who have probably never had trouble managing their worries, their mindset, their concerns, running into trouble now, because there's just from my vantage point, much more uncertainty in the world than than most of most of us Americans have have lived through. So we thought we would take a very simple approach to organizing our tips and tricks for managing anxiety in highly uncertain times, and focus first on a few tips for the body, and then some tips for the mind, and then some tips for the spirit. So Cinthia, why don't you kick us off with our first what to do in terms of the body and managing anxiety?

Well, anxiety, like other things, is a part of being stuck. And so what's a good thing to do when you're stuck is go into movement, and movement can be pretty much anything. I love music, so I love to dance, and I don't dance very well, so I dance like a little cuckoo banana baby and, and that makes me laugh, and, and that is, and that's the thing, it takes you out of that anxiety of the future, of of the unknown, of not being in control, and and then bringing you present into really focusing on what's happening Here now, and really paying attention, it also is just so good in movement, how it just shifts you up physically. You know that you feel better it. You know it takes energy to make energy type of thing, and so movement is important. And it does like again, it does not have to be dancing. Dancing works, gymnastics. I do martial arts. You can walk. You can walk and do floppy bird wings. You can be you can be silly. You can skip. You can jump rope. Any kind of physical activity is welcome. So any kind will help

you connect to literally, the cells, the tissues, your arms, your legs, all of these things are very, very helpful for realizing that, you know what, you got a body, you got to take care of it, and you especially got to take care of it in times where where stress is high, right? The other thing you just mentioned that wasn't on our little list, but I think deserve. A call out is moving and dancing until you laugh. Laughter is huge, and so if part of what would help you get through this difficulty in time, think about things that will make you laugh, laughing not just because it lifts the spirit, but it also, actually they've done studies on laughing, and that the process of shaking, shaking your your chest around, and the breathing and all of this is really very, very positive. The body tip I wanted to offer before I thought of the great one of laughter. Here we go. Laughing is diet. And diet is something that, you know, we we often want to kind of let go of and forget about, and it's like, oh god, I've had a bad day. I want chocolate cake or a glass of wine. Well, I'm not saying that you can't have chocolate cake or a glass of wine. That's really up to you, but it is very easy for people to fall into bad habits, start feeling a little low, start being short on time you're stopping to pick up some takeout, it's just not good, wholesome food that will nourish you and provide your body with what you need when you're going through times of stress. What do you need in times of stress? You need nourishing food, lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, unprocessed foods. It's not necessarily that exciting, but it is essential. And if you're if you're serious about wanting to manage anxiety, you got to be serious about making sure that your diet, for the most part, is in good order. Can

I add to that for just one moment, which is, yes, we want to have our diet, you know, clean and and and natural and water, so drink that water, and I'll actually talk about it later. I'll circle back around to water and food in another part of our episode.

Yeah, so I think that's good. I think that wraps up the body. Yeah. You have been listening to Mind Power Meets Mystic with me. Michelle Walters and my co host, Cinthia Varkevisser, we want to tell you about a special gig the two of us have going on. It's called mind power meets mystic the project, and it starts off on a zoom call with Cynthia. Cynthia tell everybody what they can expect. So

for the first half of our session, you will be with me, and Michelle will be very quietly in the background preparing to do her work. What we will do is that we will talk about the one thing that you either want to amp up or that you want to release, and through the intuitive work, I help you get boil it down to its essence, and then give you an RX of three practical things to do to set you on your way. And then Michelle magically appears. What is it that you do that? Michelle,

I have been listening in but not participating in the first half of the call. I have an excellent idea of what Cinthia means when she says something, and I have an excellent idea of quickly getting to what my client is all about and his or her individual strengths. I turn all of this into a 20 to 30 minute hypnosis session on the second half of the call, which, when we're done, I strip off and send you as an mp three that you can listen to over and over again. You also will have Cinthia's three point recommendations and the recording of the Zoom call. It is a fantastic one hour offering a great gift for yourself or for someone you don't know what to get such insights, and we've gotten such great reviews. So if you're interested, send me or Cinthia an email. You'll find our contact information in the show notes, and we'll tell you how to get started. Let's move on to talking about, what can you do to manage anxiety when it comes to your mind? Cinthia, do you have a tip?

Yes, um, for the mind. Let's see, for the mind, mine is about, oh, so what do we do? Is what's making us anxious is actually the news, right? It's about the news. It's the things that we can't control, not only in our immediate area, but beyond. So there are so many things going on, and it's very hard to to stay centered. And I was just talking to Michelle that before the episode that I got caught down going down a rabbit hole with politics, and I'm feeling a little bit funky, which is crazy for me, because I have. Very specific energy level, and I haven't been below this level in a long time. So let's do, let's do a little bit of a news detox, right? And there's so many things that we can do instead of the news. And my favorite, my two favorite things to do is to read a book, right? And that includes, you know, audio books, like audio books count and and the other side, because words are so important to me, is journaling. And the thing that I like about journaling is you can write about anything that's bothering you, and it always ends up coming back to you specifically, so we can talk about the world, we can talk about whatever. And then the journaling always comes back to something else. And it's that something else that's really interesting, and it brings you back to the present, because now you're talking about you, and I love that. So Michelle, this is where you are The aficionado, so take it away, and let's talk about, well, you know, mind power, jumping, junkie, let's

so I'm a big fan of reading too. Reading both like self help, self growth, kind of books. I love books like that. And I also find reading fiction is really good when you know the goal is to just kind of get your mind off of all this news and stuff that's really outside your influence or your control. Read a book, let yourself escape into that reality for a period of time. It is healthy to do so. I loved your idea about journaling, and I want to say that there's also something beneficial about writing letters to people. And I'm saying like writing letters to people that you're not planning to send. So these could be letters to people that you're mad at. They could be letters to old friends you haven't spoken to. They could be letters to people who maybe deceased or moved away, and there's something left over for you to say, right? I'm a big fan for writing letters, writing letters that don't make the other person wrong, but they allow me to put my voice in the space of how I'm feeling or thinking or acting or being about a particular topic, and I find that to be really, really helpful. I'm also a huge fan of the news diet. I declared earlier this year I was going to put myself on a news diet, and I've had to kind of take a look at that and make some changes. And take a look at that, make some changes, like constantly, sort of trying to experiment on how to make my news diet work for me, because it's a little hard to put yourself on a news diet. But as I have reflected upon it and come to realize, like, what happens if I don't read the headlines for a day? Not much. Maybe somebody will say something to me about something that happened that I didn't know about. Maybe I come across as maybe a little less clued in than somebody who's watching the news 24/7, but I can tell you, my blood pressure is happier I I'm not reading the news. And another thing about the news, and particularly about the news these days, is a lot of it is what my mother would call the maybe news. The maybe news is that this happened now, maybe that will happen and be on the lookout for how much of the news is actually maybe news right now, because is there any point in getting your panties in a gnat about maybe news? No, I would say no for the most part. It's no, and that doesn't mean that you shouldn't, you know, think about your future and make good decisions, manage risks and all that kind of stuff, but it is probably not all that great for your mental well being to spend a whole lot of time freaking out about maybe news.

I agree. I agree. I mean, we talk about that in in our personal lives, right? That when you're in a relationship that you don't want to go to the maybe, and so it's just it applies, just on a different level. You were going to say,

I was going to say. The other thing is to watch social media. I mean, watch how much time you're spending on social media and what you're consuming on social media. In the last few days, I've found several posts that I I'm either confident weren't true, or I'm pretty confident weren't true that people who I know, like and trust, shared not because they thought they were they thought they were true too. There's a lot of there's a lot of bad information going around, and so you have to do your due diligence before. You share something before you assume something to be true or accurate. It's I think this is an area that's going to get harder and harder and more and more complicated as as time goes by, discerning what is, what is real and what is not right. Right? I'm also a fan of hypnosis. Hypnosis is a great way for taking control of your mind. I've got all kinds of podcasts about it. I've got products for it. I've got free classes I do once a month for it. But if you haven't tried hypnosis, or you're curious about how hypnosis might be able to help you, you know, shut out some of that external noise and really focus on the things that are good for you. I I would welcome having more and more of those conversations. You can always book a call with me on my website. What else you got?

You just reminded me about meditation, and we talked about it. Now sudden I was like, what I forgot about meditation. Meditation is awesome. I love meditation. What it does is it takes all that energy that's way out there, which is your energy, and it brings it back in to where, where it's meant to be, you know, on you, for you. And I have a couple of meditations that actually relate to the body. I'm not going to go through it. But here's the deal. Um, my martial art likes having hot water during very, very challenging times, and we actually use it as a meditation. So it's it's good for your body, but you can feel the heat of the cup on your lip. You can feel the heat of it on your tongue. You can feel the heat as it as you swallow it, and it goes down your throat, and you follow that along, and it brings you back down to the place where you want to be, which is in your body and and centered. So there's a body, here's a body thing that goes with meditation, and the other is that there's a food meditation. And Michelle has said in the past, like, Hey, do a drive by on your food. Check it out really. You know, enjoy your food. And I say, put yourself on a timer. And instead of being like the way that we grew up, which is, hurry, hurry, rush, rush, because there's something going on, spread it out. See if you can take 30 minutes to eat an orange, and that is from the moment you hold on to the orange orange until your very last bite, which means, guess what? You got to smell it. You need to peel it. You need to savor everything about it. And that also brings you back, and it also helps you enjoy what it is that you're that you're eating. So those are my meditation tips. And yeah, meditations, oh yeah, there's walking meditations. You meditate anywhere so, so yes, thank you, Michelle.

All right, on to spirit. Let's do it. So what would you recommend people could do to help manage their anxiety that would fall into the category of spirit. I mean, other than meditation, which we just talked about, I know

I love meditation, so this is a little bit, this is a little bit different. I'm gonna offer, um, two things. The first one is, shake yourself up a little bit like, you know, get out of your own shit. Like, stop there's actually an SNL thing about, you know, stop it, just stop it, which cracks me up.

I went to an event A few weeks ago and somebody passed out, like one of the give the giveaway things was this little button that says, Stop it, stop it, stop it. Great. Giveaway

somewhere. Button. But you know what it says, bitch.

Good for you. It's awesome. Very

push the bitch button. All right. Off you go. Cinthia,

so, so Shake yourself up. And you know that doesn't mean go skydiving or anything like that. You can do anything to shake yourself up, just a little bit. So the one that I was going to to recommend, because nobody does this is to wash your dishes by hand, blindfolded. Yeah, I thought you'd like that. Michelle, so here's the deal. This came from my martial arts. And no, we are not a cult. This is what this does, is it helps you realize that your eyes are not as important as you think, and so, of course, you separate your dishes out so that you don't hurt yourself. It's this is not a time to, like, figure out where your Ginsu knife is, your ginseu knife. So it's not the time to find out where your knives, and you know, have nothing but glass in the sink. But what it does is, again. It brings you back to your five senses, and it helps you like touch and and see and understand. And now, if you have someone with you, here's the funny thing. You do have the dishes, neither one of you do the knives, and then you have the other person just witness you, because witnessing is a really, really hard thing to do, but what it does is it helps you look at someone go through their own process, and you get to be in the uncomfortableness. So I know that this is really long, Michelle, I'm super sorry. I didn't have any idea you

were going here, so I

didn't either, but I you know. But I was like, Oh, you were talking about so, um. So here's the thing, there are so many ways to be active in a way to shake yourself up that you can do, that you can, you know, do house, do your house, cleaning naked. You know, these are things that don't take a lot. They don't take a lot, but it is, it is a way of shocking you back into something that helps you become right sized, and the rest of your thoughts. And then my favorite thing is to get a note. Get to know your neighbors. Go talk to a neighbor that you don't talk to. Say hello to people as you're going for a walk in the neighborhood. Well, shit, first go to for a walk in the neighborhood, and then make sure you say hi to people and see if you can make conversation. There are people out there again, that, you know, they're feeling the same way, and just a little bit of connectedness, a little bit of kindness, a little bit of acknowledgement, really can shift up, you know, their day as well as yours. So I'm off my I'm off my soapbox. Alright,

well, what I'm going to throw in for this one is go back to the hobbies that you have that soothe your soul. We, almost all of us, have a hobby that soothes our soul. And if you don't have one, you probably ought to look at picking one up, whether that's gardening or knitting or walking or pickleball, like whatever, whatever it is, do something that you know gets your mind off of, off of the uncertainty and into a zone where you can be in a state of flow and just just be, because one of the things that's we, we've all come to live in This super high vibration, 24/7, news cycle. Everything's going on all the time. There's buzzers, there's screens, there's coffees being delivered, there's, you know, it's constant, and it's essential that we find time to just pull out of all of that noise and be in a place where you have control over what you're doing. It's simple. It's easy. And I'm not recommending TV. I'm like recommending that you do something where you're using your hands, you're using your voice, you're using your body like you're you're doing something that is active and feels good to you. I

love it. I love it. Mean, when's the last time you colored or done.to.oh

it's been a while, although I went to a meeting the other day and we did, we did crosswords. Crosswords are awesome. Passwords were awesome. We almost won.

I love that.

Anything about competition in

competitive crosswords? Yeah, I'm all about it. Though I'm all about it. The other thing is that that's just, you know, there are so many things that you can call a spiritual practice, so long as your heart is in it and you're sincere, it's a spiritual practice. So get into your spiritual practice. For some people, that is gardening, but it can be, it could be anything, and, yeah, and that's not

time. Well, I do we have anything else we want to add in there. I think we've done a great job of covering lots of things that can help people manage this anxiety happening in these uncertain times.

I actually do have one thing, which is this, is with everything that's going on, we have something coming up that that dovetails beautifully into this. And I'm all about it. I'm super excited to work with you. I'm super excited to talk about this, and it's drop a fear, make a decision.

Yep, coming up, yep, April, we launched

in San Francisco. Look forward to everyone being there. And what we'll do is that we're going to take these suggestions and and do a deeper dive, right? Michelle, yeah, but

nobody has to wash dishes blindfolded. I just, was just a

suggestion. Is just a or, or, do you have another day? But

we're not doing that at drop of fear, make a decision. I got other stuff in mind. Yeah, I figured you did a drop of fear. Make a decision. Is going to be great. Cinthia and I are working together on the agenda. It's an afternoon program on. On Saturday, April 26 in San Francisco, we will have all the details in the show notes and on our websites. And if you have any questions about it, please listen to either our previous podcast, because we did a whole podcast about it last week, or give us a hit us up for for your questions, we'd love to know what you'd like to cover and tell you what the agenda will

be. Sounds good? I'm excited. All right, Michelle. All right,

that's another episode of Mind Power Meets Mystic. Thanks for joining us this week and signing out. Bye.