Hello and welcome to episode 208 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, you'll discover more about an exciting new project I've been working on - The Mindful Kind Book Launch Party! Head over to rachaelkable.com/podcast/208 to find out more and secure your spot in this exclusive online party today!

You'll also hear 3 of my favourite key takeaways from The Mindful Kind book.

Key Takeaway 1: Your mindfulness practice doesn't need to be perfect. You can approach it with an attitude of curiosity, fun and openness.

Key Takeaway 2: Mindfulness can help you develop and strengthen your relationships with other people. This is perhaps the most important benefit I've experienced from my mindfulness practice so far!

Key Takeaway 3: Self-care isn't selfish or lazy - it's an important responsibility that involves genuinely nourishing your needs and wellbeing. 

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 207 of The Mindful Kind podcast.

In this episode, you'll learn all about values and why it's important to know your own values so you can incorporate them into your life. 

• Values are key concepts that feel important to you, such as creativity, adventure, achievement and compassion.
• Find a list of values online and go through the list. Choose your top 5-10 values and start to think about how much (or little) you incorporate those values into your life.
• Try setting goals based on your most important values.
• Spend more time with people who have similar values to you.

Thank you so much to Blinkist for supporting The Mindful Kind podcast. Head to blinkist.com/themindfulkind to receive a 7-day free trial and be sure to check out The Desire Map by Danielle Laporte and The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks to get inspired and excited about the New Year!

Thank you for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind.

Hello and welcome to episode 206 of The Mindful Kind podcast.

Are you ready to have a great start to the New Year? 

In this episode, you'll discover 4 powerful ways you can prepare for the New Year, including:

• Let go and move forward from old pain
• Reflect on the year that's gone by (don't forget to grab your free copy of my workbook: Appreciate and Reflect on the Year That's Gone By)
• Create a group of balanced and realistic goals
• Start working on your goals before the New Year actually starts

Here are the resources mentioned in this episode:

Coping with Christmas, episode 155 of The Mindful Kind podcast

6 Steps to Overcome Perfectionism, episode 204 of The Mindful Kind podcast

Curation Journal by Saint Belford

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind.

Hello and welcome to episode 205 of The Mindful Kind podcast.

In this episode, I've answered a listener's question about how to move forward from a break-up (without destroying the chance to develop a friendship) and how comparison can interfere with moving on. 

The two powerful tips for moving forward gracefully include:

Tip 1: Focus on the values that are important to you (and pause before you react!)

Tip 2: Do things that bring joy and purpose into your life (and also take time to be self-compassionate with vulnerable emotions)

You can get your copy of the Self-Compassion Meditation Album here: https://www.rachaelkable.com/selfcompassion-album

And don't forget to check out episode 44 of The Mindful Kind for self-care tips to help you get through a break-up and episode 45 to help you deal with comparison. 

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind.

Hello and welcome to episode 204 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, I'll be sharing 6 steps to help you overcome perfectionism!

Here are the resources mentioned in the episode:

• Article: How Perfectionism Perpetuates Stress (and what to do about it)
• Subscribe to my newsletter: https://www.rachaelkable.com/subscribe
• Follow me on Instagram: @rachaelkable
• Blog: https://www.rachaelkable.com/blog

The 6 steps to overcoming perfectionism include:

Step 1: Recognise perfectionism

Step 2: Be self-compassionate (check out episode 153 of The Mindful Kind for more tips on this!)

Step 3: Re-frame perfectionistic thoughts

Step 4: Change perfectionistic behaviours

Step 5: Practise imperfection

Step 6: Reward yourself whenever you take a step towards overcoming perfectionism

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 203 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, you'll learn all about self-fulfilling prophecies, including:

• what a self-fulfilling prophecy is (including two examples from my own life)
• how self-fulfilling prophecies can stop you from achieving great things
• and, how self-fulfilling prophecies can actually help you achieve great things

Thank you so much for Blinkist for supporting this episode of The Mindful Kind podcast. Head over to www.blinkist.com/themindfulkind to start your free 7-day trial.

I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 202 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, you'll hear about my own experiences with learning how to appreciate the little things in life. Before practising mindfulness, I often felt caught up in my thoughts and distracted from the present moment. Over time, mindfulness has taught me so much about noticing and appreciating little moments.

Here are 5 simple ways you can appreciate some small, yet meaningful, moments in your everyday life. 

1: Notice the warmth of the water when you take a shower

2: Play your favourite song and listen to it like you're hearing it for the last time and you want to remember everything about it

3: Tune in to your sense of smell when you're drinking a hot drink

4: Spend time consciously appreciating nature

5: Find your own favourite mindful moments in your everyday life

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 201 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, you'll discover why it's important to write about your dream life so you can set meaningful, positive and energising goals. 

Head over to www.rachaelkable.com/podcast/201 to grab a free copy of my workbook containing 19 journaling prompts to help you create your dream life! 

In this episode, you'll learn about 5 of my favourite "dream life" journaling prompts, including:

1: What does your ideal day look like?

2: What is one habit you'd like to start?

3: How could you change one relationship in your life for the better?

4: What is holding you back from living your dream life?

5: You feel happiest about yourself when...

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind.

Hello and welcome to this special celebration episode of The Mindful Kind podcast! 

Four years ago, I started this beautiful podcasting project and I'm so excited to be celebrating episode 200 with all of my wonderful listeners.

In this episode, you'll hear about some of my favourite episodes and what was happening behind-the-scenes. You'll also discover some of my community's favourite episodes and the top tips from those episodes.

Plus, you'll hear our brand new introduction! Thank you so much to my wonderful partner, Dec, for his hard work on the previous introduction we created four years ago and this beautiful new version.

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 199 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

We're often taught to fear failure, which can result in feelings of frustration, shame, anger, guilt and disappointment. While experiencing failure isn't usually the most enjoyable thing in the world, there are some real upsides to it! 

In this episode, you'll discover why I think failure is really important and three tips to help you find the positive sides to failures and mistakes. 

Tip 1: Look for the lesson in every single failure. Pretend you have your own podcast in which you share failures and what you learned from them in order to help other people!

Tip 2: Talk about the failure in an honest and light-hearted way. 

Tip 3: Remember that everyone fails. Some of the most influential people in the world have failed in spectacular ways and used those failures as motivation to grow. 

Thank you so much for Blinkist for supporting this episode of The Mindful Kind podcast. Head over to www.blinkist.com/themindfulkind to start your free 7-day trial and be sure to check out How to Fail by Elizabeth Day and The Gift of Failure by Jessica Lahey.

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind.  

Hello and welcome to episode 198 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, you'll learn about being vulnerable and going outside your comfort zone, developing new friendships, setting helpful boundaries and nurturing the friendships which are most important to you. 

Here are the tips covered in this episode:

• Tip 1 is to meet new people by going out of your comfort zone and doing things where you'll meet like-minded people
• Tip 2 is to let go of friendships that don't resonate with you or set boundaries so you can spend time with people who appreciate you
• Tip 3 is to nurture the friendships which are important to you
• Tip 4 is to regularly engage in mindful conversations.

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 197 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, you'll hear all about the concept of love languages, developed by Dr Gary Chapman. 

You'll find out more about each love language, including physical touch, quality time, acts of service, gift giving and words of affirmation (plus, you'll discover my own love language!). 

I've also answered some important questions about love languages, including:

• Can you have more than one love language?
• What happens if your partner has a different love language from you?
• How can you get better at using love languages to your advantage?

Thank you so much to Blinkist for supporting this episode of The Mindful Kind podcast. Blinkist is a brilliant app which shares the key highlights from thousands of non-fiction books so you can read them (or listen to them) in around 15 minutes!

Head to www.blinkist.com/themindfulkind for a free 7-Day trial. Be sure to check out The 5 Love Languages by Dr Gary Chapman, The Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod and Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman. 

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind.

Hello and welcome to episode 196 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

I recently received an insightful email from the lovely Lauren, who was curious to know my thoughts on self-care versus making excuses. 

In this episode, you'll discover three helpful ideas for engaging in self-care in meaningful and effective ways - without self-sabotage or using self-care as an excuse.

• Decide what self-care really means to you and use this to navigate your self-care practices
• Become more aware of all-or-nothing cognitive distortions (which you can learn more about on episode 182 of The Mindful Kind podcast called Cognitive Distortions)
• Remember that sometimes, self-care can actually be difficult. It can involve choosing to do something good for yourself (or your future self) even when you may not necessarily feel like it. You can learn more about this in my book, The Mindful Kind: https://www.rachaelkable.com/themindfulkindbook

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 195 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, you'll learn more about how to embrace uncertainty and feel less overwhelmed by it. 

You'll hear about an interesting study that found people tend to feel more stressed by uncertainty than when they know something bad will happen. You can learn more about this study here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2016/mar/uncertainty-can-cause-more-stress-inevitable-pain

In this episode, you'll discover 3 tips which can help you cope with uncertainty, including:

Tip 1: Change your perception of uncertainty 

Tip 2: Trust yourself that you can handle any outcome

Tip 3: Be self-compassionate. You can learn more about this in episode 153 of The Mindful Kind podcast.

Thank you so much to Blinkist for supporting this episode of The Mindful Kind podcast. Blinkist is a brilliant app which shares the key highlights from thousands of non-fiction books so you can read them (or listen to them) in around 15 minutes!

Head to www.blinkist.com/themindfulkind for a free 7-Day trial. Be sure to check out Uncertainty by Jonathan Fields and Rising Strong by Brene Brown to learn even more about coping with uncertainty. 

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind.

Hello and welcome to episode 194 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, you'll hear some interesting statistics about digital use, why it's important to take digital detoxes and the benefits of taking a break from digital devices, including better productivity, more mindful mornings, stronger connections with people and less stress. 

You'll also hear about 4 simple tips to help you implement your own digital detoxes, including:

• Tip 1: Keep your phone out of arm's reach
• Tip 2: Give yourself a time limit for social media and digital use
• Tip 3: Turn off as many phone notifications as possible
• Tip 4: Don't check your phone any time when you're in bed

If you would like to learn more about mindful social media use, be sure to check out chapters 20 and 21 of my book, The Mindful Kind: https://www.rachaelkable.com/themindfulkindbook

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 193 of The Mindful Kind podcast!

In this episode, I've shared some interesting research and helpful information about habit formation from an awesome book I found on Blinkist called The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. 

You'll learn about chunking, which is an automatic process that helps your brain save energy and forms the basis of habit formation. 

You'll also hear about the three-part loop which makes up a habit, including a cue, a routine and a reward. 

I've shared some of my own experiences with habits and how understanding habits has helped me change unhelpful habits and stick with positive habits!

Thank you to Blinkist for supporting this episode of The Mindful Kind podcast. Blinkist is a brilliant app which shares the key highlights from thousands of non-fiction books so you can read them (or listen to them) in around 15 minutes! Head to www.blinkist.com/themindfulkind to get a free 7-Day trial.

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 192 of The Mindful Kind podcast about relaxation strategies for stress. 

This is the third and final episode of the relaxation mini-series! Be sure to check out episodes 190 and 191 to find out more about the benefits of relaxation and relaxing types of meditation. 

In this episode, you'll hear about 3 relaxation strategies for stress, including:

• Mindfully tuning in to one of your senses
• Using the 4-7-8 breathing technique
• Writing in a journal.

Here are some journaling prompts you can try if you're feeling stuck:

• What are some of the thoughts running through my mind at the moment?
• How am I feeling right now?
• How can I look after myself?
• What are the most important things I need to focus on?
• Who can I turn to for support?
• What can I learn from this situation?

Be sure to check out my 7-Day Relaxation Challenge and the Relaxation Meditation Album here: www.rachaelkable.com/192

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind.

Hello and welcome to episode 191 of The Mindful Kind podcast and the second episode of the relaxation mini-series!

In this episode, I've shared some of my initial struggles with meditation and how meditation has gradually become one of my favourite activities for intentional and meaningful relaxation. 

Three types of relaxing meditations I talk about in this episode include:

• Relaxing with each exhale
• Progressive muscle relaxation
• Visualisation

If you're looking for a beautiful relaxation resource where I guide you through relaxing meditations step-by-step, be sure to check out my new Relaxation Meditation Album here: https://www.rachaelkable.com/relaxation-album

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 190 of The Mindful Kind podcast and the first episode of the relaxation mini-series!

I'm so excited to let you know about the brand new free relaxation challenge I've created which you can sign up for here: https://www.rachaelkable.com/podcast/190

You'll receive a beautiful PDF workbook, email support from me for the duration of the challenge and a deep breathing video class at the end of the challenge!

In this episode, I've shared three soothing and relaxing activities, including:

• Lying on your bed with your legs up the wall and listening to meditation music
• Taking a bath with soothing aromas
• Doing something creative and fun

I've also talked about why mindfulness is so important during relaxation practices and you can also learn more about that in my book, The Mindful Kind: https://www.rachaelkable.com/themindfulkindbook

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 189 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, I'm sharing my thoughts on a struggle I used to experience regularly, which I call the "Happy Later Fantasy". 

When I was indulging the "Happy Later Fantasy" I was escaping my reality (because I felt like it wasn't good enough) to picture my "perfect future" and all the happiness I would feel one day. 

The problems with doing this on a regular basis?

1. I was practicing the opposite of gratitude by focusing on all the things I didn't like in my life
2. I wasn't taking responsibility for finding happiness in my daily life - I was just waiting for it to magically appear once I achieved certain things.

Here are 3 tips to stop indulging in the "Happy Later Fantasy":

• Be more mindful and appreciate the meaningful moments in your daily life
• Deliberately create happiness by engaging in hobbies and self-care, spending time with loved ones and exercising regularly 
• Let go of pressuring yourself to have a "perfect" future

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind.

Hello and welcome to episode 188 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, I've taken some time to think about what I'd like to achieve by the end of the year. I set goals based on different life categories and I'd love to invite you to do the same!

Those goal setting categories include:

• Self-care
• Health
• Relationships
• Work
• Fun

Don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter at www.rachaelkable.com/subscribe and head over to www.rachaelkable.com/podcast/188 to grab a free copy of my Celebrating Your Goals workbook. 

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Welcome to episode 187 of The Mindful Kind podcast!

In this episode, I'll be sharing some of my own experiences with the benefits of minimalism, including:

• valuing things (like relationships and meaningful work) other than material things (I also mention a book called Lost Connections by Johann Hari and some interesting research starting at Chapter 8)
• more time
• more financial freedom
• less time spent cleaning and organising
• less overwhelm

Don't forget to head over to my blog to also discover 8 minimalism hacks: https://www.rachaelkable.com/blog/minimalism-benefits-and-hacks

I'd also like to say a huge thank you to all my listeners - The Mindful Kind just reach 4 million downloads! I'm completely blown away:) 

Thank you and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 186 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, I'm really excited to be talking about what emotional intelligence is and some simple tips to cultivate it. 

The tips include:

• Being mindful of your emotions
• Learning about common cognitive distortions and how they can influence your emotions
• Sharing about your emotions and listening to other people talk about their emotions

In the episode, I mention a few different resources you can explore:) Here are the links:

5 Soothing Mindfulness Techniques for Winter

Subscribe to my newsletter

Episode 182 and 183 of The Mindful Kind podcast about cognitive distortions

Episode 24 of The Mindful Kind podcast about being a mindful listener

Episode 105 of The Mindful Kind podcast about simple ways to practise communication

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 185 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

In this episode, I've explored the concept of Mudita (vicarious joy), including what it is, why it's important and how I'll be cultivating Mudita in my own life.

Here are the ways I'll be cultivating Mudita:

• By asking my friends and family about the joyful experiences in their lives
• By feeling happy for people's "highlight reels" on Instagram
• When feelings of jealousy or envy occur, I'll try to lean into Mudita
• By becoming more present for the experiences of joy in my own life

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind. 

Hello and welcome to episode 184 of The Mindful Kind podcast. 

I'm getting a little candid on this episode and sharing how I'm putting in an effort to be a more positive person. I tend to find it easy to focus unnecessarily on negative things and I'm trying a few different strategies to try to change that!

Here are my tips for cultivating more positivity:

• Start conversations on positive notes
• Exercise (even when you don't really feel like it)
• Practise gratitude every day and in different ways
• Treat yourself with joyful activities

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, so please come over to my Facebook: www.facebook.com/rachaelkable or Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachaelkable to let me know!

Don't forget to check out some of my other episodes about positivity!

• Episode 160, Make a List of Things to Do For Fun
• Episode 114, Outlooks on Life: Optimism
• Episodes 65-69, The Positivity Series

And head over to my blog to read A Powerful 5-Step Guide for a Happier, More Mindful Life: https://www.rachaelkable.com/blog/powerful-guide-for-happier-mindful-life

Thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week, Mindful Kind.