The Inner Work Behind Lasting Confidence

In this episode, Dr. Shannon Russell shares her personal journey through mental health struggles, her holistic approach to overcoming chronic pain, and practical tools for mental well-being like journaling, breathwork, and the importance of inner work for lasting results.

"Comparison is the thief of joy."

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to mental health and self-worth
00:28 The impact of internal self-worth on physical health
00:57 The importance of taking one step at a time
01:49 Challenges of becoming the person you want to be
02:28 Shannon's journey into mental health advocacy
03:23 Personal struggles with body image and anxiety
04:51 Holistic approach to overcoming chronic pain
07:01 Daily mental health practices: journaling, walking, and water
09:26 Breathwork and its role in stress and pain management
11:36 The importance of consistency and small changes
14:14 Inner work and self-love as keys to progress
16:41 Nutrition tips for mental health and sustainability
20:31 Connecting with Shannon and final thoughts

"Emphasis on your exhales can calm the nervous system."

 More Key Topics Covered:
*Mindfulness practices
*The role of fitness and movement in mental health
*Impact of climate and environment on mental health
*Strategies for sustainable lifestyle changes
*Grounding techniques reduce stress.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

That is maybe affecting your mental health. Maybe you're unhappy with your weight, you're unhappy with the way that your body looks. And that's causing you to maybe be depressed, anxious, just low feelings of low self-worth. I'm telling you right now that if you don't address that inside piece of self-worth, even when you lose the weight, even when you get the body of your dreams, right, you're still going to have that feeling of not quite liking yourself. Losing the weight and fixing the outward appearance doesn't fix how you feel about yourself. And I have been there. I have lost the weight and I was still unhappy. So the biggest thing that I tell my clients, the biggest thing I want to say to everyone is you need to do the inner work. You need to address like where these feelings are coming from. Comparison is the thief of joy. I know that's really tough in the day of social media where there's so many people to be comparing yourself to. But you know, look at how far you've come, only compare you to you and where you could possibly go. And that also goes a really long way. And kind of tying it back to take it one step at a time and don't give up. You need to become the person that you want to be. As weird as it sounds, if you have a goal, you need to become that person who has that thing first in order to get that thing, if that makes sense. So if you have a weight loss goal or a business goal, a money goal, whatever it may be, you need to think how does that person act? What are their habits? And then you need to follow that. And it doesn't have to be all overnight if you're feeling discouraged, overwhelmed, break it up into bite-sized pieces, but start taking action to become that person. And I'll tell you what, you'll immediately start feeling more confident and feel like you're making progress just by taking the little bit of action each day.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Something I also learned firsthand. It's harder to become the person you need to do all these things than to actually do any of these things. They're minuscule in hindsight. Mindset approach for weight loss, overcoming chronic pain, fitness goals in general. And what I love is she believes if you can do something, it's going to be very hard to accomplish that, right? So, Shannon, thank you so much for joining us here on a mental health break.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Yeah, thanks so much, Vincent. I'm excited to be here and to chat.

SPEAKER_01 2:41

As we're recording this, we had some storms last night. We're talking about how many inches of rain did you get by you?

SPEAKER_00 2:47

I don't know. A couple, I think. There's been flooding on and off for the past few days. So, but the sun's out right now, so that's good.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Part of living in Florida, to live in paradise, you have to pay the price sometimes. I hope everyone's saved. That's tuning in. But welcome back to a mental health break. My name is Vincent A. Lancy, and I'm excited to be back here on this amazing Sunday with a new mental health advocate to add to your corner. As I mentioned, she brings expertise into those areas, but she also has her own personal story to share. And today we are brought to you by Living Proof TBI Coaching. Head to Livingproof TBI Coaching.com for all of your traumatic brain injury resources and calls. And I always like to start in the beginning here, Shannon. What led you to a field in mental health, right? Please share your story from wherever you feel comfortable.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah, absolutely. So I have definitely had my fair share of struggles with mental health from all different angles. So I would say, even as early as middle school, high school, I struggled with body image and self-image a lot, a lot of body dysmorphia feelings. I was an avid athlete, but I never quite felt like I looked like the athlete that I was, which definitely led to, again, just low feelings of self-worth as well. And this kind of perpetuated as I got into college and grad school when stresses are high and then body image issues, and then all these life stresses coming at you, and the academic stresses. And this kind of leads to some anxiety around that too. And then we get anxiety around food, and it all just ties into these feelings of low self-worth, poor body image, which definitely plays a role in negative mental health for sure. So that's where my struggles have been from my experience in the past.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Thank you for sharing that and congratulations to how far you've continued to come. And for me, even fitness in general, taking a walk, exercising, that always helps my mental health after this computer workout, right? Staring for a little bit. I'll be outside taking a walk around the corner just to clear my head. And I love that because of course, fitness is something you're very passionate about. Talk to us more about how you're helping people overcome chronic pain, right? This amazing stress relief that you do. Let's dive in.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah, absolutely. So I have a physical therapy background. I started as a sports physical therapist. And between my struggles with kind of body image and anxiety and then working as a sports physical therapist, I realized that pain is also very holistic and requires a very holistic approach, right? It's so multifactorial. I work with a lot of women. So I work with women online now, but I was finding that a lot of people would come in with a chronic pain, a chronic issue. And this led to them not being able to work out the way that they wanted to. They weren't able to do what they were most passionate about, whether that was running or lifting or a sport that they were playing. So not only would this lead to either weight gain or muscle loss or both, it would also feed into that low body image and also feelings of anxiety around not being able to do what they love to do. And for a lot of people, that was their outlet as well for stress management was the working out. And now they have this chronic pain and they can't do it, right? So tying into as well, I know you've talked about the nervous system a lot on your podcast as well. And that is also a huge part of the chronic pain aspect as well, is so many people get stuck in this loop of fight or flight, sympathetic nervous system really activated. Now you don't have that stress relief, that outlet of running, lifting, whatever that may be, because you have this pain and it all just creates this cycle, right? So you can't push your body the way that you want to. You're stuck in this fight or flight, and that just further increases your feelings of pain as well.

SPEAKER_01 6:55

My God, so well said there. And as you now get these people back on their feet, right? Pain isn't at the forefront. You have time to open up your brain for just other great things. And we've, of course, talked about fitness here and the wonderful benefits that has for your mental health. But what else do you do, Shannon, on a daily basis, maybe weekly or long term, to take care of your mental health? So we can add a few more tools to everyone's tool chest here today.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Yeah, absolutely. So a couple things that are really important to me and that I work into my clients' routines as well. I find that journaling is extremely helpful in order to just help with feelings of stress, feelings of anxiety, doubts, like where is all of this coming from, right? And just getting that out on paper, I find really just helps ground you and makes you realize, oh, maybe I'm overreacting a little bit. Maybe my brain is not right, right? So I find that journaling to be really helpful. And I encourage a lot of my clients to go through journal prompts as well in order to get their best results. I find that meditation is super helpful too. And especially meditation through yoga, because sometimes it can be hard to just sit there, right? So I really like going to hot yoga classes where they kind of take you through the meditation and then at the end you have the shivasana. So I find that to be super helpful, super grounding. I also go for walks as well. A lot of the times, if you can go for a walk without listening to music, without being on your phone, listening to anything, and just getting really aware of your surroundings. What do you see? What do you smell? What do you hear? That can also be super grounding and just get you out of your head. And then we live in Florida, just being around water I find to be super just calming as well. So if I ever have a really stressful day, I take myself to wherever I can walk by the water, and that instantly just helps calm me down.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

My last apartment was over on the Gulfport St. Pete bubble, right there. I would ride my bike in between calls. It would take a two-minute bike ride, make a five, 10-minute walk. So in between, if I have an hour or two, just going for 10 minutes, just resetting. And I love how you said don't bring your phone on walks. I'll shout out Richie Bassio. He was episode like six on this show back in 2020. He first brought that to my attention. He's like, take in the natural noises and sunlight and sounds and all of these things. And sure enough, it really is great. This has been an incredible episode so far. Everyone, be sure to subscribe to Stay Current so you don't miss shows like this. And be sure to share this with a friend who you know could use all the amazing value she's been sharing. Something else that's been helping me is a lot more breath work, and it's easier said than done to not make these decisions in the rash and heat of the moment to walk away, take a deep breath. I mean, even at bedtime, counting like four, seven, eight or something for the brain calms you down. So, any input, fan, not a fan of breath work, some tips you have?

SPEAKER_00 9:54

I'm so glad that you asked this question. I'm such a huge fan of breath work. That's actually a big part of my physical therapy background that I incorporate with my clients as well, is specifically like diaphragmatic breathing in specific positions. If you can't breathe through a position and you can't own that, you're just gonna stay stuck in that fight or flight. And that ties back to that chronic pain. It's been shown that emphasis on your exhales and pausing at the end of an exhale, that can actually take your body from that sympathetic state into more of the parasympathetic rest and digest. So, for a lot of my clients who either have chronic pain, low back pain that they're working through, or even just people who are stressed out, I have them incorporate that diaphragmatic breathing and they're like, whoa, why did this work so fast? I instantly found myself yawning, pain was decreased. I just felt a lot better after that breath work. So I love that you asked that. I love incorporating breath work into everything again from a pain management standpoint, stress management standpoint, it's huge.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

We're synced, we're in the episode, right? I felt right. So I had to go out and put it out there. Everyone, it's not an immediate fix, like something for me with maybe meditation, for example. That with my anxiety, that never matched it, or I would go, I couldn't be consistent. I'd get a couple days, whatever, find what works for you, what works for some will not work for everyone. She just gave us a bunch of good ones, like journaling. And even if you think you have nothing to talk about in a book, I promise you do. Writing is very therapeutic. I mean, my first book was my longest, but that was my gateway, right? I would go tune everything off. At one point, I would listen to Mozart. That type of classical music would stimulate my brain. We're in silent, but just going into these rabbit holes of writing not only healed my brain after my accident, I truly believe that, but just makes you feel good. Creativity is good for you, creative juices. It looks different for everyone, right? We talked a lot about fitness. But as we're recording this, right, we're releasing here in the fall. What's next for you? What are you looking forward to with your business, your life, everything in between?

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Yeah, that's a great question. I'm just looking forward to continuing to expand my business. I really hone in on helping women overcome their chronic pain so that they can lift heavy in the gym. And that way they can reach their weight loss goals, their muscle building goals. Because as we know, for aging women specifically, building muscle is extremely important. And all three of those things play a huge role in just feeling good about yourself, feeling confident, which again is huge for mental health as well. Like you want to feel good about yourself, right? So I'm just looking forward to continuing to expand with that and help as many women as possible, help a lot of strong women just take over the world and hit PRs.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

I love the ambition. I love the enthusiasm. Everyone stick around just a little longer. We'll get her contact info. We'll get where to find her. But first, I want to go to some advice time here, right? You mentioned your courageous recovery where you didn't like how you felt about yourself, right? And I know everyone, you're not alone if you're hearing this. What advice, Shannon, could you give to someone who maybe was in your shoes, right? Where you didn't have anywhere to turn, you didn't have options until one thing started to work. What can you provide some folks out here today?

SPEAKER_00 13:17

Yeah, so the biggest thing that I tell my clients, gotta do the inner work, right? So if you have more of a physical type goal that is maybe affecting your mental health, maybe you're unhappy with your weight, you're unhappy with the way that your body looks, and that's causing you to maybe be depressed, anxious, just low feelings of low self-worth. I'm telling you right now that if you don't address that inside piece of self-worth, even when you lose the weight, even when you get the body of your dreams, right, you're still going to have that feeling of not quite liking yourself. Losing the weight and fixing the outward appearance doesn't fix how you feel about yourself. And I have been there. I have lost the weight and I was still unhappy. So the biggest thing that I tell my clients, the biggest thing I want to say to everyone is you need to do the inner work. You need to address like where these feelings are coming from. Comparison is the thief of joy. I know that's really tough in the day of social media where there's so many people to be comparing yourself to. But, you know, look at how far you've come, only compare you to you and where you could possibly go. And that also goes a really long way. And kind of tying it back to your journaling as well, gratitude practice is huge. I think that can really help people overcome feelings of self-worth as well. And that's my biggest piece of advice is you got to do the inner work.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Thank you for sharing that, everyone. And again, there's many different tools out there to help you. We provided a few today, and that inner work comes with loving yourself and not, again, comparing yourself to others. I mean, we all start from different places, we all go through different experiences, right? I mean, you could even talk about coming out of college, right? Some people have a lot of debt, a lot of loan, some have nothing. They're starting headache free, right? Mental health strain-free from that angle. So you never have to, like I was in the rat race at one point, right? Judging, comparing myself to Gary or Sarah or whoever in the desk next to me, right? I want to look better to you to get promoted, right? I need to perform better somehow. But in entrepreneurship, it's conversations like these where we're able to just offer help and be helpful to others. And that's something I love about this industry specifically, and of course, in mental health. Now we'll switch pieces of advice. If there's someone who's out here who connected with your journey, right? But they still feel they're struggling. They're connecting with things you're doing, things you said, but they're still struggling. What piece can you give them from an overall more general sense?

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Yeah, from an overall more general sense, I would say take it one step at a time and don't give up. You need to become the person that you want to be. As weird as it sounds, if you have a goal, you need to become that person who has that thing first in order to get that thing, if that makes sense. So if you have a weight loss goal or a business goal, a money goal, whatever it may be, you need to think how does that person act? What are their habits? And then you need to follow that. And it doesn't have to be all overnight if you're feeling discouraged, overwhelmed, break it up into bite-sized pieces, but start taking action to become that person. And I'll tell you what, you'll immediately start feeling more confident and feel like you're making progress just by taking the little bit of action each day.

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Something I also learned firsthand. It's harder to become the person you need to do all these things than to actually do any of these things. They're minuscule in hindsight to what you have to actually be consistent with, right? And have these new habits and something we breezed over kind of, so I want to go back to is nutrition. It's a big part of her life, of course, not just with weight loss, but how she maintains a positive mental health, things she recommends to her clients. Without asking for too much, can we get a little sneak peek here of someone who's maybe on that fast food cheap chips on the couch, excuse me, diet where they need to start making changes? We have an expert here, so I have to ask.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Yeah, absolutely. So the biggest mistake that I see people make with this is they try to go from zero to a hundred. So if right now your diet consists of a lot of fast food, processed food, we know that's not good for us, but if you immediately try to go cold turkey and I'm gonna cook every meal, I'm gonna make all these beautiful Pinterest recipes, you're gonna burn yourself out. And that's why people fall into that cycle where they're really good for a week and then they get burnt out and they go back to their old habits, right? We need to find that middle ground. So if your diet isn't the best right now, okay, make a little bit of a change. Maybe you start bringing your lunch to work or you start cooking dinners at home, right? And start there. Scale back a little bit. Don't totally deprive yourself. If your thing is McDonald's fries, work that into your diet in a healthy way, incorporate it once or twice a week instead of every single day, if that's what you're doing. And that way it becomes something sustainable that you can stick to. That's the biggest mistake that I see people make, is they try to make these drastic changes that they're never going to stick to. So it doesn't have to be perfect. Just find something that's a little bit better than what you're doing right now and that you can stick to for that long term. And that's how you're going to make that change. And it almost becomes addicting too. Once you start to see the results, you're like, oh, maybe I'll cut back a little bit more. Maybe I'll start cooking home even more now.

SPEAKER_01 18:45

And I think especially with fitness, right? When you finally see those after three or four or five or six months, right? Where it takes so long. And even me, when I fall out of habit, like I start with whatever 50 crunches for the day, and I say the next day we're just going to hit five more. And I just the compounds, of course, five, seven days, it adds up again and again as you mix in more exercise. So I absolutely love that. Everyone, we talked a lot about fitness, we talked a lot about nutrition, we talked a lot about being vulnerable and honest with yourself, right? So stick around just a few more minutes here. We'll get her contact info. But part of living in Florida, again, we talked about the walks, the sunshine for your mental health. Do you find that the climate you live in has, whether for better or worse, mental health impact?

SPEAKER_00 19:29

A hundred percent. I actually moved here from New Jersey three years ago. And seasonal depression is all too real, especially when you're someone who everything that you like to do is outside all of my hobbies. I love the sunshine. So absolutely, I think that climate can definitely play a role, especially when you're a warm weather person. So, for the people who do live in a cold climate, though, I've been there and I find that even in the winter months, if you can just get outside for 10 minutes a day, get a little bit of sunlight, it really does make all the difference. Bundle up, still try to do a 10-minute walk outside, get in the sun. It really does have a huge impact on your mood if you're not as blessed as us to live in the Florida sunshine.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

I have one client who gives me a lot of crap. He's out in Kansas and I'm always talking about walks. But I say I challenge you, go up and down the stairs a few times, set a 10-minute timer and just walk around your house, pick things up, start cleaning, and you'll be surprised. You'll be a little tired if this is the first movement you have out of not doing anything like she said everyone so beautifully. Increments, right? Don't just try to take on the world your very first day. Start with bits and pieces. And with that, Shannon, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to join us right here on a mental health break. Everyone, thank you for tuning in or viewing on and keeping this a top 5% global show. We're brought to you by Living Proof, TBI Coaching.com. Schedule your free call today, survivors and families, but also we need to get you in touch with Shannon. Where can we find you online, your business, everything in between?

SPEAKER_00 21:01

Yeah, absolutely. My most active account is on Instagram. You can find me at Dr. Shannon Russell. I also have a YouTube, Facebook, and a TikTok account. You can contact me via email, Shannon at drshannonrussell.com, and find me at drshannonrussell.com as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

All right, everyone. I don't know what you're waiting for. Go ahead and connect with a great mental health advocate and champion who has a lot of great services to help you. So head to her website. My name is Vincent A. Lancy, and this is a mental health break. Please share this episode with someone you know could use all the value and inspiration she brought with you today. We're signing off, both of us in Florida for today. Shannon, thank you so much for your time.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

Thank you so much, Vincent. This was an awesome conversation.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

It went really well. I agree. Take care, everyone. We'll see you next Sunday, right here on a mental health break.