Show notes
The 3 Foundations of Self-Development and Change Three Pillars for Good Mental Health Or you could say Building the Best Version of You Hey, my unplugged friends! Welcome back to another episode of the Personal Development Unplugged Podcast. Today, we're diving into the core of personal change work—the foundation that supports all your efforts to become the best version of yourself. Forget the complicated stuff; we're keeping it simple with three essential elements: sleep, food, and movement. These are the pillars that hold up your mental health and overall well-being. Whether you're dealing with anxiety, depression, or just looking to improve your life, getting these basics right is crucial. They're interconnected, and you can't focus on one without considering the others. What We'll Cover Here's what we'll explore in this episode: Sleep: Discover why a consistent sleep routine is vital and how small changes can make a big difference. Food: Learn how to fuel your body with the right nutrients and why hydration is key. Movement: Understand the importance of regular exercise and how it benefits your mind and body. These aren't just tips; they're actionable steps you can take today. No more excuses about time, energy, or resources. It's all about making small, sustainable changes that add up over time. Remember, I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist—just someone who's passionate about personal development and knows what works. So, let's get started on building a strong foundation for your mental health and personal growth. If you find this episode helpful, please share it with someone who might benefit. And don't forget to subscribe for more insights and practical advice. https://personaldevelopmentunplugged.com/430-the-3-foundations-of-self-development Take care, shine brightly, and I'll see you on the other side. Shine Brightly 🌟 Paul Hey there! I'd love to hear from you—questions, feedback, requests—all welcome. Drop me a line or leave a comment. If you've enjoyed this episode or any other, please share and subscribe! You can reach me at [email protected]. Subscribe to the Podcast Ready to subscribe? Click here to explore your options. Or, if you're on Apple Music or iTunes, you can go straight to subscribe or leave a review here. Special Programs for You For tools on developing Supreme Inner Confidence, finding Freedom from Anxiety, or specialized Hypnosis Tracks, visit PaulCloughOnline.com. Free Hypnosis Tracks Want access to my FREE hypnosis tracks? Head over to paulcloughonline.com/podcast. Connect with Me Follow me on Twitter: @pcloughie Remember: I'm a therapist, but I'm not your therapist. This podcast and any of my online resources are for educational purposes only. Never use the hypnosis tracks or exercises if you're operating machinery, driving, or if you have epilepsy or psychiatric conditions. Always consult a healthcare provider if you're unsure. Find Us on Other Platforms Catch the podcast on Spotify, Castbox, iHeart Radio, YouTube, or on our Libsyn page. Stay tuned, and keep shining brightly. ✨ Music Credits Music by Wataboi, DreamHeaven, ccjmusic, and others from Pixabay. And the transcript WARNING if you're a lover of the written word this may make you frustrated, or angry - you have been warned - is it an 'ism And this is where we're going to dive into all sorts of blooming stuff to make personal development simple, easy to follow. Was it deconstruct? I think. I think the term is deconstruct the complicate to make things easy for ourselves. Because I can't do complicated, I really can't. So what are we going toa talk about? Well, it's. Call it the foundation of change work because I often get questions like this in all either from clients or different forums and Q&As. And the question is, what's the best hypnosis track for? And you fill in the blank or what's the best process I can use for fill in the blank? And that even comes from therapists as well, which is quite weird. They should know about cause and effect, deal with the cause and then you'll find the process. Or you even get. People would say, I'm struggling with my mental health. What the bloody hell is, Mental health's so vague, isn't it? So bloody vague. I'm struggling with my mental health now. I sympathize, I really do. I want to be compassionate, I am compassionate about it, so I want to help you. That's why I do this, this podcast. But struggling with your menal health is vague. And for each one of those things you need to get more specific in the type of help that you want, the type of things that you're. You're having issues with. And there's a place for all of that in personal development. And here I hope to provide you the best things that I can offer you to find the best solutions to mental health processes, hypnosis tracks, but real fundamentals of personal change work so you can be the best version of yourself. Letting go of things like ocd, depression, anxiety, fear, all that type of. Well, they're just behaviours, by the way. They're just behaviours and that's why we can change behavioior and we just find the cause. Here's the thing. Let's look at what you can do right now for your mental health without a hypnosis track, without a process, without anything other than. I think some people call them pillars, some people call them legs of a blooming table. I just think they're the found. It's a foundation, foundation. And it comes in three. Three things, they're joined together. You can't have one without the other. Really. Not if you really want to make the best, version of yourself and be the best version and enjoy the best version of yourself. And that's not all about having mentalal health issues. You can be absolutely superbly fining yourself, but you wanna make a better version of yourself because we can. Sleep, food and movement are all good for your mental health So I wanna talk about today in this episode. I wanna dive into the three things that, are really good for your mental health. For things such as anxiety, you know, unconfidence. And the three things of this are these rather. Sleep, food and movement. What? That's nothing to do with hypnosis and processes and nlp. I know, but if you aren't getting the right amount of sleep and if you're not eating a reasonable diet, I'm not talking about super healthy, but a reasonable diet and you're not moving, then you, you gotta get that right. That's a foundation. Because if you might be eating right, you might be moving. But if you're not sleeping right, then obviously your movement's gonna suffer. And when you move, it suffers and you get sluggish and you think, oh, soddry, I'll just eat a little bit more of that comfort food. But here's the thing. I'm not a bloody sleep doctor, I'm not a nutritionalist, and I'm certainly not a apt personal trainer. So I'm gonna talk to you about sleep, food and movement, because that's what I want to tell you. Ca. Because they just work. And you see, as I said, they're all joined. So you have to, Each one will affect the other. And therefore we really have to look at all three together. Because you just work on one, the other two will fail or the other two will flounder a little bit. So we need to keep topping them up and noticing the areas of. Where we really need to look at things. You know, if you're always tired, I'm, like, I've been there, felt so tired today. O. I've been to the gym. Didn't really do much though. I just, I let myself off, didn't do an awful lot. And do you know what? I came back and had a cake with my coffee and I've just done, nothing. And you see, you can see each one of those will affect the other. And they're so. I think they're pretty simple to get right or not necessarily perfect because nothing is perfect. But you can work on each. And as you're working on each of those three to get a better, balance. Then if there is anything that you're suffering from and call it a mental health issue, such as anxiety, fear, unconfidence, ocd, you name it, imposter syndrome, all that stuff, then you're in a better place to be able to work in and on that stuff. And that's when things like the hypnosis tracks and the processes just works so much better. So let's have a look. Sleep. I told you I'm not sleep doctor. Because there's loads of bloody podcasts out there on sleep, and interviewing sleep doctors. And what happens to your sleep when you're suffering from anxiety or, well, you name anything else like that. Well, your sleep suffers and you have to do something about it. So you need, basically you can listen to all the podcasts. Yeah, but what does it come down to? Getting a regime and no excuse. All of these are no excuses, by the way. You know, you can't give an excuse. Well, I can't do it because, you know, o there's. Now you need that solid regime just to get back on track. Once you get back on track, you'll create a lovely routine for yourself that works for you. So no excuses. So things like coffee before you go to bed. O, no, you're going to get the people who go, oh, it doesn't affect me. Don't care whether it doesn't affect you. Just cut it out. Do the best you can for yourself. Turn the lights down a little bit before you go to bed. Just slowly start to bring things down. And yeah, occasionally you're gonna have late nights, but look to hit that bedtime at the right time. Oh, and you're gonna go, oh, Paul, this is a bit boring now. No, it's only boring because you're gonna end up being boring if you don't do these type of things because, say, you're gonna suffer with those anxiety, the fears, they're got toa come and get you. Now, if you've got your health, as in sleeping health, you're gonna be more equipped for the day and, the waking day. And imagine when you sleep, that's when you recharge, when your unconscious mind tries to sort things out for you. So give it the best opportunity you can by going to sleep at the same time getting a regime that works for you then, like turn up. Nearly swore that phone off. Why do you want to look at a phone before you go to bed? Why do you need it to. You by your bedside. And if you do need it by your bedside, just as a clock, put it on aeroplane mode just so you've got the clock. That's all you need. But better still, buy yourself a bloody clock you don't need. Then the phone, the phone can be right over there out of the way. So get yourself into the best habit you can get of sleeping and say there's loads of advice out there. And this is just the thing I'm just trying to say, get that it's a pillar foundation of health. So I'm not a sleep doctor, but those are the type of things that they're gonna advise. But just go and search research that works best for you. And ideally I'GONNA say this, don't take the pills. You don't need pills for so much stuff. That's my thought anyway, I'm not a doctor, all that stuff. But you know, so. And when you wake up, try to wake up at the same time. Don't hit that snooze button. I really can you feel that? I want to swear, but don't hit that snosez butun. Maybe just before you go to sleep, you want to breathe. Just set up a little breathing pat just to bring you down. and it's all like a little pattern interrupter of some sort. Just tell your unconscious mind, not this, but now we're going to rest, it's time for rest. If you've got things on your mind, write them down, stick them out the way. So you go to bed at the same time, getting up at the same time, and then you're hitting stuff, maybe a little meditation before you go to bed, but that's like breathing and a little breathing routine. So there you go. Work on your sleep because one third of your life could be sleep And it might take a little time, it might. But what you gotta do is this one thing, this is one thing you have to do is do that, work on your sleep. That's all you have to work on your sleep. And you're gonna start to prepare yourself for the waking day. Cause that's where you live your life up really, isn't it? So one third, of your life could be sleep. So get that right, continue to work on it. And once you get it, you get it. You need to focus on your sleep as well as your food issues So here comes my nutritionalist, because I'm not one, but here's the thing, and I really, really have trouble with this. And I've actually got a little reminder for myself now. Every day, drink more water. We're talking about sort of diet, but it's not just food. It's just the way that what you consume in food and drink. So can you drink a little bit more water? Can you cut out more of the processed food? Very difficult to knock it all out, isn't it? Because bloody nice sometimes, isn't it? Yeah, but can we knock it out? You maybe treat ourselves fine, but a treat is a treat for being so good and all the other stuff. And then your unconscious mind seems to say, well, I don't mind this. Call it not hardship. Is it eating healthy if I'm going to get that nice little treat on a Sunday, whatever it is, you know that little time that you just say okay, it's time to treat ourselves. Cause that's fine. Cause I'm gonna go back to that stuff. Maybe you could fast and there's loads again. There's podcasts on all of this, isn't there? There's books, on it. Everything you can think of. Good, sensible nutritional advice. Find it. You know, f. I believe fasting is great because you're eating at the same same times in that little window of time and your body ad justs so well. And I think if you have eating issues when you're doing this, you're goingna notice when you have difficulties with this, that's the area of your life to work on. So maybe I'm having trouble go back to the sleep because of I have'getting anxious about stuff. So now I'm gonna make a note, I'm gonna work on that anxiety as well as my sleep. That particular area of anxiety. Not just anxiety, but I'm anxious about ex so in to work on that. What's causing me to feel anxious, Let me find a way. But keep concentrating on that sleep and the same with food. You might find this part of my life is a real difficulty for me. You know, I m really stuck on the sweet stuff, that sugar stuff. Ooh, love the sugar. Now people call it sugar addiction, but I have real trouble with addictions because if you call them behaviours is all it is. You're eating more sugar. It's a behaviour to eat sugar. Yeah, it goes inside and does that stuff. But if you change behaviours, because we can all change your behaviour, especially with things like hypnosisus. We can change your behavioior find better behaviours to put in place of the old behavior that are healthy, safer, your unconscious mind will take them on board, but it's fine. And then the right processing p mypnosis trackact to do that. But now you've narrowed that down because you're now m saying it's maybe that sugar or maybe it's that alcohol. Maybe I'm smoking in a little bit. And that's because some people believe it or not. And I think I've done it before when I used to smoke a long, long time ago is instead of having dinner you'd have a couple of cigarettes. People still do that, don't they? To keep their weight off. Now how crazy is that? But it's just another behavioior in place of another behavioior. And you see I will go into things like eating disorders on longer podcasts. Be more specific than that. But least if you find this is the area in my life. Yeah, I'd go to the gym, I can get my night's sleep. But I'm really struggling with this food thing or this drink thing. I'm now narrowing my focus of attention to what needs to be done and it's just on these foundations of bringing that out into the open. You, you may even know about it anyway you probably do. But it's got toa really highlight it. And you see none of this is bloody rocket science when you do it just don't have to get a keto diet and all that stuff. That is science. But this isn't rocket science. This is just common bloody sense. You know, you're fueling your body for health, you're fueling your body for a good night's sleep. You're not eating just before you go to sleep. You're eating at the right time so your digestion goes and does all the stuff, whatever it's supposed to do, all that stuff. I don't know. But it's common sense, isn't it? So maybe I'm a doctor of common sense. I like to think I've got a little bit of that. But no excuses again, no excuses. And know don't give yourself excuse. Oh, I'm addicted. Because then no we're going to work on that or I'm big boned or my whole family is like this. What do you think is my DNA? No sodic you can just. We will change it but you have to have the will to do whatever it takes. That's what it's all about. Because if you haven't got the will to do whereever it takes then, you know, no bothering. You shouldn't even be here to be fair. But I say that only as much as everyone's got the will to do whatever it takes. So you should be hereuse we're gonna find the thing that opens up the door. The doors are always ajar. It's just waiting for you to go through it. But it's a matter of finding the right door. And this is what we're doing. Looking at foundations and looking at areas that come up and go, ah, this is where I'm struggling a bit more than in the other areas. This is to work on now. So you have a plan, you know, you plan your intake of fuel. Basically you schedule it. Yes, it a bit, anal. But when you go to those type of lengths and you will follow them, mark them off. That's what I have to do with my water. I've got this little book, it's got little squares in for every day of the week and have to colour each one when I drink a glass of water. So I can see when I'm not drinking water because I was getting moaned at certainly by my son all the time. Dad, you're not drinking enough water. Dadd, you're not drinking water. Yeah, I'm fine. I'm drinking my tea, drinking my coffee. Once you start looking at one part of your diet, it spreads to other things But he's right, my other son's right. He's taught me this lesson of just marketing this little box and that's addictive and that's a good addiction. Thoughuse addictions can be good as long as's leading to the right way. So I mark off every day, at least I got one square marked into four and I colour in each quarter every time I take a good glass of water. Now that may be not enough, but it's a dam. It's four times more than I was drinking before. I'm sure that's gonna do me good in the long run. And also what tends to happen, I think is once you start looking at say, one part of your diet, your food intake, let's call it this, fueling, once you start looking at one, you become more aware of the other things. I remember a long time ago there used to be this, diet, the 600 calorie diet. I think it was like every other day you would restrict yourself to 600 calories. Now that was so boring for me. I couldn't find the right type of food. But I pushed it for a little while. Keep pushed and pushing to do it. But what it did do, and I even look at it now that when I'm looking at food, I'm looking at the calories and thinking, o, that's a meal, is that the right thing to take into my body as fuel instead of a proper balanced Meal with vegetables and meat. And if you're vegetarian, vegetables, you know what I mean? And if you're vegan, I don't know, eat. I'm, not. I don't know these things, but you know what I mean? You start one thing spreads to other things. It's like, you know, when you have an issue, it starts in one place and it spreads to other areas of your life. Just does that way. So. But when you get a solution, that solution then spreads into other areas of your life. And this does the same thing. Once you focus on one, you find the areas, but you also become aware of other areas in that genre. Call it the fuel genre. And then exercise. And again, I'm not a PT personal trainer or anything like that, but I go to the gym regularly because, again, no excuses. No excuses. Like, oh, I haven't got time. You've all got bloody time. Oh, I, can't go to the gym because I don't know what to do and I don't know how. I don't know what gym to go to and I need someone to go with me. Bloody excuses. You need none of that at all. I love going to the gym and I love going by myself. But that's just me. I know other people like to go to the gym because there's groups they go into. You know, the group things on the spin bikes and the yoga, that's awesome. Whatever floats your bloody boat. But you go, you know, I'm too big, I'm too overweight at the moment. Oh, I haven't got enough energy. Oh, I'm too small now. They're all ruddy excuses. You can adjust the way you do it. I mean, it's all about movement. I think I was told when I heard my back a long time ago, motion is lotion. Pull. You have to move. That was really painful, but you have to move. So think about. Motion is lotion to get you feeling better. So what's the first thing you could do without the gym, without all the wonderful trainers, the gear and everything like that? You got two feet. Go walk. You're moving. If you walk at a little bit of a pace, you'll start breathing a little different. You just do it. If you do it with the right intention, you can do it not only just for exercise, but to see the bloody world, to notice other people. Just. You could actually go out and go and walking, but I'm just going to notice how wonderful life is. I'm going to look at the architecture. I'm just at the Sky. I'mn to look for animals. Look, for just go to look for things which are of beauty and it makes that walk an experience and a nice experience. You look forward to it the next time, you know, if it's too cold, wrap up. What a wonderful caring bit of advice. Wrap up. But yeah, you can wrap up. Oh, it's raining. You can weip wet clothes. I don't really want you to go out, get soakeaking wet and things like that, but we need to find time. But you could do something at home. Then you don't need a gym. you go to YouTube, there's plenty of body weight bloody videos that do gentle things and they tend to go, here's your beginners, here's your middle, here's your professional, all that stuff. Or you can just join a gym, but set yourself a little target. Poor my dad, bless him, he's 90, he's walking is good and he had a little bit of problem with his legs so we did a little walking thing and he would walk maybe just 10 yards but the next day he would walk elevenus. You can always do one more yard, can't you? One more pace and the next day would be 12 and before you knew it he forgot to count because he started walking. Now he's not walking miles but he's walking further than most 90 year olds. 'Awesome. He even then. And this is s how it changes because when it gets wet and cold, he doesn't want to go out walking. and why would you when you're that old? Why would you win any age? He bought a walking machine for himself. Indoor one. How awesome is that? So no excuses, no excuses. And it's really just a matter of setting up a simple routine again is when you set up your routine, you know what you're go goingna do. Just get, get it done. And here's the thing, here's the thing. You see people, you never very rarely see a runner who's smiling, do you? I hate running. 95% of people don't enjoy going to the gym, says Daniel But you don't do. But the thing is people think, well, I don't enjoy going to the gym, I don't enjoy the exercise. Guess what? 95% of people don't enjoy the exercise. They don't enjoy it. It's not pleasant sometimes going through where you're out of breath a bit, your legs hurt, you know, you're stretching, you're ah, really got to hang here for another 30secondsluy. Yeah. And inside, yes you are. because when you've done it, what a sense. Even if you don't feel better physically, and you will in the day or this time, emotionally, mentally, you are gonna feel so much better, you've achieved something, you gonna get that little bit of pride. And then if you say to yourself, I could do just a little bit better, maybe 30 seconds longer, maybe one more rep, maybe just a little bit heavier at that first rep or that second thing. So it's not always enjoyable, but it's like, I mean, I'll give you an example. My son gave me this lovely, lovely exercises doing one of these bloody air bikes where your arms move and your legs move and you're pushing and pulling and you know re pumping up and down. Gave me this wonderful exercise which lasts for 20 minutes and it stinks. You do the first one and you think, oh, I don't like this. And I got three more to go cause I split up into five minute segment. So it's 20 minutes, you go, ah. And every time I do it, when I get to the second five minutes, I say, well I could if I wanted to, I can give up after this. I'll just do the 10 minutes. And as it gets closer and closer you start thinking, well don't whimp out on this. You've only got two more to just do one more. I'll let you off on the last one. Just do one more cluy and I'm talking to myself like this out loud inside and I do the one more and I get to the point o I can't do this any longer or any longer. I I'GONNA stop, I'm gonna stop. And a little voice comes in. There's only one more. There's only five minutes of your life to put this through. And what will it feel like when you finish? Yeah, you're gonna be tired, Cluy. You're gonna wobble a little bit on your legs cause know you're getting on a bit but you're gonna feel so proud of yourself by going and that's that feeling like the feeling of the wistful field. I know I'm gonna get there, I can feel it now. And it just helps me go through that last five minutes. And here's a kick to this one. I was talking to my son about that and he said, dad, why don't you just drop the revs a little bit? And I thought that's a good idea. Yeah. I said Daniel, yeah, that's a good idea. He said, and add another 10 minute on and'm really get a shame of thought. Jeez. Thank you, Daniel. That's brilliant. But it's good advice because it's like, putting a deposit into the bank. And it's incremental interest, isn't it? You're slowly getting fitter, and you will be fitter as you get older. You'll be able to move. And, because you're eating the right food and drinking the right liquid, you're fueling your body to be able to move. And because of all of that, you're probably resting at the right. In the right places and the right times at, sleep. Maybe you're doing more things like meditation, reading more, listening more, but you're reading and listening the. To the better part of noise because there's so much bloody noise around, which is not doing you any good. Not doing me any good. Have to cut it out. So there you go. Absolutely nothing to do with NLP neurolinguistic programing, nothing to do with hypnosis, nothing to do with anything like what people consider to be personal development, but it is the core, the foundation. And each one of those, I mean, if we were struggling to go to the gym for a particular reason, sometimes we have an issue around the gym. Maybe it's conscious of my body. Maybe it's, well, I don't like doing it lower or I don't do this, or I'm not good enough on all those. Each one of these will highlight an area of your life that you can now work on, because you know when you do, you're going to get better. And then if there is something. And here's like, in sort of conclusion, if there is something that is highlighted now and you say, it's a great podcast, Paul, I hope you do say that. In fact, it's such a good podcast, Paul, I'm going to share it to everyone. I know you could say that. And in fact, Cloughie, I haven't subscribed, so I want to press that subscribe button, M so I get more of this so I can share it more often. You could say all of that, couldn't you? But no and no. But what if that's a better one? What if you did all of that and you think, but I need a little bit of help because it has highlighted, highlighted ed it an area of my life that I need to work on. Maybe it is that impostor syndrome has suddenly got a little bit brighter. I need to work on that. Or my ocd, suddenly I've noticed it. Or do you know what? I feel so down that I'm finding it really difficult to do any of this bloody stuff. Right. You email me [email protected]. You email me and I will guide you to a process. I will guide you to a hypnosis track may be, but what I will do also is I'll look at it and find out how can we do an episode around that issue. So not only you get the benefit of that, but so many other people do. And that is, it's a wonderful bit of selfless service. You're asking something for yourself, but by doing that you're creating something for other people. You're helping me create something for other people. You get migray matter workinguse. I need to keep it working, get me thinking. So you'd be doing me a favour. Thank you. Did any of that make bloody sense? Did it? I hope so. I really do hope so. It made sense. It makes sense to me. Cause by the way, just so you know, in this wonderful perfect world, I'm working on my sleep quite a lot of the time. I'm working on my intake of fuel. You've told me about the water, but there's other stuff and I'm sort of getting the gym right. But I do know sometimes I cruise so I've got to work out and I just get that Xra little bit workout sometimes. It's not an issue that's stopping me doing it. Please email me if there's anything you need help on I just need to find the value, the motivation, a process of just get me to think and when. That's one of the things on that bloody airbike I can think of the feeling of what it'd be like when I do it. And that's enough to give you the motivation to finish. So it's a constant. Not struggle, but it's a constant focus of attention and sometimes each one of those will bring out what you need to work on. So do please email me if there's anything that you feel you need help on. I'll be there for you because I want you to achieve your dreams. Really do. And to achieve your dreams you need to be in the best possible health so you can enjoy the experience more than ever and then share it with other people. Howy hell. Why not? You, know, fancy having any attention to havingving more fun than you can stand and bring joy and love to everyone else. Can't be bad, can I? Okay my friend, thank you for being with me. Appreciate it. Love the time we spend together. I love your input and the input. Email me, email me now. I love your input. Pressing play is as much input as I need. Get those Earuds in or whatever you got, and let's find wonderful ways to enjoy life. Personal development unplugged. Warning. Talk about stuff you think you know about So, again, it's Paul. Personal development unplugged. Breaking down the complicated. Talking about stuff that I think I know about. But remember, I'm not a doctor. I'm not a nutritionalist. I'm not any of that stuff. And I'm, a hypotherapist. But I'm not your hypnotherapist. But I know a lot of stuff that works. Science is catching up on all this stuff because it just works. Have fun, and I'll speak to you real soon. See you, my friend. Bye. Time to fly. Warning. You are now leaving the unplugged mind of Paul Clough. It's time to fly on your own. Be brave, my friend. Personal development unplugged. Personal development [self improvement] [self development] [NLP] [Hypnosis]