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Marketing in Progress is a spinoff of Work in Progress that digs into what’s moving the needle in B2B. We feature marketing leaders, sales leaders, and agency owners sharing real stories, smart ideas, and no-filter perspectives—so you walk away with practical guidance to help you do your job better.
Ashley Mitchell (00:00):
If you write some of those worries and thoughts down ahead of time, or if you do have your phone, which give yourself a break from your phone sometimes, but if you do have your phone, just jot it in your notes section, all the worries or the things you still have to do and then put it aside and give yourself 20 minutes, 30 minutes, five minutes if that's all you have, and just breathe and sit and remind yourself that you're okay, that you're going to be okay.
Gayle Kalvert (00:27):
This is Work in Progress. I'm your host, Gayle Kalvert, and yes, I'm a work in progress. Hello and welcome back to Work in Progress. I'm your host, Gayle Kalvert. Today I'm thrilled to welcome Ashley Mitchell, a licensed professional counselor and the founder of Guided Reflections Therapy Practice. With over 10 years of experience in mental health, Ashley has dedicated her career to helping individuals navigate the challenges of anxiety, self-doubt, and life transitions. She's also the author of What If It All Works Out, a practical and compassionate guide for those looking to overcome anxiety and embrace their inner strength. Ashley's unique approach combines cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness and holistic healing, making her a truly special voice in mental health. Ashley, we're so excited to dive into your journey and learn more from you.
Ashley Mitchell (01:24):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Gayle Kalvert (01:27):
I'm super excited. Can we tell people that we're tangentially related marriage but no special? No. Anyway, I'm super, super excited. Obviously we're living in some challenging times right now. I think many people may be trying to navigate anxiety, and I'm just super excited that you're here as a resource for our audience. So I want to start just by asking about you a little bit. You call yourself a fellow anxiety warrior. How does anxiety show up in your own life and how do you manage it day to day?
Ashley Mitchell (02:04):
I definitely have dealt with anxiety my whole life, but didn't know it for a lot of my life. So it has morphed throughout the years from childhood with fears of my house catching on fire. Something got popped into my head and then I was afraid. So it was fears that kept morphing into different ways, whether it was my house catching on fire, my parents dying in a car crash or failing at school or friend's drama. It has just morphed over the years, but it wasn't until I really started studying psychology that I was like, oh, okay, this is what's happening, but still kind of put it off. Didn't really know. And now I would say while I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder in my early twenties, I wouldn't say I necessarily have that now, but I of course experience anxiety.
(02:57):
I have kids, so can't not experience anxiety. For me, a big one is around time management and getting my kids out the door on time, getting to work on time, getting whatever it is, getting to activities on time. Just for me, it was like, oh my gosh. That's when I would experience these flareups of just massive stress and anxiety and it would linger. But what I really learned over the years, and I think having kids really helped me is I really had to focus on my self-care and that has made the biggest difference. Focusing on making sure I get enough sleep is huge, getting good sleep as well, having a regular exercise routine, routines in general can be really helpful. Making sure I'm eating good food, healthy food has been huge. Making sure I'm hydrated has been huge. It's our basic needs. It is really important for caring for ourselves and it helps with our mental health immensely.
(03:56):
So once I kind of figured out what works for me, I mean, I've dabbled in almost everything you can think of and different things work at different times. I did yoga for a long time, that was really great. I've done Pilates, I've done meditations. I've done so much through my work too. So it's really kind of figuring out what works for you and there are so many tools out there and we aren't always aware of what they are. So that's partly why I wrote this book is because I have spent so much time learning about all the things that we can do and so many help, but not everything helps everybody. So you can kind of pick and choose what works best for you once you've tried a few things. A lot of it is routine, sleep, exercise, spending time with loved ones. Being outside is a big one. Sunlight, natural elements I think are really helpful.
Gayle Kalvert (04:52):
I have a question, so we're going to get into the tools and ways for people to help themselves with this, but before we get into that, you mentioned things like you were scared of and anxious about when you were a kid and you're ticking those things off and I can think, yeah, me too. Right? I remember my father showing us what to do in case there was a fire, and then all you could think was like, yeah, thanks for that. Because now all I can think about is my house might burn Jack. Exactly. Can you give us the 1 0 1 on anxiety from the perspective of what's the difference between being nervous, being stressed and being anxious? I hear this a lot. We all, especially when we're talking about our children or family members, when it's not ourselves, how do you know or try to tell the difference between something that might need treatment or something that is sort of regular stress.
Ashley Mitchell (05:43):
And they all fall within the same family. I mean, nervous is the first kind of noticeable difference in how you feel when it doesn't feel good, when you're worried about something. And that would be typically something that's about to come up, whether it's a presentation or a test if you're in school or flying on a plane, if you've never been on a plane before, you might have this nervousness right before. So it's more kind of right before something new, something you're a little worried about, something you want to do well at whatever it is, but then it goes away once it's gone or once it's passed. Stress is more chronic. It's more about pressure, life pressure. If you're a kid, it could be the pressures of school. If you are an adult, it could be pressures of finance work, things of that nature. But once maybe the stressor has gone away, you feel better. Whereas anxiety, the stressor will go away and you'll continue to have worries. You'll continue to overthink. You'll continue to have this panic like feeling or heart palpitations or shortness of breath. There's no real reason that you can pinpoint in the immediate future. It's just always there, like this sense of dread, this sense of fear. It doesn't just go away.
Gayle Kalvert (06:54):
That's really helpful. Yes. When you spoke about yourself and you spoke about the ways that help you manage your anxiety, you said, I really felt like I needed to focus on self-care another term that we hear a lot. Then you went on to list all the things that you do for yourself, and I would say that's not self-care, that's just standard. You hope it is. Well, no. What I mean is we're too hard on ourselves that we think that having routines, eating well, getting a good night's sleep is something that we need to label as self-care. When I would say that those are essential elements to feeling...
Ashley Mitchell (07:33):
It's basic needs really, but think about your sleep routine being disrupted on a daily basis. A lot of people don't realize how much that affects their mental health, how they regulate their emotions, how they handle stress, how much easier it is for you to feel anxious or nervous when you aren't well rested. So it may sound really basic, but it's hugely important and it affects so many areas of our life, so much of our health. So it's kind of a reminder, we do have to prioritize these things. It does take some effort, not always easy, and sleep can be a challenge for people, but imagine if you just fix that one thing, how much easier life might feel if you're well rested.
Gayle Kalvert (08:18):
I know that I need to dive into this section because I have three children and a dog, so I never sleep straight through the night. I don't even imagine what that would be like. So I'm going to need your tips on that. Maybe if we have time, we'll get into that. What about all of the Right now we are dealing with so much in the world and we go on social media. Often people do that as an escape, while it may be actually contributing, right? Doom scrolling.
(08:48):
I think it's called doom scrolling for a reason, right? Yeah. I know. I actually work with my algorithm. If my social media is not bringing me joy, I need to make a change. Put some new searches in there so that your algorithm gets updated. I could run and think of that because that's smart. I feel it actually can help you versus freak you out. How do you recommend people manage their social media consumption and really protect their mental health? Because again, I don't want this to feel like these are things that people should do as a nice to do. This is critical and part of thriving today social media is not going anywhere.
Ashley Mitchell (09:27):
I think that's really important, again, because I do get that a lot from my clients where they come in and they recognize I have been doom scrolling and it feels terrible, and a lot of people end up having to very much limit their social media, whether that's putting a time limit on themselves or it's deleting it for a while or moving it to the back of their phone so it's not so easily accessible. A lot of it is just start with being aware. Is your social media helping you or is it hurting you? Do you get off social media and feel better or do you feel worse? Do you feel like it's just sucking you in and you've lost hours of your day? Well, then yeah, that's probably a good indicator that you need to put some parameters around your social media use and we get sucked in. We doom scroll. We spend hours or even longer sometimes on our phone laying in bed, not moving. These are things that can be hurtful and harmful to our health. I don't think social media is all bad all the time. I definitely don't. But if you're someone that feels like you can't regulate it on your own, then put some regulations in place, whether it's a time limit or taking it off your phone for a while, see how you feel, experiment with it. But I do think it can contribute to our stress and anxiety for sure.
Gayle Kalvert (10:49):
Yeah, 100%. So you shared a lot about your own anxiety and I know how important it was for you to write a book and help other people navigate their anxiety. So when you were writing the book, did you learn anything new either about yourself or about ways to really combat anxiety that you didn't know before?
Ashley Mitchell (11:12):
I think the biggest thing for me was it was super helpful for me to list out so many of the tools that I have. It's so easy to forget, even for myself to be like, oh, I haven't meditated in six months. Maybe I should try that again. I forgot that's something that can work for me. So it really helped me just consolidate all the knowledge that I have acquired over the last 10 years or more really. I wouldn't say there was anything brand new, but it was really helpful reminders of, okay, yeah, I have a good amount to offer. I think this can be helpful. It doesn't mean everything in the book is going to be helpful for everyone, but I think at least a few would be. So it's helpful for me to be able to refer back to it if I am with a client and we're trying to come up with strategies, it's helpful for them if they're in a what if loop spiral, they can open the book and hopefully that would help combat it a little bit.
(12:12):
And it's not about pushing anxiety away all the time. You can acknowledge it and you can accept it and you can also move on from it. And each chapter has its own tools that you can use and there may be some that you gravitate to more than another one, and that's totally okay. You don't have to read it front to back. You can pick and choose chapters that look interesting to you. So for me, it was really just kind of consolidating everything and really seeing, okay, there's a lot in here. I'm happy to be able to offer this to someone who this wouldn't be front and center of their mind of a way to help themselves.
Gayle Kalvert (12:48):
Well, that's one thing I love about the book because everybody is different and you've mentioned a couple of times, depending on where you are in life, certain tools or certain habits might help you more than others.
Ashley Mitchell (13:00):
Sure.
Gayle Kalvert (13:01):
We always hear like, well, I don't need to go to a therapist or I know what they're going to say, I have to meditate, I have to exercise. It's like, no, there are actually a ton of different ways you can help yourself. One thing that helps me just for me, I will say it's more stress than anxiety per se, but shifting the way you talk to yourself and literally the name of your book, What If it All Works Out? My habit is to say, you think about, "what could go wrong?", but if you actually say, "What if it actually goes better than planned? What if it actually works out?”
(13:36):
It can sound kind of corny, but literally changing the way you think and speak to yourself, whether it's internally or externally, I happen to talk to myself, which is also helpful if I'm going to get all fluffy here, right? I've heard--this is my feed--neuroscientists say, if you literally talk to yourself, it is just as powerful as a third party telling you, Gayle, I'm proud of what you did today. It's as impactful as somebody else saying that. Is that true or am I just...?
Ashley Mitchell (14:08):
It's true. It's absolutely true. Our minds are so incredibly powerful and our minds will base our feelings and our behaviors off of how we talk to ourselves. So if we're calling ourselves, God, I'm such a failure. I messed up on this test. I'm such a loser, you're going to feel bad. You're not going to feel good. Why would you feel good if you're talking to yourself that way? But if you switched it around and said something like, maybe I didn't study as hard as I could have, and next time I'll do better. It's okay. I made a mistake. It's all right. I can move on from that. There's such a shift in how you can feel. You can give yourself grace. Nobody is perfect. So we have to consider the positives. We have to remind ourselves that there are so many options out there for us, whether in our internal thinking or externally that we can just do. We have to allow ourselves the ability to just try different things and know that we're not perfect and that is totally okay. We can make mistakes and we can still be okay. We learn the most from our mistakes in fact. So it's great to try something and make a mistake and try something different next time.
(15:15):
I can say as for myself, those three words, give yourself grace. I wrote it down, really changed my life. Three little words that somebody told me Once I have dealt with depression, I have dealt with many things. I'm going through a divorce right now, and the first time I remember somebody telling me, give yourself grace. It's such a simple sentence. What's so helpful? And now I use that with people all the time because I just think it's simply, it's very simple. It's not complicated, and it's true. We are human beings and we are figuring this all out. There is no way we can all have the answers all the time and do everything perfectly, and we need to give ourselves grace for sure.
(15:59):
Definitely. And I like how you mentioned it can be such a simple phrase too, and that's sort of what I wanted the book to be. If you picked it up and you were in an anxiety spiral and you read What if it works out? Maybe that could stop it for a moment and you could ponder that for a second and it could shift things maybe enough in that moment that you feel, oh, well I didn't really think about it like that. Maybe it could work out.
Gayle Kalvert (16:25):
Right? I would love for you to talk a little bit about anxiety in relationships because none of us are in a silo, right? We're here in this world, we're part of a family, friends work, whatever your situation is. As someone who has anxiety, you kind of think, well, okay, I can try to manage this for myself, but that might also impact my relationships. For instance, you talked about your anxiety and the things that you need to do to manage your anxiety. Well, not everybody is potentially in a relationship that is as encouraging, accepting, supportive of what somebody listening might need to do to deal with their anxiety. How do you manage trying to combat your own anxiety and then also how that impacts others that you are in relationships with.
Ashley Mitchell (17:13):
If you're in a relationship with someone who's not understanding your need to take care of yourself, that may be its own problem, which could definitely cause anxiety within the relationship, but communication is such a huge factor. If you understand your symptoms, let's say you understand, Hey, I get anxiety when this happens, or I'm kind of anxious. I was in a relationship prior that somebody cheated on me. You do have to help yourself and you do have to be able to communicate what is going on with you. We can't rely on someone else to understand what we're going through or make assumptions or read our minds. So really working on yourself, and you did mention other relationships, so you could have relationships with a friend or a sibling or kid or whatever. So I would say really try to understand yourself so that you can maybe explain like, Hey, I'm really sorry I lashed out earlier. I think I was having anxiety about this or fears that my kid's going to run out in the middle of the street and get hit by a car. Well, I might yell because I'm so afraid that they're going to run out into the street, but now they're upset because I've yelled. So okay, pausing, apologizing, repairing when necessary and offering any kind of communication that you feel comfortable with, I think is pretty helpful.
Gayle Kalvert (18:33):
Any tips or tools for parents trying to help their children with anxiety?
Ashley Mitchell (18:38):
Validate. Validate as much as you can. If you're parent, you most likely experience anxiety in yourself. If you're noticing anxiety in your kid, help them validate that what they're feeling is okay, it happens. We all go through it. Each situation is different, so it's hard to offer just a general statement, but mindfulness exercises, breathing, journaling, talking it out, listening to music, there's so many tools out there that I would explore. What do you gravitate towards? Maybe you have a child who's in the creative world. Well that can be really helpful for processing emotions. Let's say they really like to write well, that can hugely helpful for processing feelings. Having them talk to a counselor is really helpful. It can be hard, especially if you're a parent with anxiety, helping your child with anxiety because there can be a bit of a cycle that happens because you're anxious now that they're anxious.
(19:33):
And I mean, we all experience that. I think at some point we only feel as good as our unhappiest child, so we have to figure out, okay, maybe we're not the best person to manage this right now, and that's totally okay. Maybe you're too personally invested and someone else needs to come in and probably offer the same things that you're trying to tell your kid, but maybe your kid actually listens to somebody else because they're just not their parent. You know what I mean? We all know that, right? All of our parents all the time, tell them it might go better than if I tell them, I'm like, this is my job. They're like, no, what you're saying is wrong. Someone says the same thing. And I'm like, come on
Gayle Kalvert (20:10):
You're a mom. We don't know anything.
Ashley Mitchell (20:11):
No, we don't. No.
Gayle Kalvert (20:13):
We talked about sleep. Is there anything that we can do to improve our sleep? I can use myself as an example. You can use me as the guinea pig, three kids, a dog. These are things that aren't necessarily my choice, right? Sometimes it might be environmental, other times it might be that people cannot fall asleep, anxious. What kind of tips or thoughts do you have there?
Ashley Mitchell (20:38):
Well, yeah, I would say it is hard as a parent, especially with animals too, because animals don't always care about your sleep schedule. But consistency and routine in your household I think is really helpful. So as teenagers and as kids get older, they tend to stay up later. But if you can try to say, Hey, okay, by 10 o'clock we need to have our devices down, we need to be relaxing in bed, we need to be reading or we need to have calm music or the lights are low, let's try to have that be consistent schedule. So every night at 10 o'clock, lights are dim or lights are out, and we're all trying to get a good night rest. So a consistent schedule is really important. So that means going to sleep around the same time and waking up around the same time. And with teenagers, I know it's really hard, but that even includes the weekends.
(21:25):
But if you can stay on that schedule, that will still help you. Another good thing to do first thing in the morning is get sunlight, get a little bit of exercise and have some protein because what you're trying to do is reset your circadian rhythm. If you're circadian rhythm is all out of whack, you want to reset it and it resets with the sun. It resets with your body starting to eat food because it starts to work the metabolism and all of those things, and it all runs in a cycle. Those are some helpful tips. Keeping your room cool, keeping the lights dim, less screens, all of those things. Caffeine is a big one. So if you're a big caffeine drinker, really try to limit how much caffeine you have, especially later in the day. But everybody, some people can drink caffeine late at night and still go to sleep, which means it's not doing the same thing as for somebody else where they need to actually wake up. So just consider that. If you're constantly relying on caffeine, then you have to consider what that's doing to your body and how that's affecting your sleep the following night.
Gayle Kalvert (22:29):
Well, it's interesting too because so much of it is like I'm even thinking, well, obviously that makes sense. That's sort of so obvious in one sense, but I'm not doing it. We all get busy, distracted, we get pulled in different places, and I love this because it's just remembering, let's kind of get back to basics. Let's make sure that these essential things that we're doing for ourselves and the people that we love. One area, Ashley, I know you and I have spoken a lot about just in the past ourselves, is holistic treatments. What does that mean for people who are listening and wondering, maybe I don't want to take medication, right? If we've talked a lot about good habits, obviously, and of course there's medication. When you say holistic, is there anything that you're particularly excited about, feel like is really great that people can maybe look into?
Ashley Mitchell (23:19):
Well, I would say figuring out your basic needs is a really important part of it, but there's supplements, the food we eat, the exercise that we do. There's also things like, and this is something I specialize in, is neurofeedback therapy, which utilizes brain training to help your brain retrain certain brainwaves that might be contributing to anxiety or sleep disorders or things like that. But nothing's going into your body, nothing's going into your brain. It's just teaching your brain how to regulate itself. But that can also be done with meditation, mindfulness, there's energy healing, which I am trained in. There's lots of different techniques, honestly, somatic healing, there's a lot of things outside of medication that you can try, but not everybody wants to put the effort into it. And it does take effort to help yourself sometimes, and some people have more needs than others, and that is absolutely true.
(24:14):
And sometimes you do need to take medication at least for a while, to kind of get yourself regulated, to be able to have the energy to try these other things. So I am not against medication. I do think medication can be very helpful, but as you said, there are a lot of people out there that don't want to take medication. And I understand that too because plenty of people have gone on medication and it hasn't worked or it hasn't gone well, or the side effects were worse than the treatment itself, and they had to take medication for that. So everybody's story is different, and I just wanted to give options for people who, like you said, maybe don't want to be on medication or are trying to get off medication.
Gayle Kalvert (24:54):
What are some small shifts that people can make? Because like you mentioned, it feels like a lot of work.
Ashley Mitchell (25:00):
It does.
Gayle Kalvert (25:01):
Oh, I have to overhaul my routine. I have to take walks. I have to, I know.
Ashley Mitchell (25:08):
I would say start small, like you said, small shift. I would say really what feels accessible to you and even think back. Okay, when was a time when you felt good? Was it a time when you were in a really healthy exercise routine and you felt like you were feeling really good? Maybe you were a healthy exercise routine and you got injured? Okay, that's unfortunate. Are you feeling better now? Can you kind of get back into it or can you adjust what you were doing before? Or maybe it is, man, I really do know my sleep is disrupted. Maybe I should just start there. I would say pick one thing. If you were to get the book, pick one chapter and just focus on that. Maybe it's just stepping outside in the morning and getting 20 minutes of sunlight. That seems doable. Pick something that feels very doable and very accessible.
(25:56):
It could be, let me journal three things I'm grateful for at the end of the day. It could be just that. And then I would say build on it if that's helped a little bit. Great. Does that feel like it's more automatic and part of your routine now and it doesn't feel like work? Just sit down and maybe journal three things. Okay, let's add one more thing. Let's try walking in the morning. Let's try one more thing. That's been a lot of my journey has been building on the things that I've already been doing because it is really hard to do all those things at once, and I definitely can relate to that. You all have jobs and responsibilities, little things when you find the time or how can you incorporate more time for you into your day even?
(26:40):
And if you have small kids, it may just have to wait until your kids are a little bit older and that's hard. But that might be what needs to happen. Give yourself grace there and say, okay, this is a hard time. When I find time, I will do something for myself or I will talk to my partner, or maybe I do hire a babysitter once a week and I take four hours to myself on a Saturday or whatever. It's putting intention into it so that you can feel better and you really do have to do that. We don't just automatically feel better without putting any effort into it. That's hard. It would be great, but it's just not going to happen. And you have to put some effort into feeling good to feel good.
Gayle Kalvert (27:20):
Are there any chapters that are your favorite?
Ashley Mitchell (27:23):
Ooh, I don't know. That's a good question. I like the grounding ones and the one where it really incorporates nature because I do think we need to get back to nature, and it's kind of to that point of being on social media and being on screens and just the pressures of life. I really do feel like if you can give yourself an hour or an afternoon or a short walk in the morning every day and look at the trees and listen to the birds and just breathe without a device, I think that can make a really big impact. And I think that's also why if you're someone who, even if it's a short day trip to the beach or to the mountains or if you've got a park nearby and you can just sit and you can just breathe and realize there is a whole world outside of our little bubble of stress that we can access. I think that can be really impactful.
Gayle Kalvert (28:24):
What about those of us that try to do those things and the whole time we're thinking about all the things we need to be doing, but we can't do them because we're trying to take a walk? That might be me.
Ashley Mitchell (28:35):
Yes, that can absolutely happen for sure, because when we give ourself those quiet moments, that's when our mind can spiral. So that means that you're not being present and not being mindful in that moment, and that's not your fault or anything. We all do it, but that's when we have to be intentional. Okay, I'm going to put that aside and I'm going to look at this tree and I'm going to recognize, okay, what color are the leaves today? Is the wind blowing? Do I see any animals? Can I focus on my breath? Because when you're focused on those things and you're in your moment, you're giving your mind a break, you're letting it rest, and we need to rest our brains, your thoughts will come back. They will always be there. We're not going to forget everything. And it can be helpful honestly, if you write some of those worries and thoughts down ahead of time. Or if you do have your phone, which give yourself a break from your phone sometimes, but if you do have your phone, just jot it in your notes section, all the worries or the things you still have to do and then put it aside and give yourself 20 minutes, 30 minutes, five minutes if that's all you have, and just breathe and sit and remind yourself that you're okay. You're going to be okay.
Gayle Kalvert (29:54):
Well, and I keep thinking during our conversation too about the stigma about mental health versus physical health and how if you had broken your arm, nobody would question that you went to the doctor. In some ways, I find it mind boggling that there is still a stigma about going to a therapist because we are all so over informed. And I do feel like even for people who may not have mental health challenges, what I like about what you are talking about is all of these tools and tips that you're giving are things that anyone can use to help them. You don't have to have clinical anxiety. I'm not a therapist probably, so I don't even want to use the wrong terms, but no, you don't. You are going to see a therapist or honestly, picking up your book is a great first step because everything that we've talked about, I'm thinking, oh my gosh, I need to be doing that for my kids. Helping them take these breaks or making it important early in their life that they know taking time out to literally be outside and making sure you get sun basics, that we're much more, I think, natural in our habits before social media and all the technology. It's not about social media. It's just so easy to be connected, your to-do list and everything all the time because we can take it with us. And so you intentionally really have to put it down. I see it with my kids when I say we will go out and I will say it is a phone free situation and they have to literally give me their phone and it's so hard for them.
Ashley Mitchell (31:40):
I know.
Gayle Kalvert (31:40):
The conversations are better, right? They are happier.
Ashley Mitchell (31:45):
Yeah.
Gayle Kalvert (31:47):
Can you just talk about the positive that comes from the hard decision to force your kids to take breaks on social media? I want to be positive. I want people to think about, okay, it doesn't mean your kid has anxiety. That's not what that means, but it's very hard for all of us. So what is the positive that you see with your patients in your work?
Ashley Mitchell (32:10):
Oh yeah, I see everything that you just said, honestly, that they are calmer, they are happier, but it's going to feel like withdrawal initially. And they're going to be like, oh my God, I need my device. I need my thing. Until they realize that they don't. And that can be really powerful for a kid or a teen to notice in themselves, oh, I don't need to be connected. I don't need to be seeing whatever I'm seeing or playing the games that I'm used to playing all the time or thinking that's the only thing that brings me joy. It's not, there are so many things and connecting in real life can be a big one, especially with family or loved ones or friends. Being in person and having real conversations really builds that connection, which they need. They really need. I mean, as humans, we all need it. Taking a break is good for the brain. Spending time outdoors is really good for the brain and body spending time with loved ones, it's good for us and we know that. And they just have to learn that as well by taking a break from the screens.
Gayle Kalvert (33:20):
Yes, and I know how hard it can feel, right to say it can feel hard for sure, we're going to get pushback, but you'll notice the difference and they notice the difference too, your children. So I'm a big fan of making more profit. Ashley, thank you so much. I know we didn't even cover half of what's in your book, so anyone that wants to learn more about basically feeling more calm, you don't have to have anxiety to benefit from your book. So what if it all works out is available on Amazon so you can get your copy? This has been terrific. So for anybody who wants to reach out to you, where can they find you in the digital world when they are on their phones?
Ashley Mitchell (34:02):
I am trying to be intentional about taking a break right now, but my business has an Instagram account, so it's guided reflections on Instagram. I do have a website, guidedtherapyva.com. You can reach out if you want to email me. That's totally cool. So yeah, those two places. LinkedIn, although I'm not on that very often either.
Gayle Kalvert (34:22):
That's okay. You don't need to be on social media, but this way people can find you and your great teachings.
Ashley Mitchell (34:27):
And I am pretty good with replying to emails, so.
Gayle Kalvert (34:29):
I can attest to that. Thank you so much, Ashley. Thank you. We'll see you soon. Okay, bye bye. I hope that was helpful. If you know someone that you go to for this topic, send them my way. After all, we're just figuring this out together. See you next time.