The Ed Armstrong Podcast: Recent Episodes
Ed Armstrong
This podcast will share stories all about mental and physical health. Each week we will discuss how to become a well rounded individual and show how overcoming serious adversity and struggle is the prerequisite to optimal living. This podcast will give people tools and strategies to become a better version of themselves. We believe that no matter what you have been through or what you are currently going through, your life matters and you will get better. It might even just be the best thing to happen to you. A Podcast of Inspiration and Hope.
A little bit of a different style episode for you today.
Just me, talking about some of my biggest mistakes that I have made over the years. All the way from fat loss pills, to ab stimulating machines. yep. I'm not proud of it.
But I share all this to help you, so that you don't have to make the same mistakes that I did for all those years.
There is a lot of great stuff out there when it comes to health and fitness, but let's be honest, there is also A LOT of nonsense too...
And I hope this episode helps simplify a few things for you.
I hope you enjoy it.
Take it on a walk. And share it with your family and your friends if you think it could help them.
Much love
“SEE if you can catch your voice in the head, perhaps in the moment it complains about something, and recognise it for what it is: The voice of the ego, no more than a conditioned mind-pattern, a thought.
…Whenever you notice that voice, you will also realise that you are not the voice, but the one who is aware of it. You are the awareness that is aware of the voice.
In the background, there is awareness. In the foreground, there Is the voice, the thinker.
…In this way you are becoming free of the ego, free of the unobserved mind.
The moment you become aware of the ego in you, it is strictly speaking no longer the ego, but just an old, conditioned mind-pattern.
**Ego implies unawareness.
Awareness and ego cannot coexist.
Every time the ego is recognised, it is weakened.”**
Source: A New Earth. Eckhart Tolle
Just a little snippet from today's show.
All about how to deal with and manage your mind and thoughts in a more helpful and beneficial way.
I hope it helps you.
Much love
Ed
Have you ever wondered (or noticed) why you (or any of those people close to you) always seem to focus on the negative things?
Even if life is going well, they still seem to focus on all the things going wrong??
Why is that?
And what is it called?
Well, it turns out, it's a very real phenomenon and it plays a huge part in most peoples' lives. It's called 'The negativity bias', also known as the negativity effect, and it is the notion that, even when of equal intensity, things of a more negative nature have a greater effect on one's psychological state and processes than neutral or positive things.
Which means that there is a neurological explanation as to why some people end up being so negative. It has to do with the part of the brain called the amygdala, which functions as an alarm and is constantly on the look out for danger, fear and bad news. Scientists believe this to be the brain's default position.
It's that idea of our early ancestors and how they needed to focus on the potential danger and how that was critical to their survival, and it worked. Or else we wouldn't be here. And that hardwiring has been past down to us...and although we don't (hopefully) have to worry about being eaten by a lion anymore, we still have those same psychological pathways and patterns at play in our everyday life, today.
But...that can be a problem.
Even though it makes sense. i.e. It wasn't exactly a good strategy to be calm, blissful and 'present' and peaceful when trying to avoid the lion (which is why it's our default position...and why we struggle to find and feel those more positive emotions)...you can see how this can be pretty detrimental to our life, if we're unaware of this fact and if we don't get a handle on it.
Because, for many of us, when things happen in our 'normal' daily lives now, we react as if we are running away from the lion. But there is no lion.
So, we are literally therefore, hardwired for negativity.
We are hardwired to focus on the potential problems, and the challenges and the obstacles...
But, what do we do about it?
Well, hopefully this episode will help shine a light on that for you...
I hope it helps.
Much love
Ed
What are they?
-Mindset
-Habits
-Environment
If you can work on and improve all three, you'll change your life.
I hope you enjoy the episode.
Much love
Ed
This episode is all about MOTIVATION today.
Namely, 'Intrinsic' vs 'Extrinsic' motivation.
In basic terms, Intrinsic motivation comes from within, while extrinsic arises from the outside. (You probably guessed that)
Why is this important?
When you're intrinsically motivated you engage in the activity solely because you enjoy it and get personal satisfaction from it. When you're extrinsically motivated, you do something to gain an external reward.
You've probably heard this before.
But, have you thought about how this works in your life?
With all these goals you want, are you doing it for the enjoyment of the activity OR are you doing it for the external reward?
Something to think about...
Now, don't get me wrong, sometimes having an external reward CAN be useful AND motivating. Sure.
BUT, which one do you think is most valuable to you and your journey of self-improvement and personal growth?
If you had to focus on one a little bit more than the other??
Yep. You guessed it.
INTERNAL.
The idea that we show up and do the things we know we need to do for the pure sense of joy and pleasure that the activity itself gives us.
When you get this, you don't really need to worry about motivation anymore.
Most people lack motivation because they are doing something they DON'T value AND, they are doing something (or chasing something) that they DON'T really want.
They are chasing someones else's dream or someone else's goal...thinking that it is what they should be doing...and thinking that it will make them happy.
BUT you must ask yourself, is that what YOU want? And is it what YOU value?
This doesn't mean it will be easy and always be fun. No, changing your life is hard. I say it all the time. And there will be days you don't feel like doing the things you know you should be doing BUT, when you're internally driven and motivated, it's much easier to be excited about those things and to do them anyway.
Because you find enjoyment in the action itself.
NOT in the result or the reward.
This is really common in the health/fitness and personal development world.
People chasing the wrong things.
People thinking that some end result or end destination will solve all their problems...
But, the truth is, happiness comes from the pursuit. From the journey. It comes from the process of daily self-improvement...
The internal scorecard you keep with yourself.
Hope you enjoy the episode.
Much love
Ed
Hopefully this episode will tell you exactly why you should.
Goal setting can be a bit of a boring topic that every man and his dog is talking about, I know, but, I hope I spiced it up a bit for you today. I hope, if nothing else, this episode made you realise just how important creating a meaningful goal and direction in your life, truly is.
For so many reasons..
Give it a listen and share it with your family and your friends if you think it could help them.
As always, hope this helps.
Much love.
Ed
On this episode I go into some depth about just how important it is to start with the basics and how that is the prerequisite to climbing high on your journey of personal growth.
When we are in a low place, the 'doors' of opportunity and growth seem very small and very low, BUT, we must enter them and we must explore them if we wish to change and improve our life.
As always, I hope this episode helps.
Share it with your family and your friends.
Much love
Ed
I hope this helps and I hope you enjoy it.
Feel free to share it with all your family and your friends.
I appreciate all the support.
Much love
Ed
Wow.
Part 2 with Pat certainly didn't disappoint!
We talked all about emotions and feelings in this episode and about just how important a role they all play in allowing us to experience a full life.
We talked about Anger, Anxiety, Guilt and Shame. And we discussed how these are nothing more than signals and sign post that we need to look at and address, in order for us to work through them and to come out happier, healthier and stronger the other side.
I really hope you enjoy the episode.
Remember: It's OK to feel...
As always, if you did enjoy it and if you feel like it will help someone you know, please share it with them. That's how we grow the show.
Thank you!
I appreciate you all.
Much love
I'm so excited to share this episode with you today. I think you're going to love it.
Tom is a GB Olympic Rugby Sevens player, England Rugby super star and just an all round great bloke.
We have been best mates for a very long time and it was so nice to be able to have such a deep and meaningful conversation and it was a pleasure for us to be able to share it with you all, too.
I think there are a lot of great take home points for you to bring into your own life, whether you're an elite athlete like Tom, or just someone out there who is trying to improve your own physical and mental health...there really is something for everyone in this episode.
I really hope you enjoy it and that it helps you improve the quality of your life.
That's all we're trying to do here...
Please share this episode with your family and your friends if you think it will help them.
Much love
Ed
I'm so excited to bring you a brand new season with a load of amazing guests.
This one is with an amazing guy called Pat (@patchirico on Instagram - give him a follow!) and he is a coach in the health and wellness space and he specializes in Meditation and mindful practices.
I really hope you enjoy the show.
If you do, please feel free to share it with your family and your friends if you think it will help them.
Much love.
Ed
We get to choose how we see the world.
It's one of the great things about being a human.
Something can happen to us and then we get to choose how we decide to react to it.
And what's even more amazing, is that we can also decide to give that same thing/event its own meaning...
Either positive or negative.
Either empowering or dis-empowering.
But either way, WE get to choose and WE get to decide.
I don't know about you, but I find that amazing and very exciting.
But here's the thing, most people don't realize this and they certainly don't make it a daily practice in their life...
To be able (in any moment) to choose a different response...consciously...
.
I wanted to share another email with you today on this episode all about this very topic, as I think it is such a powerful mindset/mental health tool for us to be able to use, in any given moment, in any are of our life.
I really hope you enjoy this episode and that it helps you on your own journey.
Feel free to share it with your family and friends if you think it may help them.
And if you have a spare minute and you are getting value from this show, please rate and review it. That would mean so much.
Thank you.
Much love
I wanted to do another Q and A style Podcast on today's episode.
I was asked two great questions on my Instagram story the other day and they were too hard to answer in 15 seconds so here we are!
The questions were:
- Is Mental Health the same as Mental Toughness?
and
- Can exercise prevent mental health?
Two great questions and I hope I did them justice in this episode.
I hope it helps you.
Share it with your family and friends if you think it will help them.
And as always, any questions, message me over on Instagram: @edarmstronghealth
Much love
Hope you enjoy this episode.
A snippet from one of my famous daily emails and my thoughts from a great question I received the other day on Instagram.
I really hope it helps.
Feel free to share it will all your family and friends.
Much love
Ed
A special episode for Mental Health Awareness Month.
Rather than just have me talk for an hour, I wanted to do a more Q and A style, so I asked a few of my followers on Instagram (@edarmstronghealth) to ask me some questions and I wanted to share my answers to them, with you all.
I hope it helps.
Share it with all your family and friends if you think it could help.
And if you haven't already, please do rate and review the show.
It would mean the world.
Much love
Ed
An impromptu pod today for you guys.
I had to share my thoughts on a recent interaction I had with a great guy today on social media.
I really hope this helps some of you today.
I believe someone needs to hear this message.
Much love
A real short little episode for you today all about the Power of Perspective.
It's so important for us to understand that no matter what we are going through we can always choose to see the situation as an opportunity instead of an obstacle that we cannot overcome.
Re framing our thoughts in those moments is so powerful and more often that not, it allows us to keep going on our journey and it allows us to learn and adapt to the situation.
Often one of the biggest problems people have is that they feel powerless to change and they buy into the negative self talk and dis-empowering stories that tell them that they aren't good enough, worthy enough, smart enough...the list goes on.
The key is to look for the lessons in these moments, the opportunity, the truth about the situation and to remain grateful for the fact that you can even try to change and improve your life.
It's a privilege.
Hope this episode helps.
Much love.
In this episode I wanted to discuss the power of the infinite mindset.
It's a simple principle to understand and hopefully this episode will do it justice.
This mindset is a lifestyle mindset and for any of you out there on your own journey, my hope is that it will help you.
All too often we beat ourselves up when we haven't hit our goal 'yet' or something we want is taking much longer to achieve than we had once hoped and sometimes when this happens, we lose faith all together in the process and give up. This of course means we never get to where we want to go and the cycle of being "on" or "off" repeats itself.
The infinite mindset is all about having those goals and visions but not focusing too much on when they happen or how long they take. It's more about becoming the person capable of achieving the goals and dreams you want for yourself and it's about becoming more self-aware to your daily actions.
The question is, "Am I moving towards the person I want to become or am I moving away??"
It's about being honest with yourself and your progress. It's not about beating yourself up and feeling like a failure when you're slightly "off" (which you will be). It's about realizing that the journey you're on is a life long process of self improvement.
When you get off track, be honest with yourself and then get back on. It's that simple.
When you focus on the small daily actions and the daily processes you soon realize that when you're playing the long game (the infinite game), you can't mess it up.
And I don't know about you, but that is a pretty powerful place to be.
Enjoy the show.
Share it with your friends.
Ps Feel free to rate and review. I appreciate you all!
This episode is really helpful to anyone out there feeling low, anxious or just down at the moment.
More often than not, when we are in a negative headspace our physiology (our state) is negative. It reflects how we feel.
A great way to quickly get yourself out of that is to change your state as soon as you identify this.
When our state is poor, our story is negative and then the strategies that follow attract more of the same.
BUT, the good news is, we can flip this on its head. We can change how we feel.
For me, it starts with moving when you don't feel like it.
You're not supposed to 'feel like it' or be 'motivated' all the time. That's not realistic but you can decide to take control of the situation and move knowing that when you do something positive with your body, more positive actions and feelings usually follow.
It helps me anyway. I really hope this episode helps you too.
Enjoy.
It’s no secret that times are crazy and uncertain right now. But the truth is, life is always uncertain and a little crazy...
We don’t know what’s happening in an hour let alone next week and the big challenge is understanding and accepting that we have a brain that looks for safety and certainty and yet we live in a world that is totally the opposite.
So, how do we find calm and stillness in the chaos?
I think it has so much to do with us being proactive each day in looking after our own mental and physical health. We must take responsibility for it.
And I would argue it’s now more important than ever.
But, I equally understand that it’s not easy to do.
It’s much easier to watch The Crown all day and to eat all the granola in the house... BUT we both know that that actually makes us feel worse in the long run.
So, control the little things. Do what you can. Connect with loved ones. Get a walk in and a cheeky yoga session if you want. Listen to some positive stuff...read a good book. Create a better environment at home and be proactive in taking control of the day. Get some tasks done early and then take the rest of the day off.
One day at a time.
Stay healthy and stay safe.
Much love.
Share it will all your family and friends.
Hope it helps.
Happy New Year!
I wanted to share a shorter episode with you today to help you start this year off in the right way.
I really hope it helps you progress today and every day this year.
The message is clear: Take it slow, choose the longer more challenging path and focus on the key fundamental pillars each day and you WILL transform in 2021.
Take it one day at a time.
One win at a time.
One positive action after another.
Simple things done well.
That is where the magic is. That is where the growth is. That is where the true development is.
Enjoy the episode.
Much love.
I wanted to share my response to this question that I received on my Instagram story the other day because it needed longer than 15 seconds!
In this episode I share my thoughts on why I think we should actively seek out the longer, slower, harder path when trying to improve our life.
It's not the sexiest answer BUT I believe it to be truth.
I think we actually negatively impact our life (and our progress) when we try to shortcut this very topic. We want everything tomorrow. We want to have 'achieved' our goals and dreams by next week... but it's not reality.
The truth is that this is a life long process of self-improvement. The secret is in that wording. This is our work for life.
We can't shortcut it. Instead we need to embrace each day and make the most of each moment.
Changing your life IS hard but that doesn't have to mean you can't enjoy the process at the same time.
You can have both.
You can absolutely BE a masterpiece now AND a work in progress.
I hope you enjoy it and most importantly, I hope it helps you.
Much love
In this episode I wanted to share a little more with you about my experience of meditation over the past few years.
I truly believe it is THE key to improving our relationship with our own mind and therefore our mental health.
I really hope you enjoy the show.
Share it with your family and your friends.
Much love,
Ed
Deep topic today on Episode 8.
The more I learn about the Ego, the more inspired I am to share it with you all.
I really feel that the more we understand and become aware and conscious of our thinking mind, the better off we will all be and the happier and healthier our lives (and mind) will be too.
Our thinking mind, when not kept in check, is the main source of our suffering and when we can create more space between ourselves and our mind, we are then able to live from a much better place...a place of presence.
That's where the power is.
I hope this episode helps you.
I hope you enjoy it.
Share it with your family and your friends.
Much love,
Ed
I wanted to do an extra episode this week for you guys as today is a very important day.
I hope you enjoy the show and I hope it helps you.
Share it with your loved ones!
Much love.
Is one better than the other?
Is there a place for both?
Check out the episode to hear my thoughts on how I balance the critical mind with the compassionate one...
Enjoy the show guys.
Share it with your loved ones.
Much love
In this episode I wanted to share my thoughts on how (in my opinion), the 'mindset' and personal development 'motivational' world can sometimes negatively impact our mental state. It did for me anyway.
Now, please note, this isn't me saying that there isn't a place for motivational videos and speakers etc. Of course there is, and if it works for you, and helps you on your journey, that's great. However, I do feel that for some of us, we need to go a level deeper.
When I think about my story over the years, I was listening to messages like this every day:
"Get rid of your negative thoughts!"
"Don't allow yourself to think of anything but positive thoughts!"
"What you think about, you will manifest into your life."
"Don't settle for anything less than perfection!"
Great...
Now, a lot of that IS true and on a surface level, 'motivating' ... and I'm all for working hard and working on becoming a better version of yourself, BUT, when you are dealing with a mental health condition (especially severe anxiety), it's not that helpful. In fact, it might actually make you worse. There were many times I became more fearful of my own thoughts because of what I was dealing with at the time...and I know I can't be alone in this.
It's not that this stuff is inherently 'bad', it's just that sometimes, more awareness and a deeper level of understanding is needed. That's all.
When I discovered therapy and meditation (amongst many other things) and began to understand more about my own mind and how it functioned, I was then much more able to deal with my thoughts and feelings in a healthier way.
I had to understand more and become more aware of my own thought patterns and once I was able to see them in a different light, I was able to create much more space and experience much less tension in my own mind.
For me, it was about slowing down, taking a step back and not always fighting with myself and my thoughts but instead going inward, exploring more and becoming more curious to my mind and my thoughts. THAT was very liberating.
I certainly don't have all the answers and i'm still figuring it out myself but I just wanted to share my thoughts and insights with you all on this episode.
I hope you enjoy it.
Much love.
In this episode I share a little more of my story about dealing with anxiety over the years.
I feel it's so important that we talk about this stuff more openly and share our stories with each other. I really believe that THAT is where the power is.
I hope you enjoy the episode.
As always, if you enjoy it, please rate and review and share it with anyone you love and think it could help.
Much love.
In this episode I wanted to share a little bit about my experience of therapy over the years.
I think therapy does scare a lot of people potentially (myself included for many years) and my hope is that this episode will shine a positive light on the benefits of adding some form of therapy into your life.
It was one of the most beneficial things I ever did and I'm eternally grateful for that man who helped make my life better.
I hope you enjoy the show.
Please share it with anyone who you think it may help.
Much love,
Ed
As promised, some helpful resources for you guys:
-
Better Help
-
Talkspace
-
My Therapist Online
Regarding meditation apps:
-
Headspace
-
Calm
It felt very appropriate to share this part of my story on World Suicide Prevention Day.
I hope you enjoy this episode.
Please share it with anyone who you think it may help.
Much love,
Ed
I hope you enjoy this episode guys. A little background about me and my new podcast venture!
I'm very grateful to share this with you.
I hope you enjoy it.
Much love.