Do you sleep like a baby? Or… Have you ever found yourself lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and wanting to scream out in frustration because you just can’t fall asleep? You peak at your alarm clock out of the corner of your eye and it reads 3 o’clock! 3 in the freaking morning… And you have to be up at 6! Now you get even more anxious about not falling asleep, thinking, “I have to fall asleep. I’ve got to get those three hours!” Yeah, I’ve been there, too. Insomnia can seem hard to cope with and it can be especially draining when you suffer from anxiety. So in today’s episode we’re going t ..read more

Have you ever experienced an emotional crisis? Where you were flooded by a storm of difficult thoughts and feelings. What did you do? A crisis can present in many different forms, from the death of a loved one, to loss of a job, to collapse of a marriage, to financial disaster. When you’re hit by a crisis, an emotional storm is likely to whip through your mind and body, tossing painful feelings and thoughts in all directions. What you should do when you find yourself experiencing an emotional crisis? What can you do to not only survive, but to thrive? It’ll be handy to have these techniques in ..read more

  In this episode you’re going to discover why self-esteem is overrated. Yes, I said OVER-rated. I know a lot of self-help books and programs out there are all about boosting your self-esteem. Well, I’m going to tell why those don’t work and why you don’t need to waste your money on them.   Key Points: Why Self-Esteem is Over-rated Most people can relate to the core belief of “I’m not good enough as I am. There is something wrong with me or lacking in me.” No matter how hard we try or how much we achieve, our thinking self can always find something to dislike, some way in which we are lacking ..read more

So up to this point we’ve been placing a lot of our focus on the painful feelings you struggle with and the painful thoughts you get entangled by … basically, all the things that you don’t want. But we haven’t yet focused on what you do want – what sort of person you want to be, what sort of relationships you want to build, what you want to do with your life to make it richer, fuller, and more meaningful. So let’s get clear about what you really want. What are you here for? What makes your life worth living? It’s amazing how many people never consider those questions, just going through life f ..read more

Your mind is like a time machine. Yup, a time machine. It’s lucky for us that our mind can conceptualize the past and the future. It’s a hugely useful ability. It allows us to reflect on and learn from the past and to predict and plan for the future. As we grow older, our mind gets better and better at doing tricks like conjuring up the past and the future. But, unfortunately, this often creates problems. As children, we can easily live in the present, but by adulthood our mind is like an out of control time machine that constantly pulls us back into the past or forward into the future. As a r ..read more

Do you know how to unhook yourself from your thoughts? In episode 3 you found out that your thoughts may actually be controlling you. Wait, let me back up one step first… What do we do when those negative thoughts impact our behaviour or hold us back from doing the things we want to do? For example, having the thought, “I have nothing to say” may lead to avoiding social situations or trying to get out of a social situation. Having the thought, “I blush too much” may lead to trying to hide your face. So how do we deal with these negative or uncomfortable thoughts and prevent them from ruining o ..read more

“Life is a daring adventure, or nothing.”Helen Keller Welcome to the first episode of the Calm Living Blueprint podcast. Thank you for joining me and taking the time to listen. My name is Candice Esposito and I will be your humble host the Calm Living podcast series. The format of this first episode is going to be a bit different than future episodes. Being the first one I thought I’d introduce myself. You’re probably wondering, “Why should I listen to her?” “Is this going to be worth my time?” “What’s in this for me?” And I totally get that. Those are all valid questions. So I want to first ..read more

What if your ego is contributing to your anxiety? Find out how to prevent your ego from holding you back… Our ego, when we let it, has a tendency to hold us back from living the life we truly want to live. If we’re not aware of how it traps us, we can easily fall under its illusion of reality. And when this happens there’s the risk of furthering uncomfortable feelings like anxiety. Key Points Re: Prevent Your Ego From Holding You Back The problem with a fixed identity is that we have to rearrange reality to conform to this fixed view of ourselves. It’s an ineffective attempt at dealing with th ..read more

Have you had thoughts of suicide? I want to have an honest conversation about suicide. I know there’s many people who work in suicide prevention that say you have to be careful about this kind of thing. I get that. But I think sometimes we’re a little too careful… so careful that little ends up being said. People feel like they can’t talk about suicide… or can only do so behind closed doors. Unfortunately, I think suicide – even now in this day and age – is a taboo topic. We have to talk about this. How else are we going to help reduce the suicide rates if we don’t have real, honest conversati ..read more

So there’s something that I’ve been reflecting on lately that I thought I would share… this aspect of life that sometimes the hardest thing to do is to live exactly where you are and as who you are. Have you ever felt that? It’s a funny thing… growing up no one teaches you how to do that – to just live. Each morning we wake up caught between the person we once were and the person we are becoming, between the life you once lived and the one you are creating. And you’re kind of left to wonder if it’s possible to ever find some peace in that space between yesterday and tomorrow. So that’s what th ..read more