Thanks for listening to Take Out Therapy, where you can improve your mental health, emotional stability, and life skills in less than 20 minutes a week. Simple, straightforward, authentic advice and education, right from a private practice therapist and anxiety expert. I'm Rebecca Hunter, and this is Better Mental Health, delivered.
Visit TakeOutTherapy.com for lots more resources to help you thrive. Attention, podcast listeners. Your mental health upgrade has finally arrived.
I'm gifting new members a 30-day free trial to the Take Out Therapy Club, your bite-sized path to well-being. Picture this, monthly therapist-led workshops tackling real-life struggles, bonus coaching sessions, and a supportive community for zero-judgment high fives. It's your personal toolkit for thriving, delivered straight to your device.
Ready to unlock your best self? Just enter the code LISTEN24 at TakeOutTherapy.com. That's it. I even put an easy link below. Your free trial starts now.
Investing in your mental health is the very fastest way to peace, and Take Out Therapy Club makes it easy and affordable. Let's start growing together with that code, LISTEN24. This is Better Mental Health, delivered.
Well, hello there, friend. You'll be so happy you joined me for today's episode because recently I went through something difficult, and today I'd like to share my lessons. I promise in this second try at recording this podcast episode that I am going to try really hard not to gross you out or be too graphic, but I'm going to be honest and straightforward with you about something regular that we all, well, most of us will go through at some point in our lives.
Can you handle it? Okay. So there's this medical test that, you know, is paid for by your insurance because it's a preventative exam, and it was time for me to get it. I had to go and get it.
I didn't want to. I put it off for so long, and I acted like a baby, and my sweet partner made me. He gave me the look.
He asked me really politely, then gave me some alternative things that could happen. It's a highly important medical screening that we are all supposed to do, and apparently I was five years late on purpose, right? Do you guys know what a colonoscopy is? It's a very important preventative exam where they basically ask that you completely empty the organ, and then they just take a look in there, and honestly, 50% of people that get an exam have what they call a polyp that grows inside the tube, and polyps can be fine and completely benign, or they can be kind of necrotic tissue or whatever you call it, the kind of tissue that will easily grow cancer. So they just whip those little things out of there, and off you go, apparently, for another 10 years.
So the test itself, not a big deal. It takes like 20 minutes, and they put you under, but the preparation for the test was quite difficult for me. So I want to talk to you about this situation, because it's just such a common situation in the bigger context of things, right? We get ourselves in these situations, whether through our own intention, our values, right, our priorities, our needs, or just a full-on pickle, and then it's really difficult, and then we're faced with something that we're actually mostly choosing to go through, but for a good purpose, right? So that's a little bit like what my experience was with this test, because the whole empty the organ part means that you just take pills, and then you just start to empty, like a fairly straightforward situation, right, except for you also can't eat 24 hours, or in my case, about 36 hours, or maybe even 48 before the exam.
So it was really hard from a body standpoint. It's just a bit of a test, right? And you know me, being a therapist and all, I really like to try to look at things from a different angle, from an angle of like, okay, all right, if this is some sort of test or lesson, what am I learning right now? What is there that I can take away from this? And so that is what I wanted to share with you today, was that we all go through things that we kind of put ourselves in a position to go through, and many times, actually, people's personal growth process is like that. They think, okay, I'm going to like grow as a person, and then all of a sudden, they're standing in a mud puddle of difficulty, like, well, I mean, I was ready to grow.
What is this about? Or I've already done this work. Why am I back here again? And I guess what I'll say is every situation is a new opportunity to learn something different. And it's okay that sometimes we put ourselves in difficulty in order to get what we need, what we want, and to do annoying medical procedures.
Right? If you've had this colonoscopy test, you know what I'm talking about. I am encouraging everyone to get a colonoscopy. No, I don't really care if you get a colonoscopy.
It doesn't matter to me. I hope that you keep yourself safe and healthy. Yeah, that's what I care about.
So let me tell you what I learned in my process. Okay, lesson number one. Just relax and let what is going to happen, happen.
Like, let go a bit. Now, in the case of my medical prep, I think you can ascertain what I'm talking about. Like sometimes when we really, really don't want something to happen, it makes it like we're really suffering through it when it does, even though we already knew it was going to.
You know what I'm saying? It's like sometimes like how we avoid leaving certain relationships or friendships because it's gonna suck. But when we let go a bit and we relax and just let what we know is going to happen, happen. Everything takes on a different tone, right? And then you can nurture yourself, which is my second lesson.
Learn to love and care for your body. Like nourish it, soothe it. Just gently and lovingly care for your body.
Even if sometimes it means interacting with the medical system. In my case, that is something I don't love doing. I just don't love it.
Okay, but in the spirit of this recent experience, what I learned is like there's a lot of room to nurture oneself. You know, there's a lot of room to just spend a little bit of time caring for our body. Recently, I've started getting into like doing more foam rolling and like fascia-based care and somatic stretching.
I'm loving it. And it feels like I'm soothing and gently, you know, being nurturing to my body. So just these recent experiences have really influenced that for me.
And I hope it's helpful to pass it on. The third lesson that I will gift to you is like make yourself comfortable. Can we please stop being uncomfortable? Because we don't think somehow that our comfort is going to be acceptable to other people.
I'm so done with this. In this process of prepping for this medical exam and even like going there, what I decided and what I took away from it was like, it's really important to just make myself comfortable. You know, like get a book and a pillow and move in.
It's cool, right? You know what I mean, if you've been there. You know, just get what you need around you, especially when you're suffering, which means like when you're suffering, make yourself comfortable. Don't move in.
Be accountable to time and space, but make yourself comfortable. I have a whoopee. I have this blanket is so it is kind of disgusting.
But my grandma gave it to me when I was 13 years old. And I'm telling you, it is my whoopee. And it's one of those very, very soft, nubby blankets.
It's like not fleece, but it's kind of fleece and it has sheep all over it. And it has been with me in my uncomfortable moments for a lot of years. What is it? 37 years.
That is kind of gross. I do wash it. Yes, I have my whoopee.
Make yourself comfy. And then my last lesson for you today that I remembered during this whole medical test fiasco. No, it wasn't a fiasco.
It was totally fine. Like I said, the test was no brainer. It was they call it the sedative vacation or something.
It's like 20 minutes. No big deal. But what my biggest takeaway was is that nervous system regulation is amazing.
And so incredibly powerful and useful in almost every situation that we're in, chosen or not. There are subtle ways to do it. And there's more forceful ways to do it.
You can come see me in the club if you want to learn them. If you want to figure out how the heck to keep your nervous system regulated in all these different ways, come join. But I use both ways.
I used very subtle ways, maybe some of my favorite breathing techniques that I know work for me. And some of my like trauma informed body movements that I know work for me. Just like these very subtle little things.
And then also the more forceful ways, which is like to regulate your nervous system through your cognitive function. Two very different approaches. Right.
But nervous system regulation is by far my biggest, just something that I'm really going to be focusing in on. I think I'm getting good at it. I think it's why I don't have an anxiety problem anymore.
That and a few other things that I've been able to do, which if you know, and you've been listening to the podcast, you know that I started out really anxious. So something like this kind of medical procedure that has so much prep and you have to go under for a short period of time was, could have been a really big deal for me. And so I guess my last lesson would say is like, celebrate your wins.
See what you're doing. That's working. That's going well in every situation.
Okay. That is my lesson in difficulty. I hope this episode helped anyone heading into a colonoscopy.
And also maybe those of you in other pickles chosen or not, right? We always have choice about how we handle things. I will see you again next week. Take care of yourself.
Thanks so much for joining me today to support this free resource, subscribe, review, and pass an episode along to a friend in need. And always please get the level of support that you need for your situation. Want a full session? Just reach out.
I'm here to help head to takeouttherapy.com for lots more resources and to join my community. This is better mental health delivered. Attention podcast listeners.
Your mental health upgrade has finally arrived. I'm gifting new members, a 30 day free trial to the takeout therapy club, your bite-sized path to wellbeing. Picture this monthly therapist led workshops, tackling real life struggles, bonus coaching sessions, and a supportive community for zero judgment high fives.
It's your personal toolkit for thriving delivered straight to your device. Ready to unlock your best self? Just enter the code. Listen, 24 at takeouttherapy.com. That's it.
I even put an easy link below your free trial starts. Now investing in your mental health is the very fastest way to peace and take out therapy club makes it easy and affordable. Let's start growing together with that code.
Listen, 24. This is better mental health delivered.
