In this episode of Us Anxious Folk, I'm joined by licensed psychotherapist, author and trauma professional Duygu Balan.

Duygu talks to us about the value of creativity in healing from anxiety and trauma, why the body is the gatekeeper to building a relationship with our fears, and how we can get to learn safety and self-compassion within a body that feels perpetually unsafe.

We talk about the joys of connection, including the use of social media and the impact on our mental health, and setting healthy boundaries with one another.

We discuss the nature of being human, the spectrum of human emotion and experience, and daily practices to help you connect with and harness the power and beauty of your human nature.

Duygu is the co-author of Confidently Chill: An Anxiety Workbook for New Adults and Re-Write: A Trauma Workbook of Creative Writing and Recovery in Our New Normal

You can find her at her website https://www.duygubalan.com/ and instagram https://www.instagram.com/duygubalan/

In this requested episode of Us Anxious Folk, I talk about what happens when you start to experience apathy with recovery.

Moving through anxiety and panic can be so challenging, and takes such a physical and emotional toll, that when you get to a place of being able to exist semi-comfortably (read: still very much in a restricted 'comfort zone') it can be almost too tempting to stay there. You lose the motivation to keep 'trying', because it's already taken so long to just get where you are now.

How do we get that motivation back? How do we light a fire within us to want to try, when we've worked so hard at putting out the anxiety fire within us?! How can we turn apathy into a drive to really get out there, to figure out what we want and how we want to get it?

Listen to this episode to find out 😎 Mentioned in this episode:https://www.instagram.com/p/C9ZnlYXogUV/ Time Will Pass Anyway - Adam Russell ( @wordswithruss )

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If you would like to be a guest on the podcast and share your anxiety story, please get in touch with me at hello@iamlaurenrose.com. I would love to have you!

My Website - http://iamlaurenrose.com My Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/laurenr_rose In this episode of Us Anxious Folk, I bring you another discussion on the topic of toilet anxiety. I talk about the pressure of living in a world where we are pushed to be perfect and likeable, coupled with the insidious nature of social media, and how this results in us feeling like we are under a microscope. Are we forgetting that it's okay to be human? That it's normal to have bodily functions, and that in trying so desperately to exist in an 'acceptable' way, we've somehow made it impossible to be who we really are? ------------------ If you would like to be a guest on the podcast and share your anxiety story, please get in touch with me at hello@iamlaurenrose.com. I would love to have you!