Coping Strategies For Stress and Anxiety In The Workplace... 

Coping Strategies For Stress and Anxiety In The Workplace... With Julie Blouin & Samia Bano

Are you a #changemaker dealing with #stressandanxiety as you work on complex challenges to #changetheworld and #changeyourlife?

Listen now to join this revealing discussion with Julie Blouin, #SuccessStrategist, #LifeCoach, #Author & #MotivationalSpeaker, on the root causes of stress and anxiety faced by #changemakers AND the most effective #copingstrategies for anxiety and #StressManagement in the workplace (and beyond!).

Sign up for Julie's free newsletter and learn more about how Julie can help you at: https://julieblouin.com/

NOTE: Just this week leading up to the #NewYear, Julie is offering huge "festive specials" on planners, ebooks, bundles, coaching packages, starting as low as $17 for planners! Check out all the great deals now at: https://stan.store/JulieBlouin

To Book your Free HAPPINESS 101 EXPLORATION CALL with Samia, click: https://my.timetrade.com/book/JX9XJ

#manageanxiety #stressandanxietyrelief #anxietyandstress #intheworkplace #AnxietyAwareness #ChangeMakers #ResilienceJourney #PresentMomentLiving #EmbraceDiscomfort #UnexpectedChallenges #HappinessSkills #WorkLifeBalance #EmployeeWellBeing #OvercomingPerfectionismn #BlueZoneLiving #PositiveSurroundings #LeadershipInChange #ReframeChallenges #SelfEvolution #MindsetMatters #WellnessWisdom #PositiveVibesOnly #PersonalGrowthJourney #InnerStrength #MindfulnessPractice #HealthyMindset #PositivityChallenge #SolutionFocused #MindfulLeadership #OptimismEveryday #LifeBalance #continuousimprovement

Here's the audio version of this episode:

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Full Video Transcript

SAMIA: Hello, Salaam, Shalom, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Aloha, Holah, Ciao, Bonjour, Buna, Privet, and Mabuhay! I hope I said that right. It's a new greeting from the Philippines that I'm working on learning, so all good... Anyway, I'm so happy that you're all joining us today because we have an extra amazing guest, and it's Julie...

Oh, my God, Julie, please help me pronounce your last name…

JULIE: You had it.

SAMIA: I did, I did, and then I was like, oh, no, I'm blanking…

JULIE: No, go ahead. You just had it. Just say it…

SAMIA: Okay. Julie Blouin…

JULIE: Yes. That's correct.

SAMIA: Okay. Thank God... I do have a struggle a lot of times with last names, so thank you for being so kind and patient about that.

JULIE: I'm a life coach. I wasn't going to do the easy part for you and just pronounce it. That's how I coach my clients... No, you can do it. You can do it. Just do it... Even if it feels uncomfortable, you can do it.

SAMIA: Yes…

JULIE: …that's what I was doing. My life coaching strategy just kicked in there.

SAMIA: That's awesome... That's awesome. And so on that note, I will ask you to tell us more about who you are and what you do…

JULIE: Yeah, absolutely. So I am a certified professional Life Coach. I'm also a Success Strategist. I am a three time best selling author of three books. So the "Attitude Of Gratitude", "Messages From the Heart", and "Live Your Passion". I'm also going to be in a documentary very soon in 2024 called Adversity. It's alongside Jack Canfield, Dr. Michael Beckwith... there's a whole bunch of people… Jessica Cox... It's about adversity, and I'm a motivational speaker. So basically what I do is I help either people or organizations… just… I help people figure out what they're passionate about and just move ahead, move forward, and live their dream life. That's what I do. For organizations, I help establish a motivated workforce that actually want to be there and work. And it's a win-win situation with the employer and the people actually working there so that even if they're working a nine-to-five job, they love what they do and they're very productive. So that's what I do.

SAMIA: I love it... That's amazing. That's just what we love to learn about on this show, ‘Make Change Fun and Easy’. Because as I was sharing with you earlier, Julie, we have a community of ChangeMakers. And our ChangeMakers love to not just create change in their own lives, but also in the world through the work that they do. So, you know, when I was thinking about what would be really awesome to talk to you about, especially these days, for me, I keep hearing about how much stress and anxiety our ChangeMakers are having to deal with because… my gosh, the world is dealing with amazingly complex challenges. And because our ChangeMakers are in the thick of, you know, taking those challenges head-on, they're having to deal with a lot of stress and anxiety. So what are you seeing in your work with clients... What are some of the big challenges that are causing stress and anxiety?

JULIE: Yeah, there's so many different challenges with stress and anxiety, but I'm going to tackle some that are very common... One that I see a lot is… sorry, there was a little bug... We just had a tropical storm here in Costa Rica, so the little flies were coming out and I'm always barefoot… There's a little bug on my foot…

So stress and anxiety is how to manage it is really to stay in the present moment. So we need to be focused and stay here in the present moment. So we can't be focused about the past or focus what may or may not happen in the future. Now, a lot of people are stressed out right now and they have a lot of anxiety because of the situation that the world is in and what's happening around the world, what may or may not happen... Now a lot of people also fear, like, they have anxiety with you know, AI. What's with AI? AI is going to replace the workforce, you know... They're going to come and take over our jobs... There's a lot of different things that people are worried about. And it always comes back to… recenter yourself in the present moment. It's so important because if you're living in the future, you're not here in the present moment. So you're not... when we want to manifest our best life, we need to manifest in the present moment, right here, right now... So we cannot be fearing obstacles that may or may not happen in the future. Now, when we limit what we think about, when we eliminate the fear of what may or may not happen… because oftentimes anxiety comes from the unknown... It comes from stepping outside our comfort zone. It comes from doing something we've never done before. We love to do something that is safe and predictable. But the thing is, if you're a ChangeMakers, it means that you need to go where you've never gone before. So you need to get comfortable with the uncomfortable, and that's not always easy. It really isn't. And I'm a Life Coach and I always tell people and ChangeMakers, even life coaches need life coaches in order to step outside our comfort zone and just go for it. It does get uncomfortable… And it's about showing up in the world perfectly imperfect. And I lead by example. As you know, today, right before this podcast, I reached out to you and I said, we have a tropical storm. Like, really, it was just pouring. And I said… it's about not fearing and not creating added stress for yourself for something you have no control over. I had no control over the tropical storm. So I'm like, I'm just going to play it out… let you know... and then we're going to stay in the present moment and we're going to deal with whatever unfolds. We're going to let it unfold. And look, now it's beautiful, beautiful sunshine is out… And 20 minutes ago it was a tropical storm. So it's about really not adding more stress onto ourselves. It's about staying in the present moment. And it's so important. And I know that things get, you know… we want to control everything, but the only thing that we can control is how we react to situations. So nothing that happens around us matters. It's how we react to situations. So we need to stay grounded in the present moment and just know that we have all the skills and abilities to figure it out and to succeed…

SAMIA: Yes, ah, you just shared so many amazing insights… But I love this approach that you're sharing in terms of being present in the moment. I mean, as a Happiness Expert, I would say that is indeed probably the number one skill that we need to develop in order to take control of our happiness. Oh my gosh... Yeah, you know, sometimes... you know, like when I work in my work life, I keep pretty flexible too. I've seen all kinds of things happen where, for example, one day our podcast… usually we used to release it on Thursdays. And one fine day my assistant who did all the editing and the uploading of the materials was sick and didn't come into work. And I was like, okay, no problem, we'll release tomorrow... I mean, I did, before I reached that decision, I did think about, okay, wait, she had already done some work. I was like, can I take what she has done and finish off the rest? I was like, no, it wasn't at that point where I have the tech abilities to finish what was remaining on her part. I was like, is there someone else I can ask for help... I called in and like one or two people and I was like, hey, is there someone who can help me with this? But nothing was working out in a fun and easy way in that context. I was like, okay, I gave it a try. Not looking like it's not going to happen today. And so it's fine. We'll just release tomorrow.

JULIE: And I just wanted to say, it's so good the way that you responded and reacted to it. It's so important to stay adaptable and just adjust based on whatever comes up. You know, oftentimes ChangeMakers have employees that work with us. But what happens is our employees, sometimes they work and they're unmotivated. After a little while, they get unmotivated. And the thing is that what we can do is we can have an open conversation with them, with the employees, and because sometimes they could be sick or absent… To keep employees motivated… we need to figure out what they're passionate about. Like, why are they coming into work? Why do they want to work with me? Right? Because I have VA's working for me. It's the same thing. If they tell you that the reason that they're working for you is because they need to pay the bills, so they need a job to pay for the bills, that's not a good enough reason. They need to dig deeper as to what's their passion. What are they passionate about? And you have to make your work a fun place and a happy place to go… Like, in a workplace, I always get managers and CEOs to focus on the employees strengths, celebrate their success, focus on their strengths... Please do not nitpick all their weaknesses, because you're going to unmotivate them. And a lot of people right now, they have stress and anxiety, so they're unmotivated to go into work. If they're unmotivated, they're going to call in sick. They're going to be sick often, they're just not going to show up… or when they're going to show up to work, they're not going to be productive. What you want to do is you want to have a workforce that is happy, healthy… because if there are those two things, happy and healthy, they're so productive. So having activities with them, fun things, celebrate their success, mindfulness activities, paid breaks… And with a lot of ChangeMakers, what they're integrating in their business is also the Work-Life balance.

SAMIA: Yeah…

JULIE: You know, if they have issues with their kids or you know, their parents, or they have to take care of someone, they're integrating a Work-Life balance... Yeah, it's okay, you can take 2 hours during the day if you compensate those hours at a later time. So it's about being adaptable to the situation of the employee. That way you create a win-win situation for both. So the more that the employee is happy in their workplace, happy and healthy… that's what you want them to do… And remember when we're talking about happy and healthy... it's mind, body, spirit… it's the whole package… it's mindfulness, right…. well, the more productive that they're going to be. So if you're selling a product or you're offering a service, if your employees are happy, you're going to have a better service or product to offer. So it's really a win-win situation... And a lot of people think... and I ask them… do you ever create bonding activities with your employees or paid breaks or create a work-life balance for your employees? And sometimes they say, no, it costs money, and we're all about the budget and cutting those extra expenses… that they're not needed. And then I explain the return on investment -- it's huge if your employees are happy and healthy. Whenever you put something out there, it always comes back to you in increasing measure when people are happy and healthy. So when you're spreading positivity, it comes back to you... So it's a return on investment. It's huge. It's massive.

SAMIA: Yes. Yes... Especially, I think, in America I've experienced this where there's just so much sense of pressure, where everyone gets caught up in this sort of mindset of “no matter what”... these deadlines have to be met, this work has to be done no matter what. And I remember when I used to work with a domestic violence/sexual assault agency, where I was basically one of the crisis counselors on the hotline… On the one hand, one thing that I really appreciated about our agency was that they did what they could to have these kind of positive engagement moments where they would get the staff together and do some meaningful activity. We did a lot of… especially my team of crisis counselors, we did a lot of debriefs together because we needed support. There was a lot of burnout, actually, on our team. I was one of the exceptions in the sense that I was on the team for a good four years, and I could have kept going longer. Like, I wasn't getting burned out. I just decided to shift my focus away from crisis counseling to doing more prevention-based education work. But I could have stayed if I wanted to.

But most of the people on my team didn't last longer than a year or so because there was just so much taking on of the stress and the vicarious trauma of helping victim after victim, survivor after survivor. Even though the office did some positive activities and tried to create a positive environment in some ways, a lot of my companions and colleagues, they were taking on stress in other ways where… if you're trying to help somebody… and I see this with a lot of ChangeMakers, is that they take on the burden of -- we have to solve this problem that we're trying to solve for other people, solve in the world... And it's like they take on the responsibility... It's like our job to solve this problem. And oftentimes it's out of our control. I don't know if you have any further insights to share with this aspect of the mindset.

JULIE: Yeah, I just wanted to say a lot of ChangeMakers also, because they're taking on that extra responsibility that does not belong to them, a lot will oftentimes have pain in their shoulders, their neck, or their back. Okay? So I recommend, like, massage therapy or chiro or anything like that. But oftentimes, if you feel that… So pain, it manifests the things that you're taking on. If you're taking on extra burdens from other people that you're trying to solve, look, take a look at your shoulders, your neck. Because it used to be like that for me all the time until I realized that you cannot help someone that does not want to help themselves. As much as you want to help them and you want to show them, unless they're ready to accept the help, you cannot help someone that doesn't want to help themselves. So in the workplace, where it's a little bit delicate is that… we're asked to work under tight deadlines with a heavy workload. And the problems now, in the last three years… workload, depending on where we are, it's quite a little bit more work than it used to be in most environments, okay, but you're paying them the same salary. So it creates more stress and anxiety for the employees, right. So you need to be able to perform well under pressure. And when I see hiring managers, I always let them know the key to hiring is this... Everyone can exaggerate on their resume their skills, competencies... Okay? And same thing… take a look at LinkedIn. You can hire someone to just give you a really beautiful LinkedIn profile. When you hire someone, hire them based on their attitude, because you're going to work with this person. What is their willingness to learn something new? Are they coachable? Do they have a positive outlook on life? How's their mindset? So instead of taking a look at what they can do effectively or based on their prior work experience… that's not really relevant anymore. Maybe it was relevant back in the 90’s. Now the workplace is so different that if you want a successful workplace, work on the mindset aspect… hire someone based on their attitude. What can they offer, and are they coachable? And that's one of the traits that I have hiring managers look at. It's really nice that they have this great resume, but will they be able to adapt effectively in the workplace and with the workload? So take a look at their attitude. And that way you'll know if they're fit to work in that workplace…

SAMIA: Yeah, that's a great point. That's a great point. To have adaptability and to be coachable. Yes, because, okay, so if I can go back to my memories of when I worked at the domestic violence/sexual assault agency, we actually had… for example, part of our self-care that we were learning over there was we had to have ongoing training. When you're a crisis counselor and you want to maintain your certification, you have to have ongoing training. And so we had all kinds of experts and professionals coming in to train us on all kinds of topics related to our work, but a big chunk of them was focusing on how do you prevent burnout? How do you prevent taking on vicarious trauma? …and things like that... And I think one of the reasons why I was so successful is because I actually took what I was learning seriously, and actually implemented a lot of the tools and the methodologies. Like, I remember one of the most important skills that I learned doing that work, that have helped me so much, is to sort of work on letting go of my judgmental mindset. It was really difficult in the sense that… I mean, you're working with people who are being victimized or have survived different forms of abuse and assault. And it's really difficult to sort of, sometimes, not be judgmental towards the people that we label as perpetrators. You know, in fact, we even had a line that… our agency only works with victims and survivors. We do not work with perpetrators. There are other agencies that do that… And I remember I got very used to saying… we would get calls and if it was, like, a perpetrator or we got red flags, if we noticed red flags and we thought they might be a perpetrator, we had this line about… we don't provide services to you... And I didn't realize, but I took that on as an attitude of, like… I don't work with perpetrators. I don't want to work with perpetrators. I don't deal with perpetrators. And not just that I don't do it, but I didn't realize that I had underlying negative judgment about the perpetrators, where I was like, they're bad, they're evil, et cetera, et cetera. But it was definitely impacting my mental health. And when I realized that and one of the coaches and therapists who came in, who helped me realize this, it was like, oh, you have to let go of this kind of judgment because it breeds anger and all of that negative emotion… it was not easy. But learning to let go of that kind of judgmental thinking, it's been one of the biggest gifts that I've received in my life for my mental health and for my happiness.

JULIE: Yeah. I just wanted to say that everything is perception and we never know what someone has gone through or was going through to make them do a specific thing. And there's a lot of ChangeMakers in the world right now, they have a very dark past because they had to be at their lowest moment in their life to make a change and to become a ChangeMakers. So there's some of them that have done different things and they're vocal about it and they talk about it and they help people heal now and they've done a 360. But they explain in detail as to what brought them there. So everything is perception and it's really good to not have the barrier and judge people… because we never know what someone is going through, right. Everything is always perception. So it's good that you reflected on that as well.

SAMIA: Yeah. And for me, my point right now also was related to… it's a skill. It's a skill that we can learn that then helps us reduce our sense of stress and anxiety and that burden that we take on… So to be coachable, to have that attitude of learning and adaptability and change... that's a really awesome and amazing thing for us to cultivate. And as you rightly said, if we are working with other people, if you're in a position of hiring… to look for that. That's amazing.

JULIE: Yeah. And also take a look at how do they react, how do they adapt to stress and anxiety. Because in everyday life, I've never met anyone that doesn't have stress and anxiety… even my self, you know I do as well. And how do I cope with it? I’ve had… I was doing… one day in Costa Rica… I was living somewhere else and I was doing an interview with a guest and a very busy guest. It's someone... It's a tv show host that interviews a lot of amazing people and he's got like a late night tv show. Anyway, so I was supposed to be interviewing him, but like half an hour before the interview, and it was going live, a monkey climbed on the power lines and then the electricity went out. So I just heard boom... Thankfully, my Internet, I had a battery-operated Internet. So I had the backup battery, but I didn't have any light. So I had to set up outside very quickly and then just get the light from outside because it was a little too dark inside the house. And then they never noticed it, I had no electricity. But then I'm looking at my laptop and the battery is going down like this… because it's hot. In Costa Rica, it's hot year round. So the hotter it is, the less your battery lasts. But it's all about… we all have stress and anxiety... we all do. It's about how do you react? And for myself, for a long, long time, I used to be a perfectionist. Now I'm a Virgo. And I had to let go of being a perfectionist because it would actually hold me back from living my best life. It would hold me back in my career as a Life Coach and Motivational Speaker because I wanted everything to be perfect. But the more you're taking on projects or the more you're doing something you've never done before, it means that you need to step outside your comfort zone and do something new. If you're doing something new, it's not going to be perfect, but you need to start somewhere. Now, when I look at videos and interviews and podcasts that I've done, like, I don't know, two years ago, I've changed so much and I've evolved so much that sometimes I cringe. I'm like, oh... but it's all about changing. Every single day, the only thing I tell people is, show up better than the person you were yesterday. That way you're not adding any stress to yourself, you're not having the added stress… you're not in competition with anyone else. You're only, solely, in competition with yourself… is to show up better than the person you were yesterday. And if you consistently do that every single day, you're going to grow and evolve so much quickly and you're going to be a lot happier and healthier. And that's what I do... It's all about the attitude. It's about how do you show up in the world. And for me, look at today, a couple of times I had an ant bite… try to bite my foot. I'm just wiping it off. It doesn't matter. Nothing needs to be perfect. Just be real. Just be authentic. Just show up as the best version of yourself in your environment. I don't have control on the one ant that's around my foot. You know, it's just be you, be authentic, be real. And let go of everything you have no control over. The best book that I ever read was a book back when I was 17 years old. I got that as a gift, and it was called… it was by Dr. Richard…. I don't remember his last name... It was called, “Don't sweat the small stuff. It's all small stuff”. And it's such a great book. There's a hundred chapters, but you can just pick daily a chapter, and it's a pocketbook, so it's small, and you can easily read a chapter within a minute. And it just gives you tips and tricks, and it was the best book that I've ever read, with quick tips and tricks. And it's all about letting go of things you have no control over. Just show up as you are and try not to be perfect and add extra anxiety and stress on yourself. That's how I show up in the world now. And I just feel like everything just flows nicely, and I just deal with things that present themselves when they do. And it's about letting go and it's about trusting... Yeah, that's one of the big lessons that I had to learn in Costa Rica was about surrender... Surrender to things you have no control over. It was such a huge lesson for me, and it was all about the…

Well, in Costa Rica, they have a motto. It's called Pura Vida. Pura Vida means pure life. So you'll meet someone and then they'll say, pura vida. And it's all about embodying pure life, you know… things happen… you need to just surrender and let go and live your best life.

SAMIA: Isn't Costa Rica one of the happiest places in the world? I say that on the basis of… They do these surveys of people all around the world, and consistently, Costa Rica is one of the places where, when you survey them, people are among the happiest. They rate themselves as among the happiest people in the world. I was like, yay.

JULIE: Yeah. Well, where I'm living, I'm living in the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. I'm in Santa Teresa. So it's actually a Blue Zone... It's considered a Blue Zone. Now, I'll explain, I'll define what that is. A Blue Zone…. there's five in the world. So there's a place in Sardinia, Italy. There's a place in Greece. There's a place in California, Japan, and Costa Rica. Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, where I'm at. Now, Costa Rica is actually the biggest Blue Zone. Blue Zone is where people are actually live to be over… a great percentage of the people live to be over 100 years old, okay? They're happy, they're healthy, and they don't have any long chronic illness that keeps them sick for a very long time. Now, here, there's a couple of clinics, but there's no hospitals here. And the roads, it goes like this. The ocean is two minutes, it's just down the hill. So people don't generally need critical care here. They're very fit, healthy, happy… And it has to do with the lifestyle here and what people eat. People eat things directly, raw, organic, from their fruit trees… so fruit and vegetables directly from the trees… so they don't cook it. And then there's a lot of rice and beans, so everything that's very healthy for you. They also have the mindfulness lifestyle. So a lot of yoga, mindfulness, all different types of activities… breath work... There's also three gyms close to where I'm at. So a lot of activities to go within… go within your heart space and let go of stress. I meet people all the time on the beach. People are so gorgeous… beautiful people, both men and women. Absolutely beautiful, very healthy, very fit. And it's all about embodying… just about… because you are what you eat. And it's the same thing with the light that you have inside. How do you talk to yourself? The positivity that you have within, it reflects on the outside. So when I'm meeting you and I'm saying, wow, you look so beautiful and radiant…. Well, they're not seeing the outside, like, a beautiful person. They're actually seeing your light.

And that's what we see in Costa Rica. I go to the beach just down here, and I'm like, wow, everybody here is just absolutely just radiating positivity. Beautiful, like inside and out. And it's about who you are, what you eat. And are people happy here? Absolutely. I mean, you only encounter some people that are not. It happens in every single country. But here in the Nicoya Peninsula, people are very fit and beautiful inside and out. And it's not an easy place to be in. It really is not... Some people last here two weeks. You need to be able to adapt to the very healthy lifestyle. Like, the closest fast food restaurant… there's no McDonald's and Starbucks here where I'm at. The closest one, I think, is a four-and-a-half-hour drive in San Jose. San Jose, Costa Rica, where the airport is. But it's a very different lifestyle.

SAMIA: That makes sense. That makes sense. It's like, for sure, the environment, the lifestyle that we lead, the attitudes that we have, these all help us to have more or less anxiety in our lives. Because ultimately the anxiety or stress, to the extent that we feel it, it is a result of how we think and act and what we believe... So that is what results in the feelings that we experience, like the stress and the anxiety… ah, that makes sense…

JULIE: I just wanted to add a quote. So there's a really famous quote from Jim Rohn. He's very famous, motivational speaker, amazing guy. He's written so many books.

He says, "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." So if you want to be happy, healthy, positive, what you need to do is you need to change your surroundings. Now, it means that every single day you need to connect with five people that are happy, healthy, abundant… whatever you want to embody. Okay? So if you want to be… whatever things you want to embody… you need to surround yourself with those people in your life now. You want to be very selective with the five people you're the closest to in your life… Now it doesn't need to be close friends that you see every single day. So it could be someone that lives out in Mexico, the UK, Australia, anywhere in the world. But you need to speak to them. Or take a look at… if they're a Life Coach, take a look at their content online, their videos… Really connect with their energy on a daily basis. Or if they're not posting anything that day, just revisit older videos. Make sure you connect with them every single day. Now let's just say you have teenagers at home that are going through a rough time, so they might not be very happy all the time because of the hormones and what they're going through. So what you want to make sure is you want to spend more time with consuming content of the people that are embodying who you want to become... Now, our mind does not see the difference between what's in our real environment and what's like online. So we want to make sure we surround ourselves with that. Now we can limit boundaries with teenagers. For instance, I used to manage a team of 14 people and I used to do meetings all the time. And I would always say, if you identify a problem, come up with a solution. The meetings were not about complaining about things that don't work in the workplace. It was about identifying the problem, come up with a solution, and then together we'll focus on solutions. It was always about being creative. So if you have teenagers that are not happy about different things, you just reframe what they're saying with a positive mindset… or they're identifying something, you just reframe it… Okay, so what is the solution would you propose? How can we resolve this issue? How can we change it?... And you give them a lot of flexibility to not walk around the world with a negative and fixed mindset. It's okay, you've identified something. You've identified a need. Great. Amazing. Thank you for identifying that. Now what's the solution? …So you just reframe everything with a positive mindset. That way your whole surrounding, even your family, that can potentially be negative, you just reframe it. So everyone does become positive, but you want to make sure you surround yourself with five people that you want to become. So if you want to become healthy, then you want to surround yourself with healthy people. If you want to be a millionaire, well, you surround yourself with millionaires. Whatever you want to embody or become, you want to make sure that you surround yourself with people like that so you can learn from them.

SAMIA: Yeah, that's an excellent point. And, you know, when you were talking about teenagers and reframing things for them, asking them what's the solution? It made me think about, you know... So, you know, like, going back to that value of adaptability for ourselves also… because one thing that I noticed… because I used to do a lot of work with teens also as a volunteer at my mosque here in Los Angeles… And one thing that I noticed is that if you give the young people that opportunity to think about solutions and come up with ideas, they will take that on and they will come up with solutions and ideas... And then the problem that we ran into was that the adults would often not like the ideas they came up with. They were, like, too wild or radical for the adults. Then it's sort of like, on the one hand, there were some of us who are like, yes, empower the students to think for themselves, to be creative, et cetera, et cetera... And on the other hand, we were dealing with these opposing forces, as it were, oftentimes their own parents, who were not on board with the solutions and the creative ideas that the young people came up with for what they wanted to do with their lives and how they wanted to do things differently. And I know this is like a tension that might arise in the workplace also, where on the one hand... So I mean, I would just caution, or just, not caution, but whoever is in those positions, you know, whether you're manager or the boss, you know... it's like, just be mindful of what are you asking your employees to do, and then actually be willing to give them that space and flexibility to do what they would love to do.

JULIE: That's so good. And I just wanted to add something about… you said about young people... It's about giving them responsibilities to make decisions and to make a change in the world, that way they won't complain about something. They'll bring up the solution, and they'll want to change it... With my son growing up, I used to always give them two choices. This is option A, option B, which one do you want to do? And even at four years old, three years old, he would never say no… because I never gave him the opportunity... I didn't give him orders. I didn't say, oh, go take your bath, go take your shower, go brush your teeth, because it would be no, because kids don't want to do that, right? So I would say, okay, do you want to brush your teeth first or take a bath? Like, which one? I would give them a choice between the two things, so I didn't give them an option to say no. And it wasn't about telling people what to do, because that's not very... Telling people what to do is not very effective. It's about giving them responsibility. Doesn't matter if they're three years old, 17 years old, give them responsibilities. If they're bringing up issues that need to be resolved, come up with a solution, too. And one thing I want to say… I've been a Life Coach for over 20 years. Here in Costa Rica I met a great life coach... His name is Arie. He's in Costa Rica right now, and he's 20 years old. So he's been traveling around the world, and he's already coached, I think, thousands of people. And he's just traveling around the world and living his best life. So I actually landed on some of his TikToks. He's got over 250,000 followers on TikTok. And I saw him, and I'm like… and then he recognized me, and I recognized him, too, and then I just started talking to him. So he's 20 years old… and age does not matter when it comes to ChangeMakers. So it doesn't matter how many years of experience that you have. For the most part, is, what does your attitude look like? What's your willingness to learn? How open are you to embody and try new things, step outside of your comfort zone? Like, he's 20 years old... He's traveling the world and coaching people how to live their best life. So if he can do it, anyone else can, right? And it goes back to what I said a while ago about… when you're a hiring manager, hire someone based not on age, not on their qualifications, not on their long resume... Interview them. Get to know what's inside their heart, what's inside their head. And that way you'll know whether or not they fit nicely with your environment.

SAMIA: Yeah.

JULIE: So... Because a lot of people are unmotivated and a lot of people have to deal with stress, anxiety, and they have mindset issues. So we need to change the way we do things. We need to embody just different ways of doing… and it's all about going within and do the same thing with your employees. Let go of the notion that young people cannot be important in your company and be effective ChangeMakers.

Young people can. And, like, older people, too. They have so many different things to bring to the table... So it's really important. And I feel that it's important to have a diverse workforce with… as far as attitude, what do they bring? What added value can they bring to the team? I just feel like it's so essential to just let go of… on paper… how good they look on paper and their qualifications…

SAMIA: Yeah.

JULIE: We need to go deeper and figure out what's within. Go within…

SAMIA: Yes, that's right. That's right... Yeah, yeah. You know, I... You know sometimes I forget… like I take for granted my own attitude now, in terms of… I made a commitment to prioritize my happiness and inner peace in life. And so everything that I do, I evaluate through that perspective. Is it helping me live with more happiness and inner peace? If it's not, how can I create some change around this or that in my life so that it is contributing to more inner peace and happiness for me… And this has just become such a strong value for me and such an integral aspect of how my entire mind and life orientation is that sometimes I forget that that is not how other people think about things. And every so often I'll be talking to somebody about these issues of how do you make change fun and easy and how to be happy…

And I realize, oh... one of the obstacles in their way is that they don't actually prioritize happiness in their lives. They have other values that they're prioritizing… And, like, what you focus on expands. So if you want to be more healthy, you want to be more happy, you have to choose to prioritize your health and happiness…

JULIE: It's so important. And a lot of people think that it's time-consuming or it costs a lot of money to prioritize your happiness and your health. But I let people know is that if you don't have your health, you have nothing else... So it's so important to prioritize that. And what I want to say is… here in Costa Rica, we're so close to the equator, which means we're about eight to twelve degrees north of the equator, which means that we get a lot of sun, but which means we never change the time here, the time never changes. We don't switch to Eastern daylight time or Standard Time, so we never change. It stays the same. But the sunrise and the sunset is always the same time every single day. So it's like 05:30-6:00 a.m. the sunrise and the sunset is 05:30-6:00 p.m. So we actually have 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness, which means that we get a lot of sleep and a lot of rest. But the thing is that people need to remember is… everyone has the same amount of hours in a day. We have the same amount of the 24 hours. It's what do you do with those 24 hours? Like, I'm up really early. I'm up at like 4:30 in the morning and I go to bed early as well... It's really important to get high-quality sleep. I'm up really early. And before I start my work day, I need to have a morning routine… because how you start your day will highlight how your day is going to go. I do not like to be rushed. I'd like to have my morning routine. That's very empowering... But everyone has the same number of hours in a day. So I prioritize my happiness and my health… and working out is so important for me and eating healthy as well, making healthy meals. So it's all about… we need to value things that are important… because if you don't have your health, you have nothing... And same thing with happiness. If you're depressed or you know… you need to get to the core issue, what is creating that and resolve that issue so that you know everything can unfold and everything can flow. You know, there's people out there that can be millionaires and have their dream job, but if they're not happy, you know, the money or the dream job is not going to be fulfilling for them. So they need to be going down to the core issue as what is causing that, right. And just be happy and healthy. That's the most important two things.

SAMIA: Yeah. Oh, my gosh, Julie, I'm having so much fun talking with you and you just keep raising such amazing points. But I'm also keeping an eye on the clock for both of us and we have to wrap up for today... Do you have any last thoughts you want to share?

JULIE: I just want to say that we need to be ourselves. And again, don't sweat the small stuff. It's all small stuff... And stay grounded in the present moment… not in the future of what may or may not happen. We are in full control of how we react to situations when they occur. So we need to limit added stress we put on our own shoulders. You know, we just need to let things unfold and be ourselves. And all we're asked to do is show up. Show up in the world... And I do videos all the time. And I show up on video looking as I am. Like, I'm not going to go to extra lengths when I have a video to do, to do my hair or to put on makeup. I had a really heartfelt message to put out to the world the other day. I mean, I had no makeup on. It's just how I was at that day. And it's important to show up as yourself and not creating added stress or anxiety. It's so important nowadays to be authentic and real and let go of everything else that doesn't serve your highest potential. Just be you. Just be authentic and real, that's it.

SAMIA: That's amazing. Thank you so much for that, Julie... And my last reminder to our listeners is… please make sure you check the show notes because I will be dropping Julie's links in the show notes. So you can connect with her and learn more from her and get support from her whenever you need it and whenever you're ready for it. So until we connect next time, I just wish you lots and lots of peace and joy... :)