The Positively Living® Podcast brings you shame-free productivity conversations for the overwhelmed multi-passionate creatives, caregivers, and multi-taskers who never clock out, juggle countless responsibilities, and quietly wonder if there's a better way.
Hosted by Lisa Zawrotny, Productivity Coach and founder of Positively Productive Systems, the show replaces rigid productivity rules with flexible approaches that respect your energy and priorities. Through solo episodes, expert interviews, and live coaching sessions, Lisa covers the topics that actually affect your ability to move forward: stress management, habits and systems, decluttering, self-awareness, boundaries, mindset, entrepreneurship, and more.
This is productivity for real life, helping you breathe easier, move forward sustainably, and make space for what matters most to you.
If you don't make time to take care of yourself, sooner or later your body will make the time for you—and it probably won't happen on your terms. This week, in episode 335 of the Positively Living® Podcast, we're exploring how to match your self-care to your specific type of stress with Cassandra Martin-Himmons, licensed social worker, certified stress management consultant, and creator of Break Free from Burnout. As part of our ongoing conversations on stress and self-care, Cassandra shares why the self-care activity that works for you today might not be the one you need tomorrow, and how to figure out exactly what will actually help in any given moment.
Cassandra Martin-Himmons is a licensed social worker and certified stress management consultant who helps overwhelmed women reduce stress and make self-care a realistic, sustainable part of their daily lives. She's the creator of the signature program Break Free from Burnout and the author of Five Minutes to Me. Her own journey into this work began after years of pushing through overwhelming stress—working a job she hated, studying for her licensing exam, and caregiving for her grandmother—until her body forced her to stop, landing her on bed rest with double pneumonia. That experience became the foundation for everything she now teaches.
In this conversation, Cassandra breaks down five distinct types of stress—mental overload, physical tension or depletion, emotional depletion, overstimulation, and social disconnection—and explains why no single self-care activity works for all of them. She also introduces a simple three-question framework, Notice, Need, and Next, to help you quickly identify what kind of stress you're experiencing and choose a realistic response that actually fits your capacity in the moment.
Key Takeaways:
What stresses one person out won't necessarily stress out another, and what works for you today might not be what you need tomorrow.
Instead of relying on one or two go-to self-care activities, build a "self-care toolbox" with multiple options to choose from.
Mental overload can feel like racing thoughts or indecisiveness, and may call for a brain dump or picking one small next step.
Physical tension or depletion can feel like fatigue or a headache, and may call for movement, rest, or nourishment.
Emotional depletion can feel like irritability or tearfulness, and may call for comfort, permission to feel, or setting a boundary.
Overstimulation can feel like being overloaded by inputs, and may call for stepping away from your phone or reducing clutter.
Social disconnection can feel like loneliness or withdrawal, and may call for honestly reaching out or asking for support.
The Notice, Need, Next framework: notice what's happening in your mind, body, and emotions; ask what you actually need right now; then choose the simplest realistic action that fits your time and energy.
Effective self-care doesn't need to make everything wonderful—it just needs to give you enough to handle whatever comes next.
Get curious about your stress instead of judgmental. Ask what it's trying to tell you, not what's wrong with you.
What would change if you stopped reaching for the same self-care activity out of habit and instead started asking, "What do I actually need right now?"
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– Why One Self-Care Activity Doesn't Work for Everyone
– The Five Types of Stress Explained
– Noticing the Overlap in Your Stress Signals
– The Notice, Need, Next Framework
– Final Thoughts: Giving Yourself Just Enough
– Where to Find Cassandra & Her Free Resource
– Rapid Wrap-Up: Song, Saying & Resource
– Gratitude
Cassandra Martin-Himmons:
If you don't make the time to take care of yourself, sooner or later your body is going to make the time for you, and I guarantee you, it's going to be in a way that you don't want to have happen. Exactly, it's like
Lisa Zawrotny:
we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Exactly,
Cassandra Martin-Himmons:
exactly. And since I was hard headed, I had to go through like double pneumonia and all this kind of stuff in order to learn my lesson, so please don't be like me.
Lisa Zawrotny:
You're listening to the Positively Living podcast. I'm your host Lisa Zorotni, founder of Positively Productive Systems and a productivity coach certified in positive psychology and stress management. Join me as we explore ways to live a more proactive, positive life with episodes on productivity, self-awareness, mindset, entrepreneur life, habits and systems, simplicity, fun, and more. I understand overwhelm personally as a multi-passionate entrepreneur, wife and mom to kids and cats, and as a caregiver. I'm here to help you choose what's right for you, so you can do less, live more, and breathe easier. Sound good? Let's get to it. Welcome to the Positively Living podcast. I'm your host Lisa, and if you spent any time with me here, you know I am all about personalization. I encourage you to match your productivity tools and techniques with how you work best, because it's the most efficient and effective way to approach getting things done. The same principles apply to self-care, and that's especially important when it comes to managing your stress. Today's guest is helping us figure out how to do just that. I had the pleasure of collaborating with her over the last year in self-care related panel discussions, and knew that her take on stress and self-care would be a phenomenal addition to the conversations here. Cassandra Martin Hemmings is a licensed social worker and certified stress management consultant who helps overwhelmed women reduce stress and make self-care a realistic, sustainable part of their daily lives. She's the creator of the signature program, Break Free from Burnout, and the author of Five Minutes to Me. Cassandra shares so much with us today, including why it's important to carefully match and change up our self-care approach. Five types of stress that we need to consider when choosing self-care, and a simple three-question framework to figure out our best self-care options. She offers lots of examples of stress we experience and self-care that can help it. You're going to love Cassandra's simple, heartfelt approach, and it'll be easy to see why I invited her to be a guest. As you listen, you may notice a variety of solutions she mentions that correspond to resources I offer here, such as the guided mind sweep and decluttering, which you can find at positivelyproductive.com/resources, along with other workshops like minimum effective day planning. If you enjoy this topic, you may also want to check out the playlists for stress management and for self care, which you'll find on the podcast page of the website at positivelyproductive.com/podcast. Now let's join Cassandra to talk about matching self care to your stress. Cassandra, welcome to the Positively Living podcast. I am so delighted to have you here today, and I cannot wait to dig into stress with you. Except it's not going to be a stressful
Cassandra Martin-Himmons:
conversation. Oh, definitely not, Lisa. Thank you so very, very much for having me here. I am super excited to be here today and to have this conversation with you, and it won't be stressful at all. I promise.
Lisa Zawrotny:
It will. I know. I'm looking forward to that. So before we dig in, would you please tell us a bit about who you are and what makes you light up?
Cassandra Martin-Himmons:
Sure, absolutely. So my name is Cassandra Martin Hemmings, and I am a licensed social worker and a stress management consultant, and the creator of Master Your Stress. And I am passionate about helping women decrease their stress and add more self-care into their everyday lives in a sustainable way, passionate.
Lisa Zawrotny:
You know that word, sustainable. There are so many things that we overlap in, and that's why I was so excited to have this conversation because you are speaking the positively living language. So I'm curious about your story. What led you to? Well, I mean, okay, to license social work, which I love, and then ultimately building master your stress.
Unknown:
So, what led me to going along this path many years ago? We'll just say a few years ago at this point, I was working at a job and I absolutely hated it. So, I was looking for a new job, and then at the same. Time I was preparing to take my social work licensing exam, so I was working, looking for a new job, taking classes, participating in studying groups, studying on my own, and then I married, had family responsibilities because at the time I was a caregiver for my grandmother, so needless to say, I had a lot on my plate. I was extremely stressed out, and of course, I wasn't taking care of myself because I was the last person on my list. Self-care was absolutely not a priority in any way, shape, or form. So eventually, I got sick, but of course, and ended up on bed rest, medication. Couldn't get out of bed for a couple weeks, and that brought me to the realization that I just cannot keep living like this. And I didn't really know it at the time, but that whole experience really became the nucleus of master your stress because I got more into learning about balance, stress management, and incorporating things into my life like deep breathing, meditation, walking, those kinds of things.
Lisa Zawrotny:
Yeah, no, and that makes so much sense. We have so many things that happen at once. It's not necessarily linear, but it's experiential, where you know things are cumulative, even. But the one thing that you said in there that just jumped out at me is,"Boy, do our bodies tell
Unknown:
us? Yes, yes, absolutely. If you don't make the time to take care of yourself, sooner or later, your body is going to make the time for you, and I guarantee you, it's going to be in a way that you don't want to have happen. Exactly, it's like we
Lisa Zawrotny:
can do this the easy way or the hard way. Exactly, exactly.
Unknown:
And since I was hard headed, I had to go through like double pneumonia and all this kind of stuff in order to learn my lesson. So please don't be like me.
Lisa Zawrotny:
Right, but isn't that the way? Is that we're taught? I think by society, and I think we, especially as women and caregivers, we're taught push through. And to your point, stress management, having the tools to do it, and we're definitely talking about that so much on the podcast. To have the tools before you need them, and to even use some of the tools as preventative, I love all of that. But what you do that I especially appreciate is you talk about that personalization. You do personalization with stress management, and I think that's so important for any tool we use. And I talk about it in terms of productivity as well. When you talk about stress management, you're very specific about it, and stress management, self care, all of that. But let's talk a bit about why self care generically, right? Even if we do understand what it means, because sometimes we mistake it. Why is it that not every activity for every kind of stress works? What are we missing that we need to start matching.
Unknown:
So I think the first thing that you have to realize is that we're all individuals. We're all unique. So what stresses me out won't necessarily stress you out, and vice versa. And even when you have two people that are dealing with the same situation, they may experience it very differently, and that's just because of their life circumstances, personality, things like that. So it makes sense that what helps one person might not be what helps another person. But then, to your point of individualizing it, it even can be to the point that the self-care activity that works for me today might not be the same activity that works for me tomorrow, and the reason why that happens is that your circumstances surrounding your stress might be slightly different. So your energy changes from one day to the next. How you're feeling, like your emotions, that changes from one day to the next. And even the source of what's stressing you out can change slightly from one day to the next. And how much time you have in order to deal with your stressors and incorporate self-care into your day, can change. So I'll give you an example. One of my go-to self-care activities is walking, and so when I start feeling a little tension in the middle of my back, walking usually helps me sort of clear my head when I'm stressed, but if it's a situation where maybe I'm physically exhausted because I have a busy week ahead and didn't sleep very well this week, pushing myself to go take a walk might not be what my body needs and might not be what works. For me, and yes, it's my go-to. But maybe today, because I haven't slept very well, taking a nap or sleeping an extra, going to bed an hour earlier might be the thing that I actually need. Neither activity is better. It's just that what I needed yesterday was not the same thing that I need today, so I always tell my clients to start with the question of not what self-care is it should I do that I normally do, start with the question of what is it that I need right now in this moment, And I also encourage people to have what I like to call a self-care repertoire. So instead of relying on just one specific or even two specific self-care activities all the time, build up a list of different things that you can choose from. So I kind of say it's like having your self-care toolbox. So if you're having a regular toolbox, you don't just have one tool that you use to repair everything that you need to repair. Instead, you have multiple tools because the more options that you have for the tools in your toolbox, the easier it becomes for you to choose the right tool for the job. So your self-care toolbox is the same kind of thing. The more you build up different activities to choose from, the more you're able to find the right self-care activity for you at the particular point in time in which you need
Lisa Zawrotny:
it. Yeah, that makes so much sense. So starting with that question of what do I need, and yeah, I like always need a nap or a snack, honestly. But but yes, starting with that question, that's such a good question of asking yourself what is it that I need right now, and then having a collection of things that might really suit you and fit you. So let's dig into that that part where we match better. But you do talk about multiple types of stress. So should we look at those so that we can figure out who we are, what stress we're dealing with, and how we can better match?
Unknown:
Sure, absolutely. So I think that there are five types of stress that many people experience, and I'll talk about each of the types. So the first one is mental overload. So mental overload happens a lot of the times because you know we're living in the 21st century, so we're all very busy, and there's always lots of different things competing for our attention all at the same time, all day, every day. So sometimes you become mentally overloaded because you need fewer inputs and maybe a clearer next step. So experiencing mental overload might look like, or might feel like having racing thoughts, or difficulty concentrating, jumping from task to task, being indecisive, feeling like everything is urgent and everything always needs to be done right at the same time. Because your brain feels like you have 50 million tabs open all at the same time, so if you're feeling mentally overloaded, what you might need could be having to make fewer decisions because maybe you're at work or at home and everyone's you know asking you all the questions. That could be one. Maybe you need to prioritize your tasks because maybe you can't take on each and every single task right now at the moment. Maybe you need just to have clarity about a decision that you're going to make. So there are different forms of self-care that you can potentially match to it, such as doing a brain dump or picking just one small next step, stepping away for a few minutes just to have some peace of mind, asking somebody for some clarification. So those are different things that you can do in order to help with the mental overload. Now another stressor that a lot of people experience has to do with physical tension or physical depletion. So sometimes your body needs some type of movement in order to release tension, and I think that for a lot of people movement is a go-to. But another thing to consider is sometimes when you're experiencing physical stress or physical tension, that what your body really needs is recovery. So physical tension and physical stress can feel like having tight shoulders or maybe having a headache. Feeling fatigued, restless, hungry, thirsty, or even just feeling like you don't have anything left to give, like nothing, no gas left in your tank, kind of a thing. So when you're experiencing physical stress and tension, some types of self-care activities that might be helpful can be, as I said before, movement. Maybe rest can be something that's helpful. Nourishment, hydration, slowing your breathing. So for those types of tension, you can do things like stretching or taking a walk, resting, maybe drinking a glass of water, stepping outside to get away from everything for a moment. Those are some activities that can help with that. A third type of stress that a lot of people experience is emotional depletion. So emotional self-care doesn't always mean that you're making emotions go away. Because sometimes, when we're feeling emotions that might feel uncomfortable, we just want to get through it and get it over with. But sometimes the best way to care for yourself when you're experiencing a lot of strong or tough emotions, it's just to let yourself experience it without judging yourself for it. So emotional depletion and stress can feel like being irritable, having very little patience for people who are trying to get on that last nerve of yours that you're experiencing, feeling resentful, it could even mean feeling tearful or very sensitive if you're not usually sensitive to what others are saying or doing, or it could be feeling like if one more person makes a request from you, it can send you completely over the edge. I've been there before myself. And if you're experiencing emotional depletion or stress, the type of self-care that you might need might be being comforted by someone else or even by yourself, giving yourself permission to feel whatever it is that you're feeling. Setting maybe setting a boundary might be the type of care that you need in that particular moment, or just acknowledging to yourself that you are feeling this particular emotion, so you can match those feelings to self-care, such as journaling, talking to someone that you trust can hold space for you, or just let it out, let yourself cry, and don't be ashamed or judgmental about that. Asking someone for help if you need it. Another type of self-care that many people, especially nowadays, experience is overstimulation. So when you already are experiencing too much and you're feeling overloaded, having more inputs can really be extremely stressful. So when you're experiencing overload, what you might need number one would probably be less input. So having less things coming at you all at the same time, having some quiet time might be helpful, or just space for yourself, or a solar environment might be helpful. And when you're experiencing these feelings of overstimulation, the types of self-care that can help you in that situation can be maybe stepping away from your phone, or at the very least silencing your notifications if they're feeling loud and intrusive. If you're able to go outside for a moment, to just take a breath and get away from whatever the situation is that's causing your stress. Stop multitasking and just focus on one thing at a time. And sometimes, if you're feeling overstimulated, it could be because you've got a lot of clutter around you, so your environment can contribute to that overstimulation and to those feelings. So maybe reducing some of the clutter that's around you can also help. And then, last but not least, another form of stress that a lot of people and I think. This one has been really prevalent since we've gotten through COVID, and that social disconnection. Not every single social interaction that you have with other people is a form of self-care. What you have to do is think about whether or not the interaction that you're having is something that leaves you feeling supported, connected, and seen, or leaves you feeling sort of depleted. So experiencing social disconnection can feel like feeling like lonely. You're feeling loneliness, feeling misunderstood, withdrawing from other people, wanting to have the support of those around you, but not asking for it, being a little shy or ashamed to ask for the support that you need. So when you're feeling socially disconnected from other people, what you might actually need from them could be encouragement, companionship, maybe just having someone to listen to you and not necessarily try to fix whatever it is you're going through, but just be there to listen. Or you might need to have help with a particular situation, and in those types of situation, or when you're experiencing social disconnection, the type of self-care that might be helpful can be just directly asking someone for support or for help, being honest when someone says,"Oh, so how's it going? How you feeling? What's been happening? Honestly talk to them about the fact that you've been having a difficult day or a difficult time, or maybe even just calling or texting someone that you trust and care about. Send them a voice note. Let them know that you're thinking about them and what's going on in your life, or participating in an activity in person in your community. So I know that's a lot. It is,
Lisa Zawrotny:
but if you'll notice, there's so much in the way of overlap when you were talking about these. First of all, can we just say for a moment? You ever have that time where you're feeling called out and seen at the same time?
Unknown:
Oh,
Lisa Zawrotny:
right. I was like, all of these. I was like, check, check it, check. And then I was thinking about, oh, when you say overstimulation, you know, and how is that similar, but then also not to mental load. And it's yes and no, and it's these nuances, and I think it's so important for us to look at it that way, because there is a lot of overlap and a lot of similarity, and then there's some distinctions that are important. Where if you kind of hone in on that slight distinction, you're going to match what you need so much better. The other thing that came up for me when you were describing these is how much we can do when we are taking care of ourselves and when we are doing what we consider stress management, but the right kind for us. How much we can be preventative for these? Yes. Right. And so things that you're talking about, like I have the guided mind sweep that I do, and when you put that into practice, you're going to help keep naturally with that habit your mental load reduced. Right, the idea of overstimulation is the more we declutter. I loved that you talked about decluttering and taking away things that are going to distract us. I work with people with ADHD all the time. I live in a sea of it in my home. Sometimes I think I have it, but my family has decided I can't. I'm not allowed to because one of us for
Unknown:
them. Yeah,
Lisa Zawrotny:
exactly. One of us has to keep everybody in line, and so that would be me. And so, given that, it's like, how can we keep things simple in practice all the time so that we don't get to that point? Or sometimes in the world you know that we live in, it is going to happen, but at least it's not constant because you can't live with that chronic stress response all the time. And and again, everybody reacts differently, so knowing how you react is so important. But yeah, these are fabulous. So we have these five types. We've probably listened and like, okay, that sounds familiar. So I'm curious, what do we do from here? Let's talk about the next step we can take. A simple process for identifying what we need in the moment, or how we might want to prioritize if we're feeling all of these. You're like all dressed, like all five. High five me, raising my hand. Exactly. What do we do with that in terms of how do we detect one, prioritize one? You know, where do we go from here?
Unknown:
Sure. No, absolutely. Well, the very, very first thing I always say is, and I encourage my clients to do this. I always encourage people to get curious instead of being judgmental, because I think for a lot of people the default is to say,"Oh, you know, I'm feeling this way. I'm all stressed out. What's wrong with me? And no, instead you can ask yourself, what is this stress that I'm experiencing? Was it trying to tell me? So get curious instead of judgmental. But I'm glad that you asked me about what it is that you can do to kind of identify what it is that you need. So I've got something simple, hoping that it's simple that you'll be able to use. What I call it is notice, need, and next. So I'm going to go through all three of those and explain them. So these are three questions that you ask yourself when you're feeling like you're experiencing one or all of those stress symptoms that we talked about before. So the first thing that you do is to notice, and this is where the curiosity comes into play. So when you're feeling stressed out, just take a pause for a moment and notice, like, what's going on? Like, what's happening in my mind, my body, with my emotions? Just ask yourself, like, what is happening? What's going on? What is it that I'm feeling? What is it that I'm experiencing? Because you want to move past, oh, I'm just stressed out, into being a little bit more specific about what is stressing you out and what type of stresses you're feeling, so that you can do something about it and match the right self-care activity to what it is that you're experiencing. So the first is notice, like just take a moment, what's happening with myself, and then once you've noticed that you're stressed out and figured out what's happening with your mind, body, your emotions, then the next step is need. You can ask yourself, what would help me the most right now, or what is it that I need right now, and that can be a lot of different things. So maybe it can be support or rest or less of those inputs coming at you. Maybe it can be some nourishment. Have a little snack, like you were talking about. I always like a snack. Always a snack, yeah. Always a snack. Oh, snack
Lisa Zawrotny:
always helps. I'm just exactly, exactly.
Unknown:
Or maybe it can be setting a boundary for yourself. You know, so just ask yourself, what is it that I need right now? What would help me the most right in this very moment? Because two people can say, you know, I feel completely overwhelmed, but one person might need to be someplace quiet, while the other person might need to reach out to another for some help. So you can have the same experience, the same feelings, but have two completely different needs for that. So first, you notice what's going on. Then you ask yourself, "What is it that I need? And then, last but not least, the next is asking yourself, "What can I realistically do in this moment? Because again, as we talked about, the type of self-care that works for you today, that worked for you yesterday, might not be the same type of self-care that works for you today. So you should choose a self-care activity that meets whatever that need is that you figured out, and that also fits your capacity. So when we're talking about the next, you're looking at time, like how much time do I realistically have to do whatever it is I'm about to do, and you're looking at your energy, like how much physical, emotional energy do I have? Because your goal is to choose the simplest option that still meets your need. Nothing you don't want to make it complicated because the more complicated it is, the harder it is, the more likely you're not going to do it. So, what's the simplest thing that I can do right now that will meet the need that I have? So, maybe you need some movement. So, instead of walking for an hour, maybe you just take a five-minute walk. Just walk around the block, walk around your neighborhood, your building. Maybe you need. Some connection because you're feeling socially disconnected from others, but you don't have two hours for lunch. So maybe instead you can just FaceTime a friend for a few minutes or send them a voice note or a text. Maybe you need some mental clarity, but you don't have an hour to come up with a total, complete plan. So maybe you do a brain dump for two minutes and get all the extraneous things out of your mind, so that you can focus on the one thing that you need to focus on. Maybe you need to set a boundary. Someone is making a request from you, so instead of saying yes when you really want to say no, maybe you can say you know what, let me check my schedule and I'll get back to you, and that way it gives you some space and some time to breathe, because the right self care for you it needs to be the right size for whatever day it is that you're having. You know, some days you've got a lot of space and a lot of time. Other days you don't. So the process is notice, need, and next. What's happening to me right now? What type of stress am I experiencing? What is it that I actually need that will help me in the moment, and what's one realistic thing that I can do right now that will meet that need?
Lisa Zawrotny:
I love not only the simplicity of this, the structure, the framework, but the simplicity within each, which is you're pausing, you can for a minute, literally, to be like, "How am I feeling? Frickin resentful, quite frankly, you know, whatever. Like, literally, you can ask yourself that question and just be like, "I'm over it. I'm so over it. I am so done. You know, and then you be like, "All right, tell me more. I get you, girl. You know, like, and then it's the realistic right part of it. It's like realistically, what can I do? And I like when you ask, "What do I need right now? Because that can be different in every moment. Yes, ultimately, I need to rework my schedule and maybe not say yes as much, and I need to, you know, overhaul my closets. And there's a lot of things that I need to do, but realistically and right now is what I need to think of. So you are talking about small steps. You are talking about what can potentially form a habit in the future. There's a lot of wonderful, convenient, efficient overlap here of asking these questions, making these choices, and taking these little steps, I love it. This is a beautiful place for us to start to wrap up. So, where do you want us to take this, or what should we walk away with? What do you want to add to this that we can think of, whether or not it's the small steps we're taking? I like what you said about the right size for the day you're having. Yeah, that's such a big takeaway. Help us wrap this up, Cassandra. What else do we need to know before we walk away and go, "Yeah, I'm overwhelmed, but now what am I doing?
Unknown:
But you can do this because the thing is that effective self care-it doesn't always make everything wonderful. It's not always going to be sunshine, puppies, rainbows, unicorns, or cotton candy, which I would love to. Dang it! I love all of those things. Oh my gosh! That's what I need right now. Maybe I can send you some stickers or something. Effective self care, you know, it doesn't always make everything wonderful, but sometimes it just helps you to feel like you can handle by just five or 10% whatever it is that's going to come next, it just gives you just enough to handle the next thing that life is going to throw at you. Because there's always going to be a next thing, always.
Lisa Zawrotny:
That is such a good, realistic but encouraging point that you give yourself just enough to take a breath and keep going. It's that resilience that we need, but we have to give ourselves something for the tank in order to be resilient.
Unknown:
Absolutely, absolutely.
Lisa Zawrotny:
What a beautiful way to put that. Okay, so with this in mind, this is what you are talking about all the time. You have lots of things to share and lots of resources. Tell us where we can find you and what we can look for when we find you.
Unknown:
Oh, absolutely! So the best place to find me is on the Master Your Stress website, which is MasteryYour Stress.net, and I help overwhelmed women reduce their stress, and make self-care, as I said before, like a practical, sustainable part of everyday life. So you'll find plenty of resources there on my website. I'm also on Instagram and YouTube at the handle of Master Your Stress. And then also for your listeners, I have a resource that's going to really help them put into action the things that we talked about today. It's called "What Do I Need Right Now, and it's a five-minute self-care decision guide. It's really a simple guide that helps you choose the type of self-care that you actually need in this moment. So it goes through what we talked about today to help you recognize the type of stress that you might be experiencing, identify what you actually need, and helps you choose a realistic self-care response based on the time and the energy that you have available to yourself. So they'll be able to access that.
Lisa Zawrotny:
Okay, that's perfect. Five minutes. I love that. Five minutes is about the same time that my mind sweep is. Exactly. What's great is we can start mixing and matching. I have resources. You have resources. They're going to work beautifully together. We'll make sure to have your links in the show notes, especially to that free resource. So, without further ado, let's get into our fun little rapid wrap up. And these are the final words of wisdom and inspiration. Things that inspire positively living for you. We're looking for a song, a saying, and a resource. So I know it's hard to pick one song, but
Unknown:
oh my gosh, this is just so much. But so there is a song. It's a an R and B song by a group called Sounds of Blackness, and the song is called Optimistic. I love this song so much because primarily it's about believing in yourself and keeping your head up to the sky and believing in yourself. Love it so much. It's a good song. Okay, I
Lisa Zawrotny:
can't wait to look that one up.
Unknown:
Oh yes, you'll definitely enjoy it. And a saying. So this one, I don't know where it originally came from it's like an anonymous saying, but I'm a person who likes to try new things and push myself to go out of my comfort zone. But much like a lot of people, I think sometimes your initial reactions say, "Oh no, I don't know, can I do that? kind of thing. So there's a saying that I love, which is, "What's the best that can happen? Oh my gosh, I love that so much. What's the best that can happen? You never know. It opens up so many possibilities for you. So I absolutely love that phrase and love that saying. And then, as far as a resource is concerned, it actually goes back to a lot of the things that we were talking about today. So one book that I'm sure your listeners are very familiar with that I really do love is called Atomic Habits by James Clear. This book is amazing. I love the idea of habit stacking and actually use it in my everyday life, like in my morning routine, and the fact that it talks about meaningful change doesn't have to mean completely, totally overhauling your life. Small actions, if they're done consistently, they can make such a big difference in your life because it's better to do something for five minutes every day than to do something for an hour or two every three or four months. Yeah, especially if you're trying to
Lisa Zawrotny:
do skill acquisition. I talk about this all the time when doing music, when practicing music, when learning a new instrument. You are actually better off five minutes a day picking up that guitar and working on it than you are waiting a week and then trying to do it for an hour. So that's such a great point. Exactly, it's a self care. The same
Unknown:
way, exactly. Self care works exact same way as well.
Lisa Zawrotny:
So you know that book is not only on my bookshelf. I'm moving my head so Cassandra can see me in the video, but it's not only on my bookshelf, but on the positivelyproductive.com/resources page. I have a link to a collection of books we've talked about in the podcast. You know it's been mentioned, and it's so worth bringing it up again because I just mentioned how you're talking about small steps and habits. It all overlaps beautifully. He brings a lot into his work and his book that comes from to me the OG guy of habits Charles Duhigg, and so it's just a fantastic resource. You're absolutely right. I'm definitely looking for that song, and I love the question, the mantra, the saying here because it's making your brain look for the best outcome and give you something to work towards. So those are fantastic, Cassandra. So one last bonus thing. It's a last, but definitely not least thing. Let's share some gratitude. What or who contributes to positively living for you?
Cassandra Martin-Himmons:
Oh my gosh! So I am incredibly grateful. For the people in my life who just allow me to be me, like my family, my husband, my family. I love them. I'm so grateful for them. And then I'm really also grateful for the women that I get to work with and the women that I've met through Master Your Stress. Because can I tell you, Lisa? There's nothing better than hearing someone say to me that she's starting to take better care of herself, setting boundaries, recognizing that her own needs actually matter, and that's the reason why I do the work that I do. So those are things that I'm grateful for, and I'm always grateful for a good cup of tea. There you go.
Lisa Zawrotny:
There you go. So I'm always grateful for a snack, but I'm also too grateful for the connections that I've made and through the changes that I can help elicit. And you're right. That's you're talking about what lights you up and getting others in our community. We're part of a group now, so if you're listening and you're like, "I'm really feeling this, and I want to talk to you, come find us, talk to us. We are so happy to support you. And so, yeah. Last but not least, I am so grateful for you and our connection, Cassandra. So we have collaborated before, and I wanted to have you on so we could collaborate again. And this is definitely not the last time. I'm sure,
Unknown:
absolutely not.
Lisa Zawrotny:
So, thank you, Cassandra. Thank you for shining your light so beautifully in this world, and for sharing it with us today.
Unknown:
Thank you. Thank you for having me here.
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