How to Rewire Your Brain Away from Anxiety This Season

The first warm breeze, the whir of garden tools, bees busy in the camellias spring has a way of waking the senses and, if we let it, our perspective. We use that seasonal spark to rethink abundance, moving it from a number on a screen to a lived experience: clean water, shared meals, steady health, neighbors who wave back, and the simple relief of being together.

We unpack why our brains default to scarcity normalizing what’s safe while hunting for what’s missing and how modern marketing pours fuel on that instinct. Then we get practical. We share small, repeatable rituals that retrain attention: pausing to savor a sandwich, saying thanks before a meal, naming five forms of support you touched today. These aren’t platitudes; they are tools to steady the nervous system, reduce anxiety, and restore a grounded sense of “enough.”

We also talk about connection in a tech saturated world. AI and devices can be brilliant helpers when used with intention, but they can’t replace the warmth of eye contact or the lift of a shared laugh. We explore boundaries that place boundaries on technology batching notifications, device-free meals, choosing offline by default so digital convenience serves human presence, not the other way around. Along the way, we celebrate milestones we often downplay, like birthdays and quiet stretches of good health, and remember how easily we forget life’s basics until they’re gone.

If you’re ready to trade endless comparison for everyday wonder, join us. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a reframe, and leave a quick message telling us one ordinary thing you’re grateful for today.

Transcript

Spring’s Return And Sensory Joy

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Nature is telling us that the world is waking up again, at least here where we live. Definitely. Spring is definitely in the air. It is, yay! The daffodils are blooming, and the birds are singing, and the bees are they're buzzing. They're buzzing. They're buzzing around like crazy. We're noticing it all, and that's what we're going to be chatting about in this week's episode of Get Wheel with the English sisters. Yoletta and your character. Thank you for listening, and thank you all as always for all your kind messages and your support and your comments on Instagram and Twitter and Twitter anymore, X or wherever you get your podcast as well. You can message us. Yeah. And there you go. You can I can actually hear while we're recording, you know, there's somebody out there with tools. Yeah, but they're they're they're already they're cutting, and there's these uh like all these garden noises, like people are mowing the lawn. They're activated. Yes, it's as if we've all suddenly become activated. The days are slightly longer, and like the other day, that suddenly made me feel really tired. I was exhausted with the spring blossom. Yeah, there's only a few things blossoming, like the mimosas blossoming. The mimosas all over the place now, yeah. You probably think the mimosa is a drink, but here in Italy, the mimosa flowers, they're I don't know what they're called in English. No, those tiny little yellow flowers. Yeah, they were they're really so they're in full blossom. Full blossom. The camellias in full blossom. Oh yeah, definitely. That that's gorgeous. Well, your camellia tree has got loads has got loads of bees, hasn't it? It's passing. Yeah, yeah, the bees are the bees are you have to stay away from it. I mean they look pretty from afar, but if I go anywhere near it, the other day I was just collecting your hair, don't they? Oh god, yeah. You have to be careful with your hair. They get entangled and then they get frenzied and then they can sting you. Only because they're frightened, otherwise they stay on the flowers. They do, yeah. I mean, it's not like they want to go in your hair. It's not mate, it's about numbers. Sometimes they can they can see the nice perfume of your hair of their hair products. Yeah, mate. And they can get attracted to. I'm already scared of them getting my hair. Okay, don't think about anyway. There's so much abundance in nature now. We can see everything growing, flourishing, starting to grow, isn't it? It's really beautiful, and uh sometimes we can forget how to live an abundant lifestyle, and we can go into into into lack and feelings of non-abundance and feelings of we haven't got enough of not enough. And that's what we'd like to discuss in this week's podcast, though how to change that around so that you can actually focus and look for what the abundance in your life, yeah. Yeah, just like nature now is waking up and there's an abundance of um colour as well. There's an abundance of colour and perfume and smells and uh insects and things abuzzing, you know. There's also there can also be abundant things in your life that you're not aware of, that you haven't quite focused on. But you might be not you might be so aware of them that you can't you like delete them because they have become normality for you. Oh, that's true. Yeah, because our brain, you know, is sort of like okay, that's normal, so that's no longer a cause for concern, as to say, you know, that's not something my brain has to take notice of or take great joy in because I'm used to that. But what about if we sort of become more wide awake and notice things that we take for granted? Well, yeah, loved ones, yeah. How many times we take them for granted? We shout at them. So many times I think, or we're like snap. We snap, we might be like, might not might not appreciate them fully. And then you think, you know, they're they're they're they're special to me. They're so special, so why am I not behaving as if this is uh something for me to think I have an abundant life because these people are in it? They might just be your neighbours that you say hello to across the fence, or if you have a fence, or somebody that you bump into, you know, it might just be but you can feel grateful for those people for those connections. You can feel grateful, you can, you can feel very grateful, and uh but it takes a moment of mindfulness to do so. Yeah, it does, and that's when mindfulness comes into this like attraction and abundance and and attracting good feelings and attracting abundance and attracting it's not sometimes you're not you're not actually attracting it, but you already have it and you don't realize you've got it. Like just the fact that you can, I don't know, turn the tap on. These all sound like things that are just for us where we live, it's just given for granted that we can just turn the tap on and we'll have delicious clean water that comes out of it that we can drink until they cut it off. You know, when I've had it cut off before for about two weeks after they've I've had it cut off because they were doing works or whatever, then I'm always every time I open the tap, oh thank gosh, you know, thank goodness I've got water. Thank goodness I've got and then after you forget it becomes normal for you to turn the tap on and have lovely, clean, flowing water. It becomes normal, and so you forget about that. And you forget how abundant that is to have all that lovely fresh water just coming out of your tap. Yeah, incredible. It's incredible, it's amazing, or just being able to have all this lovely food that we have that we can just buy and have and eat at any time abundantly. Yeah, sometimes too too abundantly too abundantly where we should have to have to have restraint. But yeah, but when you think about countries that are at war or oh the wars in the past, or people have had famine, and uh there's there's none of that, and yet now we have so much of everything that we we we sometimes we just delete it, like what Yucca said. We just forget about it and just think no that you know, and we we focus on what we haven't got, we haven't got that. Yes, yes, because it becomes I I mean it's it's wired into our brains for us to behave this way because when when you have something you don't have to look for what you lack, yeah, you feel safe, you you feel safe, and and so that's that I mean no, I don't know. Did I say that right? Well anyway, what I mean is that you we're wired to to I'm kidding. To look for trouble. To look for trouble. That's because in the tribes we have to watch out that you're not gonna get raped or your food isn't gonna get stolen or something's not gonna get stolen. So you're not wired to think, okay, the food is there now, I'm gonna eat it, and I'm all so thankful. So yes, but that's when a lot of religion comes in and a lot of you know practices that where you you are like consciously taught to stop before you eat and say, Thank you for the food we're about to receive. Yeah. And and and all this, all this. Yeah, no, no, that's really good. In most religions, that's really that's that's a practice. You become uh aware of how much stuff you actually have, how much food you have, how much stuff you have, and that can be very good for mental health when you're actually aware of the things you already have. Yeah, you're aware of it, yeah. Yeah, you're not focusing on what you lack, no, like oh, it's always a sandwich for lunch. You know, lucky you have a sandwich. I mean, you know, but it's true, it's true. I mean, you've got to think, well, aren't you lucky you've got a sandwich for lunch? You know, notice how good that sandwich tastes. Notice what's in it. Imagine, you know, eat that sandwich and be thankful for that sandwich. I know. Because it's I mean, we all do it. I mean not, we're not like saying that we don't do it. We of course we all do it, everybody does it. It's just because part of our conditioning, especially in the live in. It's how we're wired, we're wired, it's how we're wired, but then it's also how society is making us always want more because they're always selling to us. Yeah, you're right. So that we're always being bombarded by constant adverts of more, more, more. Yeah, so that you feel lack, lack so much lack, and you feel you haven't got enough, and you feel hard done to, and you feel, why me? Why haven't I got what they've got? And and that's a very dangerous mentality to have because it causes a lot of um anguish, anxiety, and and mental health um problems because you you just you just spiral downwards instead of being uplifted by saying how lucky I am to be able to do these things, exactly. To be able to have access to these things, to have you know a warm home to live in or room to live in, but have have people that love me, that are around me, or people that I can love. If you haven't got anyone that loves you, you can show love to people. That's still abundance coming from you to others. You can form a community, you can get in contact with people, you can you can form these connections with other people around you. And you'd be surprised that there's a lot of lonely people out there as well and that are looking to make connections, real people connections. Not just because before we were chatting too, you were saying that how important it is for now for us as real people to have real connections with other people, and how sad she is that unfortunately uh the world is becoming more and more electronic and going more and more to AI, to devices, to looking for solace amongst technology that, yes, it might it may be helpful if used with great intelligence, but at the end of the day, that technology is only going to be wanting to market to you as well and to sell you stuff in the future. It'll be all like that. So we really do have to cultivate and think how lucky we are just to be able to, you know, walk out of our houses and just see real people and talk to them and say hello and uh go to parties and go to go to our sports, whatever sport we can do. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if if you just think about that, you can just think, how lucky am I? How lucky am I to be able to do all this stuff? Yeah, yeah. Just to have your health as well. How lucky, how much how often do we all take our health for granted until we feel sick? Yes, until we have that rotten flu or cold or worse, unfortunately. And then we think so good before so amazing, and how did I take it for granted instead of thinking how lucky I was? I was moaning about something else, or I was focusing on no, oh it it seems to be that way that only when we miss it, that's when we appreciate what we used to have. Like when the water's got gone because they're doing water works like we had here for like three whole days. Oh my god, we were all so desperate for water. And then when it came back, oh well, at least I was every five minutes. Oh, I've got water, I've got water, you know, I'll go on about it, and then it'll slowly delete in my mind, and having water becomes normal. Yeah, so I think if you do if you focus uh mindfully and focus on how how abundant your life already is, and how rich you are already in so many ways. I mean, even if you just think about your your own mind and how incredible it is, and how many resources you have at your disposition, how you can use your mind for for good, to help people, to learn new things. I mean, that is just so abundant in itself. It's just, I mean, we just we can just go down to thinking that we're human miracles, really. We're miracles because we are amazing magical miracles, all of us, and we take that for granted. Yeah, we take it for granted. We do take it for granted. We're so special, we can feel love, we can have salty water come out from our eyes because we feel emotion. I mean, that's so beautiful, isn't it? You know, you that that's taken for granted as well. But you can think, wow, you know, where we're the real thing. I know maybe this is coming on because we've been speaking about AI before and we've been a little bit concerned about it ourselves. And I mean, my son the other day, he was saying again, he goes, Oh, I'm gonna ask a uh chat, I'm gonna ask Chatty what I'm gonna cook tonight. And I thought, why don't you just ask me? You know, ask Chatty. He goes, Oh no, because I was just because I've got one pepper, one this, and what I was just gonna ask him for some recipes, mum. That's all. And I thought, okay, but you can also ask me, you know, just you know, because I've I used I used to make you all your food, it's okay, you know. I can maybe come up with a creative solution. You don't have to just go to chatty for a for a thing like I can I can see like where you ask for specific things, but it's what I what we were saying before, it's becoming more and more part of every day. And that can be okay. But it's also slightly becoming aware of it and and using it in moderation, yes, and and understanding. To your advantage, it's addictive. So we and it's been designed to be addictive, so especially for young minds, it's very addictive and it's dangerous, I think, really, because it's not healthy. Because the marketing will come. Yeah, and it's not healthy, so this has got nothing to do with abundance. It's in abundance, it's in abundance, yes. It can be used at our discretion, I think, and with great care. And and it can be wonderful and it can be amazing. We've I've used it myself, I've used it for things that are amazing, like solicitor's advice and legal advice, and things that have been, you know, and then I remember asking my lawyer and saying, Hey, I just put this on, you know, on AI. What do you think of it? And he said, Oh, that's pretty amazing. Yeah, no, it's gonna, I'm gonna for something. I'm gonna get it. But I mean, we were like at on the motorway here in Italy the other day, and the it had a problem that it wouldn't open, the the gate wouldn't open to let us through the paint hole. And uh and my husband pressed on the button and he and it said, Where did you enter? There was a voice, a man said, Where did you enter? And he said, I entered here, and he said, Sorry, can you repeat that again? And I said, I said to my husband, it's an it's an AI bot, it's not a real person. Really? Yeah, and he said, Oh, and then and then the the AI bot said, Oh, so sorry, okay, I'll pass you on to an operator. A real bot. And then a real person came on and asked it in because my husband was trying to explain instead of just saying the exact precise location, the AI bot couldn't understand if it was too complicated and it sent him off to a real person. To a real person, but yeah, but it's it's it's more and more that it's becoming part of our lives where we're not interacting normally every day with humans, yes, and like looking at them eye to eye. Yeah, you're so right about that. Eye to eye contact, just even hearing a real voice, a real person that's answering you is nice because it's a real person. Okay, they're never nice. So I think we have to appreciate that more and treasure that treasure that how abundant that is. It's still abundant, and hopefully it'll become more hopefully I mean there is a movement turning away from this, and there's more like social clubs opening. My daughter was telling me that these games, clubs, these pubs are opening games night nights and people are getting out and actually going and seeing other and that's very important because otherwise you can find that it's so easy to isolate yourself before if before we when we didn't have all this technology at our fingertips and there wasn't all this abundance of technology, we could be stuck in our rooms, maybe reading a book or watching TV, and then we'd feel suddenly start getting itchy feet and feel itchy feel restless. Oh, I think I should go out now or let me phone someone, yeah, and you would go out and have a chat and have a good night with someone where you talk to a child. Whereas now we can talk to people on out online for hours or talk to bots online for hours, you can shop online. I mean, come on. What is not online basically everything. So being able to appreciate real human presence as part of your abundant lifestyle, yeah, I think is very, very important for us to be able to. I mean, I've been jarred still by the pandemic when we couldn't go out of our stuff. Because it was so strict here. Here in England. Yeah, yeah. Okay. But I mean, to be fair now, even as I still enter the coffee shop, I'll still look at the person in the coffee shop and feel warm and think. Oh, I've been so happy. So happy to be able to go there and drive there, even though it was years ago now. But we no, but it it's been it it was it was uh the most unusual thing happened happening to us, really, because it's never happened to us before that our actual freedom was taken away. No, totally, and there were police cars and that actually it's like an inquisition, wasn't it? When you tried to get out of the house, the war zone, yeah. Yes, so I mean that was very, very. But there was curfews, it was more strict. We said not anymore now. Cause we can be together and cuddle each other. Yes, yes, yes, that's so true. And we can be cute and have nice times together. And it's my birthday tomorrow, yeah. We're gonna be celebrating that tomorrow, exactly. So we'll be having a great time. Yeah, I'm gonna be feeling very grateful. Okay. Don't go on about it. I've had enough of that. Let us know if you're feeling grateful for. Look, um said this about my birthday because I think as you get older, you can tend to not want to have a birthday. Yes, and not to want to feel grateful to be able to have a birthday and to celebrate a birthday. But I think it's important. Of course it's important. To be able to still be happy about your birthday. Yeah. You're still here. Yeah, exactly. And I'm still here and I'm and and I'm happy. So I think it's important when you think about it, you're not just older on that day, you've been getting older all year. Yes, and hopefully you've been getting a lot of feedback and feedback and getting older and wiser, as they say. Exactly. Older and wiser. Maybe not so wise, I don't know. You tell us sometimes. We can get more we can get silly, can't we? Like the teenagers. We're reversing. Anyway. I think a bit of silliness is always good. It's very good. It's a good thing. Keeps a light hearted, doesn't it? Yes, yes, yes. Okay, thank you so much. Love you all. Bye bye. Lots of love and smiles from the English sisters. Bye.