Nina Polyné, PsyD
Licensed clinical psychologist, consultant, professor, author, and speaker specializing in anxiety and the intersection between emotional, physical, and spiritual wellness
The final episode of Baggage Drop concludes with a reflection on how far we’ve come, led by this week’s host Dr. Polyné, and previous weeks’ hosts pop in with some words of wisdom of their own too. Celebrate your efforts by hearing other Wondermind listener stories of growth, and move forward knowing you’ve got the tools to keep your choices aligned with your values. Way to drop that baggage.
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Learn more about Dr. Polyné
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NINA POLYNÉ, PsyD, HOST: Hi friends! Once again, we're back. I’m Dr. Nina Polyné, and you’re listening to the last episode of the final week of Wondermind’s Baggage Drop.
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To everyone who’s been following along with us, thank you! Jessica, Ryan, Alo, and I have had so much fun being your hosts…but more important than our fun, is your growth.
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DR. POLYNÉ: I’m excited to be joined by Dr. Jessica Stern, who kicked off our series on week one. Hey Dr. Jessica!
DR. STERN: Hey Dr. Nina! I’m so happy to be here and we’re gonna reflect on our incredible four weeks of Baggage Drop together, so let’s chat about it!
DR. POLYNÉ: Same! We packed in a lot of mental health tips over the past four weeks, and I like that we created brief, 10min episodes for easier listening. Dr. Jessica, your week one was impactful because understanding why we are setting goals in the first place, helps us sustain our motivation over time. I enjoyed your emphasis on aligning our motivation with our values, and the importance of climbing the mountain instead of moving the mountain.
DR. STERN: Thanks so much for sharing that, Dr. Nina! I appreciate that. After that we talked about how to leverage people’s support systems to find ways to engage with their goals and to move forward, and we also talked about how to stack those meaningful habits in your life to build an internal system that works for you.
DR. POLYNÉ: Absolutely. I enjoyed taking the lead on week four, because I am a big fan of cultivating a compassionate relationship with ourselves. That inner critic can be a menace! However, giving ourselves a little grace can go a long way. The goal isn’t perfection…we’re human!
DR. STERN: Absolutely—I could not agree more, Dr. Nina. The setbacks that we have in our lives are often some of the greatest opportunities for learning, as cheesy as that sounds. That’s where we get to examine what’s working and what’s not working and to rejig our system.
DR. POLYNÉ: Dr. Jessica, what was your favorite mental fitness tip?
DR. STERN: I love values. I love exploring values, figuring out what our north star is, because it gives us a sense of direction. And being able to journal about them, I think gives us a lot of empowerment in figuring out what’s important to us. And I also love using that with self-compassion which is an area that you talked about. And I’m so thrilled about that because that’s an area that a lot of people know that they need to get better on, but really struggle with, and don’t know how to start.
DR. POLYNÉ: Yeah I can’t agree more. I think self-compassion is such an incredible tool to have in our back pocket. I also really love the idea of dancing out your emotions. Sometimes emotions can be incredibly overwhelming to us, but when we dance it out, we sweat it out, we just feel better. And also, music has a way of penetrating the soul and I think that it’s so important for us to be experience our emotions and not be afraid of them.
DR. STERN: And I think what’s so cool about that, is it shows us that mental fitness doesn’t always have to be so serious. Sometimes it can be light and fun, and cheery and flexible, and that’s pretty cool.
DR. POLYNÉ: Exactly. On behalf of the Wondermind team and Baggage Drop experts, I wanted to share that we’re all very proud of you.
DR. STERN: We so absolutely are! Thank you for sharing your precious time with us; we really hope that it was helpful for you, and we hope that it inspired you, and we’re so excited to continue to hear from you on social media platforms about what you’re dropping.
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DR. POLYNÉ: And now…time for some celebration! On Monday, we talked about celebrating the qualities we honor in ourselves. When you’re going through a difficult time, that can be a hard question to answer… so to inspire you, and get those wheels turning, let’s hear what others had to say:
PIA GLENN, PRODUCER: How do you celebrate your wins? How do you celebrate yourself?
[VOICE CLIP 1]: Oh, that's a good one. I think for a very long time, I couldn't do it. I wasn't able to celebrate my successes until somebody else said, "Well, good job." And I think I just started to do it not a very long time ago. I think I just do something very, even small, for myself that I enjoy. I go and take a coffee and go for a walk, meet my friends, or just go to sleep earlier, and I just feel good about it.
[VOICE CLIP 2]: Celebrating it with other people and maybe going out, maybe staying in, but doing something fun to recognize the win.
[VOICE CLIP 3]: We go get a drink at the bar down the street.
[VOICE CLIP 4]: Sometimes getting through the week, we'll just like go get a drink at the end and that's a pretty good time. We'll get dinner.
[VOICE CLIP 5]: With a treat, something that I like, like a smoothie or something.
PIA: How do you celebrate your wins, personal wins?
[VOICE CLIP 6]: Personal wins? Oh my gosh. I'd have to think of what my personal wins are.
[VOICE CLIP 7]: That we're 85 and still walking.
[VOICE CLIP 6]: That we're 85 and still walking I guess.
PIA: Yes.
[VOICE CLIP 6]: And that's it. We laugh a lot.
[VOICE CLIP 7]: And we also socialize a lot with folks.
[VOICE CLIP 8]: Me personally, I like to celebrate my wins by traveling.
[VOICE CLIP 9]: I would say eating, traveling, and shopping.
[VOICE CLIP 10]: Like coming to the park with my friends, which we'd all hang out before we had kids and now I get to hang out with our kids and that's a celebration to me. And being able to celebrate on a weekday in the afternoon, not be at work. Woohoo.
PIA: How do you celebrate yourself? Celebrate your wins.
[VOICE CLIP 11]: Just genuine, I can feel good about this. I don't have to feel guilty about feeling good about this or acknowledging that maybe I am skilled at something. Not being overzealous with other people and putting them down about certain skills, but remaining confident and maybe sharing that confidence with other people to build them up.
[VOICE CLIP 12]: I just try to just tell myself, "You did it. You're amazing." Literally look in the mirror and say, "You're amazing."
DR. POLYNÉ: All of this is incredible! We’re honored to have the privilege of providing tools for your mental fitness journey. I celebrate myself by journaling about my accomplishments and the emotions I’m feeling, checking in with my body to identify the sensations that resonate with celebration, and of course, dancing and singing to my favorite celebratory jams by none other than RuPaul!
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And that’s Baggage Drop! It takes a lot of effort to break unhealthy habits and adopt new ones. You’ve all done such an amazing job. If you want more follow-through and fun with the topics covered over the past four weeks, Wondermind has linked worksheets in the show notes. Check those out! But before I end this show, if you want to hear more from me, you can find me at @drninapolyne on Instagram. Go into your next moves knowing you put in the foundation for what you truly deserve: and that’s mental fitness. And remember, down the road, if you’re ever wondering if a choice is aligned with your values, you can always return to the question Dr. Stern taught us in week one:
“If I make this change now, how will it help me work towards the life I want to lead?”
And you’re set. You’ve done an excellent job working towards your very own Baggage Drop.
Thanks for joining us on this journey! We encourage you to repeat this show as many times as you’d like, with other healthy habits you’d like to incorporate into your life.
And visit Wondermind.com for more mental health resources!
Credits:
Senior Producer: Marisa Bramwell
Senior Writer: Amy Thompson
Producer: Jennifer Bassett
Producer: Pia Glenn
Audio Engineer: Joel Edinberg
Music: Epidemic Sound
Wondermind does not provide medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. Any information published on this website orby this brand is not intended as a replacement for medical advice or a substitute for the advice of a professional, and you should not rely on it. Always consult a qualified health or mental health professional with any questions or concerns about your mental health
