The Importance of Fun Despite Anxiety and OCD

The OCD and Anxiety Podcast by Robert James Coaching. Music.

Hello and welcome to The OCD and Anxiety Podcast where we explore how to have a more positive relationship with anxiety disorders disorders, taking back control so that you can start living the life you choose and not the one chosen by your fears. Music. Hello and welcome to episode 373. I hope that you're doing very well today and if you are struggling with OCD or anxiety then you can get a free session with me to get that. You you can head over to my website, which is robertjamescoaching.com.

There you can book in for that free session, or if you prefer, you can actually just send me a message and let me know about what you're struggling with. In today's podcast, I'm going to be talking about the importance of having fun, even when you're struggling with OCD and anxiety, or especially when you're struggling with OCD and anxiety. This fun is something that tends to go out the window.

Obviously when we have OCD it can be so hard to to kind of deal with the incessant thinking going around in circles and actually you know sometimes what we really need to do is just to somehow let go of it all for for a certain amount of time to actually engage with something that that draws our attention that we have to really focus on and that you know normally if we're not kind of getting getting caught up with OCD actually we do enjoy and you know we find it fun.

There's all sorts of research that shows this kind of thing can be very helpful for mental health.

So today we're going to be unpacking that. There is actually now Patreon for the podcast so if you would like me to record a podcast specifically for you on the Patreon where I can answer any particular particularly any particular niggling question that you may be struggling with then do please feel free to to sign up for for the patreon there's different tiers you can find the link in the in the show notes also if you'd like to subscribe on instagram

you can my my instagram handle is at robertjamescoachinguk and if you'd like to head over to youtube you can follow and like there as well so many thanks guys i really hope that you enjoy this one and off we go.

What could be as simple as just having some fun but for many of us particularly those of us who struggle with ocd fun can be a last thing that you're you're thinking of a lot of the time because obviously you're you're really caught up in in the obsessions and you know actually going and and doing something that you you find fun seems like the most alien thing that somebody might suggest to you as actually being something that would be beneficial but actually you

know learning how to have more fun planning time into your day to actually enjoy yourself even if you are finding that you're you're anxious when you're you're doing that thing you know it can actually be incredibly beneficial for for many different reasons and today's podcast is it's kind of all about that i think sometimes there's a certain kind of seriousness that that comes in you know we kind of almost don't want to allow ourselves to to have some fun there's an idea perhaps that having fun

is is kind of childish or you know is it's not what a serious grown-up should be doing you know and unfortunately though that the or fortunately depending on which way you look at it The research does tend to show that, you know, play and fun can be, you know, very, very beneficial. Here's a quote from Christopher Meloni. And it is this, you can be childlike without being childish. A child always wants to have fun. Ask yourself, am I having fun?

And, you know, the question itself may be frustrating if you're really struggling, you know, with OCD and anxiety. You may be thinking to yourself, okay, well, I'm willing to give myself permission to have fun, but I'm just really struggling to do it. I can't quite let go of the thoughts. I can't quite let go of the compulsions.

How am I going to have fun? And I really think it all comes back to actually planning fun into your day, making sure that you really try to make a habit out of it and that you really find time for it. If we don't find time for it and if we don't plan it in, it's very likely that the obsessions and the compulsions will just take over.

We know what it's like you know we might we might get up with the best of intentions and think well today I'm gonna really try to to work really hard with the OCD I'm gonna do my best to manage it and I'm not going to perform those compulsions and lo and behold you know not very long later there we are and we're caught up in the trap again and so if we're actually able to plan in opportunities for fun that can you know that can really help.

The New York Times, in its article aptly named, Why We All Need to Have More Fun, claims that playfulness, connection and flow each have been shown to improve people's moods and mental health when experienced on their own. But when people experience these states at once, in other words, when they have true fun, the effects that they report are almost magical. When people are having actual fun, they report feeling focused and present, free from anxiety and self-criticism.

They laugh and feel connected both to other people and to their authentic selves this is obviously a really positive and uplifting quote you know if we could if we could find a way to to actually habitually have a bit more fun in our day-to-day lives could it really help with the OCD and certainly in my case anecdotally I know that to be to be true I know that when I do things like surfing that I really enjoy when I go for a run in around the local nature here when I'm connecting with

my friends and joking and laughing with them or just telling stories or you know whatever it is that I might be doing that I find enjoyable it just means that I'm going to have less time for the OCD obviously I'm going to have more helpful things to focus on but I'm actually genuinely genuinely enjoying myself. It's a form of kind of adult grown-up play.

It's not that I'm always being silly. Obviously, you know, maybe you're having a kind of intellectual conversation with somebody and that can be a form of kind of leisure, you know, when you're really engaged in that conversation. Maybe you're talking about a book that you've read or...

You're talking about politics or you're talking about whatever it is that interests you and you're really getting into it and you're getting involved and you know that is that is that is positive and focused and healthy leisure time and I kind of feel if we don't have that and unfortunately OCD does tend to kind of take that away from us so many of us when we're struggling with OCD get this idea of I kind of need to feel better before I get back into my life I need to to feel just right before I

get back into my life and that kind of thinking unfortunately does hold us back one of the best things I feel that we can do is to get back into our lives you know as soon as possible and start doing things again really this is what um acceptance commitment therapy is all about you know recognizing what your values are what you enjoy in life and actually kind of committing to doing those things even though in in the present moment you may be struggling still with the anxiety the idea is not to

wait for the anxiety to kind of be gone but to actually take action today you know and.

Start living your life and hopefully then in the future you will start to feel a bit better and as that new new york times article was pointing out you know all sorts of positive emotions can can come up when we actually put ourselves in a position to to have some fun in an article entitled fun is more fun when others are involved by harry t rice et al the authors claim that people are motivated to pursue fun activities because these activities commonly result in a

broadly positive effective experience as enjoyable as fun activities may be in their own right shared fun is more fun than solitary fun particularly when the sharing involves a friend fun therefore deserves more serious scrutiny as something more than a reflection of the enjoyability of an activity or moment in time it yields an effect an effective state that is linked to developing and reinforcing important social bonds you know and this is is another really important element of it.

You know, how, how important is that, that, that we're actually getting out into our lives. We're sharing with our friends, we're spending quality time with, with our friends and people that we care about. And again, that's one of those things that tends to take a bit, a bit of a backseat when it comes to OCD for who knows, whatever reasons, maybe many different reasons, we, we tend to kind of.

You know not want to spend as much time with people when we find ourselves caught up in our thoughts we may not want to to kind of share things with people and actually it's it's so important when we actually have a strong support network when we have you know good friends that we're seeing on a regular basis and our family that we're seeing and we're enjoying activities with them you know that can really help us and really kind of provide us with you know a bit

more of a kind of stable base from which to to learn how to deal with the anxiety and OCD having that that support is often crucial so you know if you can get out there and you know plan in some activities with your friends and and family and other people that you care about then you know that that could really help to mitigate some of the you know more difficult elements of OCD and anxiety so yeah I mean there's all sorts of other other benefits that we could talk about

obviously you know if you're if you're kind of exercising through doing the the activity then of course that's going to help as well you know maybe just having a break from all of that thinking that we tend to do with OCD just in just in it on itself that is going to help too so So there's many different benefits that come from having more fun. Something that I like to do is to listen to, you know, podcasts, comedy podcasts that help me to just kind of kick back in and have a laugh sometimes.

That can be incredibly important. So no matter how you do it, just see if you can find a way to bring a bit more fun into your day-to-day life. And you may be surprised with how that just helps you.

You know to to kind of let off some steam and to kind of refocus your attention onto more helpful things away from the incessant nagging ruminations and much more onto the things in your life that are actually important to you the people in your life the activities that you enjoy the things that that bring you that sense of joy those are the things that we should be focusing on not on trying trying to get rid of OCD, trying to get rid of anxiety.

You know, often those things take care of themselves when we're not so focused on getting rid of them all the time, when we actually come more into the body, when we're having fun.

Actually, really what we're doing is we're coming into a kind of flow state. I did actually do an episode on flow. It's a theory created by the researcher Mikhail Chiksemihai.

And it's a really incredible concept this this concept of flow when we get into a flow state we're not focused on you know our problems we can't because we're so invested in the the thing that we're doing in that moment the activity that we're doing that we can't focus on anything else we're really fully present in and in the moment and the more that we can develop our ability to to do that through doing activities that are fun and engaging.

You know, the more that we just give the brain a bit of a break, and often that's just what we need. We need to get a bit of a break from all of that thinking, from that ruminating. By just giving ourselves a break, often, you know, the thoughts, when we come back to them later, they've lost some of their intensity. They're not quite so demanding anymore.

They might still be there in the background. but if they've lost some of that emotional intensity it's going to be that much easier for you to refocus your attention to get on with your day you know despite that slightly uneasy feeling being there in the background and you know so often with OCD that's kind of you know one of the best things that we can do for ourselves so there we go guys I really hope that you found that one helpful if you have any

questions whatsoever about anything that I've spoken about today do please let me know and I will see you next time just a quick reminder that if you want to get a free session all you need to do to get that is to head over to my website www.robertjamescoaching.com and there you can leave me a message and we can arrange the free session and now just a quick reminder of my disclaimer any information that you view on my website instagram page

facebook group or anywhere else online or any information that you listen to on the podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for actual medical or mental health advice from a doctor psychologist or any other medical or mental health professional. Music.