Mindset By Dave Podcast

Getting More Disabled People Access to Gaming - With Paige from Special Effect

Accessibility in gaming is something many developers are keen to include (nowadays). This is often done by giving accessibility options within the game itself. Whether this be subtitles, audio description or high contrast visual modes or maybe by simplifying controls or offering a series of difficulty level modifiers.

But what about where these adjustments aren't enough? Well this is where Special Effect come in. Not only do they cmapaign for more accessibility in games using some of the methods we have already mentionend, but they creative innovative technologies that offer new and game changing (pun firmly intended) ways for people to interface with games.

Things such as alternative easy to use or modifyable controllers, or their ground breaking eye tracking software interface that enables those who have limited mobility in their hands or even those without limbs to play too.

In this interview we talk about all of this and more. Remember, when more people are able to play, we all win!

Raynauds Syndrome with Chelsea Lea MacColl

Raynaud's syndrome is more common than you may think, which was a surprise t me because I first heard about it when I met Chelsea Lea MacColl around 5 years ago.

Raynaud's is a condition where the person feels the cold in an intense manor. As we talked through it in this interview it became clear that there aren't many ways to explain the difference to a person without the condition of "feeling the cold a bit too much" and it making your life oftentimes a misery. The closest we got was hypothermia!

In this interview Chelsea talks about the physical, emotional, mental and social effects of Raynaud's syndrome. A condition that permeates every part of her life, even in warmer temperatures. She also shares some of the things that she has found to help manage the symptoms, which for Raynaud's sufferers is currently the best level of medical intervention.

Emotional Intelligence, Fears and Needs with Will Hawkins

Will Hawkins is a coach and a therapist. Coming from a background of physical training, he was interested in what's going on behind the scenes more. Undestanding a person's fears, their needs, their identity and their values.

In this episode we talk a lot about emotional intelligence. Why it is important and what people can do to cultivate it. We discuss some of the things that hold a person back and how to generate motivation (or momentum) by tapping into the deeper cores of our identity.

Mental Health, Fashion and Dark Humour - Lisa Jayne

Life, just filterless. This is the motto of Lisa Jayne and the name of her business. Having struggled for many year with her own mental health  one of the areas she found comfort was in her dark sense of humour. Then when looking for clothing that reflected this she couldn't find what she was looking for, so she decided to make it!

She now runs the fashion brand Life Just Filterless, which raises awareness of mental health, but also gives those of us with a darker sense of humour somthing to wear.

This is however only just the begining because the medium to long term goals of the brand is to have it fund free or reduced cost therapy sessions for those in need.

Are We Programmed To Be Unhappy? From the Hedonic Treadmill to Andrew Huberman

It's a big question, but I want to tackle it... are we programmed to be unhappy?

The research in this one spans almost 300 years, staring with Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the hedonic treadmill, then heading to modern research by the likes of Anna Lembke and Andrew Huberman; all via the Tocqueville Paradox.

Each of these pices of research presents a stacked deck, where genuine lasting happiness is a fleeting thing. But is the data the truth? And more importantly... are we bound by it?

Link to the Huberman Lab article mentioned at the end: https://hubermanlab.com/tools-to-manage-dopamine-and-improve-motivation-and-drive/

Growing Up In A Cult - Vennie Kocsis

Vennie Kocsis spent her life from 3 until 14 living in a compound as a member of a cult. Struggling with segregation from the rest of the world on the outside, but also separation from her family on the inside; she lived a life that was always filtered through fear.

You wouldn't think so listening to her today but she didn't learn about normal relationships, normal friendships and normal boundaries until she got out. In fact she didn't have any degree of a normal education either and was thrust into this in her mid teens needing to adapt very quickly.

Nowadays she is an author, a speaker, a poet, a mother and a grandmother. She works with people to help them heal their trauma through art, poetry and expression and shares her experiences so that others may be able to escape or avoid in the first place the entrapments of a cult.

Josh Connolly - Redifining Resilience. Breathwork and Emotional Vulnerability

Josh Connolly is a powerful man, but not in the way that you may instantly think of that phrase. Yesh he plays rugby, he has also overocome addiction, so we can say that objectively he is strong, both physically and mentally, but there's much more to Josh than that.

The power that Josh has - and teaches to others - is to actually embrace our emotions, to be vulnerable with them, to be sensitive to them. Sensitivty and vulnerability are not words you often associate with power, but as Josh shows those who attend his resilience workshops or breathwork sessions, there is so much power that comes from a foundation of vulnerability.

Dialectical Beahioural Therapy (DBT) and Somatic Healing are Transforming My Life - Kyra Houghton

Having been diagnosed with anxiety and depression as a teenager, Kyra Houghton has been no stranger to the world of mental health. Anxiety and depression were the manifestations of her childhood trauma, but as life progressed these labels didn't quite fit.

She was later diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) and at this point began a journey of healing.

This journey started with Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT). DBT is one of the more recommended forms of treatment for BPD so this was where Kyra decided to start. Through working with DBT Kyra also discovered Somatic Healing.

Somatice Healing is a "bottom up" therapy. Traditional therapies are "top down" where the mind is treated in order to heal the body. But Bottom Up therapy is where the holding of trauma within the body is addressed and as such by treating the body you treat the mind.

These therapies have tranformed Kyra's life, so much so that she is now on the path to qualification so that she can help and guide others in their mental health journeys.

Dyspraxia and Late Diagnosis with Rachael Elizabeth

Rachael Elizabeth is a powerflifter and a graphic designer, two things that require a lot of fine motor control. She is also a dyspraxic, which is something that hinders the motor control of those who live with it.

From humble beginings and a childhood with confusion, shame and regularly being labeled as "clumsy". Rachael only started digging deeper into why some of this may be as an adult.

Along the way she receieved a late diagnosis of ADHD, and through the neurodivergent community started to learn about dyspraxia.

Through this combination of diagnosis and self-diagnosis Rachael has learned to give herself some much needed compassion and become a powerful adovcate for the neurodivergent community in the process.

You can find out more about Rachael at http://instagram.com/rachaelelizabethlifts

Learning About Mental Health from Working Out

Before becoming Mindset By Dave I was a personal trainer, the kind who wanted to learn EVERYTHING!

Along the way I noticed many things that working out can teach us about mental health. Lots of the principals involved in training can become powerful analogies for our mental health.

This podcast episode is some of my favourites.