Thank you for joining us for episode 365 of Live Happy Now.

Not to sound like a broken record, but May is Mental Health Awareness Month.

And here at Live Happy, we're using this time to take on some of the tough topics surrounding mental health.

I'm your host, Paula Phelps, and throughout the month, we're focusing on tools

for better mental health. This week, I'm talking with Liza Kindred, author of the fabulous new

Calm Your Anxiety Journal. Liza is a licensed minister, reiki practitioner, and meditation teacher

whose work has been featured in publications around the world. She's here

today to talk about why we're so anxious and how making friends with our anxiety can help

change the way it affects us. Liza, welcome to live happy now. Hi, Paula. I'm really excited to be here.

Thank you for having me. This is a great conversation that I'm really looking forward to because what you have done

with your book, Calm Your Anxiety Journal, is mind-blowing. I have read many books on anxiety.

This is hands-down the best book on anxiety I've ever picked up. So before we dig into

what it's all about and how important

this is, let's talk about you. You teach meditation and you use a lot of Buddhist principles.

Can you talk about what led you down the path and how you got to where you are?

Yeah, thanks. So I had like so many people I think who end up in this space, I had kind of different careers before.

I worked in technology and I worked in fashion and then I worked in fashion technology.

So wearable tech for a while. And I was designing and helping people build these wearable tech devices.

And at the same time, in my personal life,

I had started studying Buddhism, going to retreats, trying to live this kind of uninterrupted life.

And then at work, I was like really like designing devices that actually interrupt.

It's like they're designed to be disruptive. And after a while, I was like, this isn't adding up.

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