You Cannot Think Your Way Out Of Stress

Five minutes. That is all it might take to change the chemistry of your day, especially when work stress and anxiety start creeping in before the next meeting. Cheryl sits down with Zander, a play coach who treats play like a serious nervous system skill, not a childish extra. 

We get honest about why “just calm down” fails when your brain is in fight or flight, and why the fastest path back to clarity often runs through your body, not your thoughts.

We dig into the science in plain language: play signals safety, which helps cortisol drop and opens the door to dopamine, oxytocin, and a steadier mood. Then we get practical with tools you can use in real workplaces.

 Cheryl shares her mission to build a 365 song playlist you can dance to at work, because most songs are about five minutes and that is enough time for a genuine reset. 

Zander breaks down juggling as an “ultimate brain exercise,” explaining how cross body patterns and rhythm can pull you into a focused, relaxed play flow state even if you start with one ball.

We also explore footbag as a portable, low stakes way to move, coordinate, and connect, plus the surprising impact of making something by hand and gifting it to others as a form of kindness and stress relief. If you want actionable stress management, workplace wellness ideas, and a fresh approach to nervous system regulation, press play, then stand up and move.

Subscribe for more practical tools, share this with a friend who is running on fumes, and leave a review if it helps. What song would you add to the five minute work dance playlist?

The contents of this podcast are for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. If you have a specific health concern or condition, please consult a qualified Healthcare professional for more details. Check out herguru dot uk forward slash disclaimers

Transcript

Five Minutes Can Change Chemistry

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Five minutes. That's all it might take to completely change the chemistry of your day. In today's conversation with Landa, we explore how small moments of movement and play can help interrupt the stress cycle before you had the chance to take over. Hope you enjoy. Hi and welcome to work stress anxiety. I'm Cheryl and today I'm here with Xander. Hi Xander.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Hi Cheryl, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_00 1:02

I'm really good. Now Xander is a Z play coach. That's right, isn't it, Xander? Yes. And today we're going to be talking

A Dance Playlist For Work Breaks

SPEAKER_00 1:13

about play as a nervous system flexibility thing. Right now, before you start, I am going to tell you uh a story. I have made uh given myself a mission to create a Spotify playlist this year. 365 um well songs for want of a better word that people can dance to at work.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

Lovely.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Right? So I've I've kind of chosen songs that I like that I know most people, whether it's hip hop or popular music, whatever, if they hear it, they have to, even if they're in their in their chairs, they have to, you know, they have to move. But the idea, but but the whole idea is literally most songs are five minutes, um, they're they're from different decorates, some are from 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, noughties, some is some popular stuff now. But the idea they're five minutes, and you can literally pop to the loo, or as you guys say, the bathroom, and you can basically go mad for five minutes and then come back out.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Perfect.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Now, what do you think to that?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

I love it. I love it. I want the playlist. You gotta give it to me.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Okay, so but what I have to ask you is you have to give me any songs that you think will will should be on that playlist. Okay, because I'm gonna ask I'm gonna ask my listeners to send me a song that they think should be on the playlist. So hopefully by Christmas time we have the 365 songs on that playlist. Perfect, yeah, yeah. Because to me, that's what um play is all about, it's about being flexible, it's not one thing, yeah. And for me, I love music, I love dancing. I'm not saying I'm any good at those things, I'm just saying for me, I I want to do something that I enjoy doing, and that's what I encourage everybody to do. So, with that in mind, with that in mind, and the fact that you've agreed to add songs to my playlist, I want to ask you when people get stuck in stress, why might play movements um work differently than them simply tell telling themselves to calm down? Because I think

Why Play Beats Telling Yourself Calm

SPEAKER_00 3:40

that's what most people do. They, you know, they get themselves in a state and they sort of sit there and they logically try to change their state, which to me just doesn't work for my own experience. But I'm asking you, Xandor, what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Well, absolutely, you can't think yourself out of it because the brain is in that stress mode, it's in that fight or flight. So the only way to get out of that is to change up the chemistry of the brain. And so you need to do that. When you play, your brain automatically knows you're not in danger. You you're not gonna be goofing off if a tiger's chasing you. If you're in any type of danger, you can't play. So by instituting some type of playful thing, your brain automatically goes, Okay, I'm safe. So cortisol levels immediately plummet. And you start getting the dopamines, the epinephrine, all the oxytocin, all those beautiful brain chemicals start being released almost immediately. So that's how you can control your state instantaneously, versus trying, if you're trying to think yourself out of it, it's really hard to do that if if not impossible. It's I I can't do it. I I've I've tried to as well if I'm in a stressful situation. But luckily, I do have my tools. I don't get in I don't very much stressful situations. It's just I always carry my balls with me. I'm always juggling and just having you know trying to make the most out of every moment.

SPEAKER_00 5:02

Now, I'll I'll be honest with you. I I I've tried juggling. I'm rubbish. Um, I think I can do two balls, but I can't do three. Does that matter?

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Um, there are ways I teach people how to do juggling with one ball, right? And you learn these different steps, and every step will start the core because you what you're what I'm trying to do is get the brain to do cross-training. Juggling is what I call the ultimate brain exercise. Um, you're using your hands, which are the gateway to the brain, like the amount of neuron connections that

Juggling As Brain Cross Training

SPEAKER_01 5:35

come through your hands, the manipulation of it by incorporating your hands into anything, you're using a lot of your brain. But when you're using your left and right going in a pattern that the brain loves, the corpus callosum, which is your connector, gets involved and it creates these rhythmic patterns of neuron connections that help your whole brain think differently. Plus, it gets you into what I call the play flow state almost instantly. So your brain relaxes yet stays focused. So a lot of people, when they say they could do two balls, they often do a non-cross uh juggle brain. They throw up and they're going like this, where the balls are just going in a circular pattern. They're throwing this ball up and then throwing this over to this hand, they throw this one up and throw it over to this hand. The cross brain is where you toss one up with one side and you toss one to the other side. So you're getting one going one way, one going the other. That's a two-ball juggle. So that's what matters, right? So that one is if people are used to the other way, it's very hard to break those neuron connections and to create the other pattern. But you start off slowly, you start gaining your confidence with the one-ball drills, and then once you get to the two-ball, you do that for enough time where that becomes comfortable, and then you can throw in the third ball. But once your brain is in that third ball cascade where it's in this rhythm, and then after like 10 catches, that's when your brain's juggling, and that's when it officially starts just slowing down the world. It's just it it like all your worries disappear because your brain has to stay focused on this rhythm, and so that's when you get into that that state of just relaxation, yet staying focused. So it's very important to actually get to that point because then you'll know what it is. So, but there are I mean, I do have the the easiest stepping program available to show people how to do it in videos. I try and do a bunch of videos on it just to say everyone should learn how to juggle. If you're if you're breathing human, you can use your two arms like this, just start practicing and eventually you'll get it. But you gotta see that goal and achieve it. Like to stop short of it will put your brain in a state of I can't, and then you want to go in a state of I can. That's why I have the steps so you can learn each step and build that confidence.

SPEAKER_00 7:44

Cool. Now, apart from I know you love juggling, but apart from juggling, and apart from uh going to the um restroom and playing Cheryl's Mur playlists, can you think of any other ways that people can seriously have fun um in

Fast Solo Play Ideas At Work

SPEAKER_00 8:06

the work environment in a short space of time, something that they can do on their own?

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Well, it it depends on what space they have, how much space they have. Um, I mean, if you have a little bit of space, one of the best exercises in the way to revel your body, getting your body move moving is always the best thing to do. But one of the best things I've ever come across is a foot bag. So this is this is my ultimate play tool, by the way. I teach people how to make these. So it's a hemp fabric with hemp seed-filled things, it has an easy stitch pattern. But this becomes the ultimate play tool. You can throw them at each other, it doesn't hurt. You can bean people, you can slap them around, knock down cups, shoot into cups, play bowling stuff with it, and then juggling is also a possibility, and kicking it around. So when I talk about juggling, I talk about as the ultimate brain exercise. When I kick around one of these things, I call it the ultimate physical exercise. Because you're balancing on your body, like you, you so your brain is doing amazing uh reception type of coordination things with balancing your body, but then you're kicking a ball out of the air, which is incredibly challenging for your brain, right? So, and then you're working your core, you're bouncing a little bit, which gets your lymph system going, so you're doing a full, complete body workout, but having an amazing amount of fun with it, too. So the great thing about footbag is you can do it by yourself because you always can have another person in there, adding to the fun of it, and everyone's working together. There's no violence, it's only cooperative competition. Everyone leaves a hack circle feeling good. So it's one of those things I'm like, you know, I I that's how I traveled. I traveled the world with a backpack for 10 years, and all I did was play footbag at every place I could go to, just go to a park and start playing. And then somebody cool would come and play with me. Somebody who was outgoing, fun-loving, didn't need to speak the same language, but we got that. We were playing with each other, and then I gifted them one of my foot bags because I would that one of my friends gave me his and said, keep it in your pocket, it's gonna be the best gift anyone will ever give you. And that's what I do.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Okay. Now, you've intrigued me now. Where do we get a foot bag?

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Well, there are other ways to do it on my website. You can you can purchase a kit that shows you how to make three of them. That's the goal. Because once you've made three of them, you've got it down. Like it, like literally, I can't tell the difference between mine and somebody

Footbag Fun And Full Body Reset

SPEAKER_01 10:28

who's just learned how to make them. I'll do them a little bit quicker, but not that much faster. But it's just a skill you can learn relatively quickly, and then you can give them away to other people, which is the ultimate goal. Then you become what I call an ambassador of play. So you can put your own designs on them, you can color them your own way, put your own logo. I put a globe on this, it's a world, right? Um just because I wanted I wanted to represent the world play with this, right? So these are my own personal brand. Um, I have those available on my website for purchase, but they're they're $420 a piece. I'll pay for shipping no matter where you're in the world. But my goal wasn't to sell them, my goal is to people learn how to make them. So if you play with me, you get one for free. But the beliefs like um you can buy a typical foot bag at different places, and and they're but they're usually filled with plastic seeds, and they're just machine-made, these are all have to be handmade, and that's what makes them so special. Because I want to bring the tactile senses back to the world. I want people to get the understand the value of making something, and then when you gift it to somebody, you're giving them a piece of you. You've put your energy into this thing, you've created this out of love, and you're gifting somebody not just a something they can hang up on their wall. This is the ultimate play tool. You can put it in your pocket, always remind you of your friendship that you create with this person, and they could just squeeze it if they're if when a de-stress or this is an ultimate de-stressor, you know. My son and I just bean each other with them. That's amazing fun with my mom. We I play a bocce style game where you throw one out, and you could throw one with either hand to try and get closer to it. You know what I mean? You could my my girlfriend we slap them around back and forth, it's just a way of playing. Cool.

unknown 12:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

Now, I I I I'm interested in all kinds of plays, so um, yes, I'll definitely be interested in that. And it's interesting you say that because I think one of the most important things we can do as human beings, and I think we've it's interesting because it's I I see this as similar

Gifting Play To Build Connection

SPEAKER_00 12:26

to the fact that we as adults we don't play, we're not kind to each other, and I think um part a part parts of the way one of the best ways that we can be kind to each other, and when I mean kind, I mean doing something for someone without expecting anything in return, not even a thank you, just purely doing it from and I think that and play go hand in hand together, and what you've just said about your footbag is just it's just a beautiful way that you can build connections with people, and that in and of itself helps with uh stress and anxiety.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

100%, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Xander, I want to thank you very much for joining me today.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Well, thank you very much for having me. Bye for now, bye for now. Aloha cool.

SPEAKER_00 13:25

Isn't it nice to know that before your next meeting, put on a song you'd love, move, smile, give your nervous system permission to remember what you're saying. Until the next time, bye for now.