Facing Fears and Shifting Gears: Mental Health, Neurodiversity, and Making Positive Changes

"Sometimes it's better to travel than arrive"-Robert M. Pirsig, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"Life doesn't always take you where you think you want to go. Enjoy the ride anyway! Sometimes we get lost or make a mistake, but as painter Bob Ross would say, you can turn a mistake into a "happy mistake" if you choose to.********************************"Facing Fears and Shifting Gears" is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm the author of the IndieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression."I have worked as a psychiatric and chemical dependency nurse, yoga teacher, and I'm also a motorcycle enthusiast. I have seen mental illness up close, first as the daughter of a schizophrenic mother and later through my own personal mental health struggles.I never expected a motorcycle would one day be the guru I needed to change my life habits and finally learn to trust myself. I live with my husband, our five motorcycles, and two dogs in Northern California. This is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive! (This podcast is not a substitute for mental health care or autism treatment).Website: https://www.lesliereyesauthor.comBuy my audiobook here: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B0BL2HBP56/Thank you for joining me!

Learning a new process can be tedious and boring. But the truth is, the moments we are living in make up our life. Just like the quote by Allen Saunders which was made famous by John Lennon says: "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans". So, learning to enjoy the process instead of waiting to get to the destination.*********************************"Facing Fears and Shifting Gears" is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm the author of the IndieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression."I have worked as a psychiatric and chemical dependency nurse, yoga teacher, and I'm also a motorcycle enthusiast. I have seen mental illness up close, first as the daughter of a schizophrenic mother and later through my own personal mental health struggles.I never expected a motorcycle would one day be the guru I needed to change my life habits and finally learn to trust myself. I live with my husband, our five motorcycles, and two dogs in Northern California. This is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive! (This podcast is not a substitute for mental health care or autism treatment).Website: https://www.lesliereyesauthor.comBuy my audiobook here: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B0BL2HBP56/Thank you for joining me!

"When you're depressed, you're living in the past. When you're anxious, you're living in the future. When you're at peace, you're living in the present."-Lao Tzu, Chinese Philosopher.Practicing mindfulness is living in the present, focusing on what you're doing, when you're doing it, and doing things in the correct order.*********************************"Facing Fears and Shifting Gears" is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm the author of the IndieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression."I have worked as a psychiatric and chemical dependency nurse, yoga teacher, and I'm also a motorcycle enthusiast. I have seen mental illness up close, first as the daughter of a schizophrenic mother and later through my own personal mental health struggles.I never expected a motorcycle would one day be the guru I needed to change my life habits and finally learn to trust myself. I live with my husband, our five motorcycles, and two dogs in Northern California. This is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive! (This podcast is not a substitute for mental health care or autism treatment).Website: https://www.lesliereyesauthor.comBuy my audiobook here: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B0BL2HBP56/Thank you for joining me!

My Zen Motorcycle Habit #7 "Look in the Direction You Want to Go, Not Where You Don't Want to Go" is probably my favorite. It is the one thing that really helps with the "fight or flight" fear response, not just on the motorcycle, but in life as well.When you think of what you want in life, are you actually thinking in terms of what you don't want? "I don't want to be vulnerable", "I don't want to be rejected", "I don't want to be poor", "I don't want to end up homeless", "I don't want to lose my job", "I don't want to crash my motorcycle"Or are you thinking in terms of what you do want? "I want to find love", "I want to be where I belong", "I want to be financially stable", "I want to have a nice home", "I want to make a living doing my life's calling", "I want to ride a motorcycle".********************************"Facing Fears and Shifting Gears" is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm the author of the IndieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression."I have worked as a psychiatric and chemical dependency nurse, yoga teacher, and I'm also a motorcycle enthusiast. I have seen mental illness up close, first as the daughter of a schizophrenic mother and later through my own personal mental health struggles.I never expected a motorcycle would one day be the guru I needed to change my life habits and finally learn to trust myself. I live with my husband, our five motorcycles, and two dogs in Northern California. This is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive! (This podcast is not a substitute for mental health care or autism treatment).Website: https://www.lesliereyesauthor.comBuy my audiobook here: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B0BL2HBP56/Thank you for joining me!

Something about dropping a motorcycle makes you feel so stupid, even if you are not hurt, and even if it is not broken. There were so many times, while I was shopping for my first bike, that I saw motorcycles at the dealership with about 50 miles on them, and one scratch on one side. It was obvious, someone had fallen and not gotten back up.When we fall down, and give up, most of the time it is our ego that prevents us from moving forward. But when we make mistakes or fail at something in life, we can look at it as an opportunity to practice recovering from a fall. We can use these opportunities to practice recovering from challenges and difficulties in life. And every time we practice getting back up, it makes recovering from mistakes and falls easier to recover from.*********************************"Facing Fears and Shifting Gears" is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm the author of the IndieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression."I have worked as a psychiatric and chemical dependency nurse, yoga teacher, and I'm also a motorcycle enthusiast. I have seen mental illness up close, first as the daughter of a schizophrenic mother and later through my own personal mental health struggles.I never expected a motorcycle would one day be the guru I needed to change my life habits and finally learn to trust myself. I live with my husband, our five motorcycles, and two dogs in Northern California. This is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive! (This podcast is not a substitute for mental health care or autism treatment).Website: https://www.lesliereyesauthor.comBuy my audiobook here: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B0BL2HBP56/Thank you for joining me!

Learning new things requires us to take our time and go at our own pace. Learning new things also requires facing our fears. Not just when we are learning to do things that are physically challenging, or even dangerous, but also learning things that disrupt what we previously believed to be true. People are afraid to learn about things that challenge everything they are comfortable believing. Sometimes, we get emotionally attached to our thoughts and beliefs, even when we see and learn evidence t the contrary. It takes letting go of our ego sometimes to admit when we are wrong and to accept what new knowledge when it becomes available to us.My Fifth Zen Principle of Good Motorcycle Riding Habits in Chapter Five of "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle" is "If You Don't Know Something, Learn". In honor of LGBTQ+ Awareness and Pride Month, I want to talk about some things that the collective medical and scientific community knows, but hasn't quite made it into the collective consciousness yet._____"Facing Fears and Shifting Gears" is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm the author of the IndieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression."I have worked as a psychiatric and chemical dependency nurse, yoga teacher, and I'm also a motorcycle enthusiast. I have seen mental illness up close, first as the daughter of a schizophrenic mother and later through my own personal mental health struggles.I never expected a motorcycle would one day be the guru I needed to change my life habits and finally learn to trust myself. I live with my husband, our five motorcycles, and two dogs in Northern California. This is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive! (This podcast is not a substitute for mental health care or autism treatment).Website: https://www.lesliereyesauthor.comBuy my audiobook here: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B0BL2HBP56/Thank you for joining me!

My Fourth Zen Principle of Good Motorcycle Riding Habits in Chapter Four of "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle" is "If You Break Something, Fix It"We are living in a disposable society. Instant gratification, then throw it away. We don't fix things or recycle things nearly as much as we could, and this includes not just physical things like vacuum cleaners or television sets. It also includes relationships, ambitions, and spiritual beliefs. We don't always do things as "perfectly" as we'd like. Sometimes we mess things up. It doesn't have to be a big production when something goes wrong or gets broken. We learn to fix things and take away the valuable lessons that come with picking ourselves up after we've been broken.

In this week's episode, I'm discussing chapter three of my book "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle", which is the #3 Zen Principle of Good Motorcycle Riding Habits: To Think and Plan Ahead, and Take Care of Your Future Self.When we do thing like use credit cards, leave dirty dishes in the sink, or when we don't wear all of our motorcycle gear, we are "stealing from our future selves". When we take care of our daily responsibilities, and when we wear our motorcycle gear, we are taking care of our future selves, and we can fully enjoy the present moment.I'm both in the process of taking care of my future and present self. I had come to realize I've been the most miserable, depressed, angry person since I became a nurse and found, that if I want to look back and thank my past-self in the future, it may be time to leave nursing in the present."Facing Fears and Shifting Gears" is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm a mental health nurse, yoga teacher, motorcycle and astrology enthusiast, and the author of the indieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression."Thank you for joining me!Buy "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle" here! https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B09X49TBYN/Available on Audiobook at Audible: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B0BL2HBP56/About me: https://www.LeslieReyesAuthor.comMy other obsession: https://www.astrologyreadingsbyleslie.com

Respect where you are on your journey, and go at your own pace. Easier said than done, right?Starting when we were kids in grammar school, our learning and growth processes were monitored by standardized milestones, and if we didn't reach those milestones at the same time our peers did, it seemed to be a problem, and something that we carried with ourselves into adulthood."Facing Fears and Shifting Gears" is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm a mental health nurse, yoga teacher, motorcycle and astrology enthusiast, and the author of the indieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression."Thank you for joining me!Buy "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle" here! https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B09X49TBYN/Available on Audiobook at Audible: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B0BL2HBP56/About me: https://www.LeslieReyesAuthor.com

Reacting Versus Responding: What is the difference? Reacting is a prehistoric instinct. Responding is a cultivated skill. How does it benefit us to retrain our brain to learn to pause to respond, and put our prefrontal cortex in charge."Facing Fears and Shifting Gears" is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm a mental health nurse, yoga teacher, motorcycle enthusiast, and the author of the indieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression." Thank you for joining me! Buy "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle" here! https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B09X49TBYN/Available on Audiobook at Audible: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B0BL2HBP56/About me: https://www.LeslieReyesAuthor.com

Toxic Positivity: What is it and how can being positive be a toxic thing? Don't we WANT to be optimistic, happy, positive people? Yes, but when is being "positive" inappropriate and stunting our growth and transformation in life? I'll tell you in this podcast how to honor our grief and sorrow so we can turn a challenging time in our life into a positive breakthrough and change!"Facing Fears and Shifting Gears" is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive! My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm a mental health nurse, yoga teacher, motorcycle enthusiast, and the author of the indieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression." Thank you for joining me! Buy "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle" here! https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B09X49TBYN/About me: https://www.LeslieReyesAuthor.com

I began to suspect I was on the autism spectrum two years ago when my computer's algorithm started suggesting articles and videos to me about women who are on the autism spectrum. And after almost two years of therapy and testing, I was officially diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Level I. Why did I think I might be on the spectrum and why did I feel the need to obtain and official diagnosis? I talk all about it in Episode #4 of Facing Fears and Shifting Gears!The best analogy I could come up with, is I feel like my brain and body are a car, and I was taught to drive it like it had an automatic transmission, when it turns out, my "car" has a manual transmission. If you ever tried to drive a manual transmission car as if it had an automatic transmission, what would happen? The same thing that happens to an autistic person who tries to navigate the world like a non-autistic person.My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm the author of the indieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression." I have worked as a psychiatric and chemical dependency nurse, yoga teacher, and I'm also a motorcycle enthusiast.I have seen mental illness up close, first as the daughter of a schizophrenic mother and later through my own personal mental health struggles. I never expected a motorcycle would one day be the guru I needed to change my life habits and finally learn to trust myself.I live with my husband, our five motorcycles, and two dogs in Northern California.This is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!(This podcast is not a substitute for mental health care or autism treatment).Website: https://www.lesliereyesauthor.comBuy my audiobook here: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B0BL2HBP56/Thank you for joining me!

What are executive functioning skills?For years, I just thought I was a "messy person". And I hated it. I was ashamed of it, actually. I was jealous of people who seem to have it all together: Their bills are paid on time, they always have clean laundry, they show up on time for appointments, their meals are prepped so they never end up at a fast food drive through in a hurry, and their house and their entire lives are organized.I thought my inability to organize my life, and just plain be able to "adult" like an adult, was a character flaw. I thought maybe I was just lazy or just too stupid and immature to get my life in order.Well, after my informal autism diagnosis, I learned about something called "executive functioning skills". I also learned that those of us on the autism spectrum have a hard time developing executive functioning skills without help.Executive functioning skills (according to Harvard University) refers to "a set of skills that underlie the capacity to plan ahead and meet goals, display self-control, follow multiple-step directions even when interrupted, and stay focused despite distractions, among others. Much like an air traffic control system at an airport helps planes on different runways land and take off safely, executive function skills help our brains prioritize tasks, filter distractions, and control impulses. No one is born with Executive Function Skills, but nearly everyone can learn them. Our genes provide the blueprint for learning these skills, but they develop through experiences and practice." (Harvard.edu)So, I hired an executive functioning coach and, quite honestly, without my executive functioning skills therapy, I probably would have never organized myself well enough to get this podcast up!!***********************************My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm the author of the IndieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression." I have worked as a psychiatric and chemical dependency nurse, yoga teacher, and I'm also a motorcycle enthusiast.I have seen mental illness up close, first as the daughter of a schizophrenic mother and later through my own personal mental health struggles. I never expected a motorcycle would one day be the guru I needed to change my life habits and finally learn to trust myself.I live with my husband, our five motorcycles, and two dogs in Northern California.This is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!(This podcast is not a substitute for mental health care or autism treatment).Website: https://www.lesliereyesauthor.comBuy my audiobook here: https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Learning-Ride-Motorcycle-Codependency/dp/B0BL2HBP56/Thank you for joining me!

Yes, it's really a thing. Cherophobia is the Fear of being happy. Why would anyone be afraid to be happy?Cherophobia is not recognized as an official diagnosis in the DSM-V, but it is something recognized as falling under an anxiety disorder. Sometimes people are afraid to allow themselves to be "happy" or experience joy because they fear something bad will happen. This can happen to people who grew up around mental illness, domestic abuse, chemical dependency, or alcoholism. Every day, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Just when things were going well, something bad was bound to happen. They didn't want to allow themselves to get to comfortable in feeling joy or happiness, only to have it ripped away. *** Hello! My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm the author of the indieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression." I have worked as a psychiatric and chemical dependency nurse, yoga teacher, and I'm also a motorcycle enthusiast.I have seen mental illness up close, first as the daughter of a schizophrenic mother and later through my own personal mental health struggles. This is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!(This podcast is not a substitute for professional mental health care or autism treatment from a psychologist or doctor).Website: www.lesliereyesauthor.comBuy my book: www.amazon.comThank you for joining me!

Hello! My name is Leslie Reyes, and I'm the author of the indieBRAG award-winning Amazon best-seller, "The Zen of Learning to Ride a Motorcycle: How I Faced My Fears, Shifted Gears, and Found Healing from Anxiety, Codependency, and Depression." I have worked as a psychiatric and chemical dependency nurse, yoga teacher, and I'm also a motorcycle enthusiast.I have seen mental illness up close, first as the daughter of a schizophrenic mother and later through my own personal mental health struggles. I never expected a motorcycle would one day be the guru I needed to change my life habits and finally learn to trust myself.I live with my husband, our five motorcycles, and two dogs in Northern California.This is a podcast about mental health, neurodiversity, and changing our perspective when life brings us challenges, in order to heal and thrive!(This podcast is not a substitute for mental health care or autism treatment).Website: www.lesliereyesauthor.comBuy my book: www.amazon.comThank you for joining me!