Despite all of our differences, one thing that we can just about all agree on is the fact that we want to feel more joy in our lives.

This episode concludes our series on Emotional Intelligence, wrapping up with the last of the 'Inside Out' emotions, and we wanted to save the best for last. Joy is fun, we'll be ending on a high note, this will be an energetic and easy discussion... but when we got together, we just had to admit: this wasn't as easy a topic as we thought it would be.

What does it take to feel more joy? Is feeling more joy a goal that can actually be attained?

We want to talk about what joy is, and why viewing joy as an outcome driven pursuit can actually be detrimental for our mental health. In a lot of ways, joy is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We get caught up with what our idea of joy us, what we need in our lives to feel that joy, and because of that, we lose track of those present moments.

We talk about how we can feel a greater sense of joy by being more present in any particular moment, and how to shift our way of thinking: instead of focusing on some big end-game goal, to rather focus on what we can do to make our present reality more agreeable to us.

We've all spent time grinding through a big game, one that takes us an extensive amount of time and challenges us, and often times we think: I'll be happy when I complete it... but is that truly the case? Often times we're met with a feeling of: now what? Let's make sure our lives don't end up like that.

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Tattoos
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Do you feel low on energy? Do you feel like the grind is giving you diminishing returns? Are you feeling less enthusiasm, and deriving less joy from those activities that usually excite you? Chances are, you're experiencing burnout, and we're here to talk to you about that.

Chances are, most of us have felt some degree of burnout at some point in our lives, where we've been pushing too hard for too long, where we aren't having our needs met while consistently feeling the need to give 110% to those around us. 

We are bombarded with messages that glorify grind culture, and almost guilt us into feeling as though we need to be constantly creating and taking action to move forward with our time, but we need to slow down, we need to listen to our bodies, and we need to take care to prioritize ourselves.

On this episode, we're going to talk about burnout, what it looks like, what it feels like, and what can cause it. Understanding how burnout takes root, and how we can recognize the signs before it takes too great a toll on us is important, but even more important is addressing the steps we can take to alleviate these feelings.

Justin introduces us to something he calls an Energetic Leak, and explains how these little, seemingly minor things can add up and drain us, further accelerating and contributing to our burnout.

If you're feeling these sentiments, just know that you aren't alone; these feelings are normal and common, and taking time to express these feelings to others is important. We even feel it as well, and that's why we're switching to a biweekly episode format, to give us more time to rest, and focus on creating quality content, ensuring we come into every episode and discussion rested and properly prepared as podcasters.

Give this episode a listen, and feel free to reach out to talk with us about your feelings of burnout, how you handle it, and don't be scared to admit that you could use a chance to step back and focus on meeting your needs.

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Tattoos
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Neon Gaming by dopestuff

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"Big girls don't cry."

"Real men don't cry."

Grow up. Drop the macho, tough person act and give yourself some permission to actually feel sad. We get so hung up with wanting to feel good all of the time, and wanting to look composed, put together, and strong that any challenge to this is something we avoid and suppress, for fears of being seen as unsuccessful, or weak.

Sadness is not an easy emotion to face: it brings with it pain, and feelings of loss. It challenges us when we face it head on, and if ignored, it can fester, grow, and eat away at us. If you ask us, real weakness is running from our sadness, and not acknowledging it. It takes courage to face difficult challenges, and it is from these challenges that we grow and level up.

On this episode, we're going to talk about facing sadness head on, and what we can learn from it. The insight provided to us by our ever-growing Emotional Intelligence score tells us that sadness, like all our other emotions isn't something that we should ignore, but rather that it is something we all should be in touch with and look to learn from. We'll talk about some of our experiences with sadness, what we were able to learn, what tools we used to face it and how growing from it made us all stronger.

Like we say in our intro: It's dangerous to go alone, and we want to remind you that sadness can be a particularly difficult emotion to face without support. Don't be afraid to reach out, to seek help and support when you are struggling. There is courage and strength in recognizing the need for aid from another, and taking that first step of vulnerability. Let's all show some support and kindness not only to one another, but also to ourselves.

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Continuing our series on Emotional Intelligence, we wanted to continue running through the discussion on the various Inside Out emotions, and we arrived at Disgust... That's when we hit a wall. All of our reading was so clinical, so academic, so matter of a fact... it hardly was relatable. We understood it, but it didn't feel like something we could delve into and have a meaningful, enriching discussion on. There was a moment where we thought: can we even make an episode out of this topic?

But, all it took was a little pivot, a chance to see things in a new light. We twisted the emotion of disgust to instead look at a feeling that is particularly relatable to us as gamers and nerds: cringe.

We've all felt it and experienced, whether it be looking at somebody else and their actions, or when thinking about an activity. Oftentimes, we even feel it when we see old pictures of ourselves, or past posts that we made.

Today, we want to talk about those judgments and hangups, where they come from, and how they impact our lives and often hold us back. We want to discuss how reshaping our way of thinking about ourselves and others can open the door to even better experiences. We'll address where these thought patterns come from, and how they often hold us back from deeper connections, and enriching, fun experiences.

With that said, cringe serves a purpose, and our series on Emotional Intelligence wouldn't be complete without a dive into what we can learn about these feelings. We understand that they are often born from stories we have learned from society and people around us, but the reality is that these feelings are within us, and we are accountable for them. Let's get at the message, take a look at what we can learn, and look at how we can improve ourselves and our lives by being more open of cringe, both our own and from others.

We want to challenge all of us to live our lives as authentically as possible, and to allow others the freedom to do so as well. As long as your cringe isn't hurting anybody else, then embrace it and live it, and grow from those feelings within you!

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Tattoos
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Neon Gaming by dopestuff

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Time is undoubtedly our most valuable resource. I'm sure we all wish that we had more time for ourselves: we'd catch up with friends more, spend more time working out and focusing on our health, turn that curious interest into a new hobby, and of course tackle our ever-growing backlog of games.

Unfortunately, we haven't got access to a TARDIS, so instead of manipulating time around us, we need to focus on how we handle our time.

As gamers, there's a good chance we've played some large open world or sandbox style game, one that offers a little bit of direction, while largely allowing you as the player to take things in any direction you want, at any time. Sometimes this can be a lot of fun, and the sense of freedom is exhilarating, while other times it can be paralyzing, discouraging, and even overwhelming because new quests to do, and places to explore just keep popping up.

It just so happens that real life is the biggest RPG we'll ever be a part of, so our sense of choice, and our need to manage this ever growing list of quests can be quite daunting.

But, fortunately, you don't have to go it alone. We want to share with you some tips for handling your time, getting real about what our priorities are, and making a point to spend more time doing the things that matter most to us.

We introduce the idea of our quest logs, focusing on dividing our time into our main scenario quests, the tasks that we cannot abandon, and must be completed, as well as the side, supporting quests, those tasks that are optional, yet still are what we want to engage with. We look at understanding the value behind each task, and figuring out what is most important so we can bump those ahead in our quest logs.

While we may not be able to give ourselves more time, by focusing on and getting real about what matters to us most, we can optimize the time we have, and live deeper, more enriching and fulfilling lives.

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Tattoos
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Neon Gaming by dopestuff

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We're continuing our series on Emotional Intelligence, this time focusing on fear.

Let's get something out of the way: You know that feeling of fear that you get when you play a particularly good, atmospheric horror game, or watch a movie that has a tense, bone-chilling story? That's not the feeling of fear that we're discussing on this episode. That fun, adrenaline pumping tension that keeps us on the edge of our seat is one form of fear, but that's a form of fear we often choose to engage with, and some of us eagerly seek out (particularly in the month of October).

Instead, we're talking about the feeling of fear that we have less control over, one that we don't necessarily choose to engage with ourselves, but instead is present in our lives, often showing up at less desirable moments. This is the sort of fear that isn't fun, that often drains and paralyzes us, one that very few of us would choose to engage with eagerly; yet, it is present none the less. 

We're sure most of us can think back to a time where we felt that deep-seated dread and fear about a particularly heavy choice or conversation we needed to have, or taking a big step outside of a well-established comfort zone (hell, maybe enough of us are in that place right now). That's the real fear we're addressing.

Fear serves as a compass, at times it tells us what we need to steer clear of for our own safety and preservation, however other times, it tells us where we need to go for the sake of our own growth. We'll talk about how to listen to, be aware of, and manage our fears, and how to show true courage in spite of the fears.

It's been said that growth happens outside of our comfort zones, and so, let us not hide from our fears, and instead listen to the message that they tell us so we can step out in an act of courage, and grow.

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Tattoos
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Neon Gaming by dopestuff

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Our emotions are an important factor in our lives, and directly connect to our mental health and overall well-being. When we sat down to talk about emotions, we started by focusing on the five 'Inside Out' emotions, so to speak: Anger, Fear, Disgust, Sorrow and Joy, but soon found that this is a topic that is far too broad, and far too important to stuff into a single podcast episode. In response to this, we decided to do a five part mini-series focusing on each different emotion.

Emotional intelligence is a buzzword that some may have heard, and it refers to our ability to be aware of, process, regulate and communicate about our emotions. Emotional intelligence is invaluable, because we are all experiencing different emotions as we go through our day, and emotions are tools.

We often think of emotions in a binary lens, thinking of good emotions, such as joy, as opposed to bad emotions, like anger. The reality is that there is no such thing as good or bad when it comes to emotions, and instead, some of the more painful emotions are just as important for us to feel.

This specific episode focuses heavily on one such dark emotion, anger. We know the stereotypes surrounding it, and the expectation that we should be composed and not show anger, but anger is a voice within us, it speaks to us, and the question is: Do we have the emotional intelligence to listen to its message, and choose to use this anger in a constructive, as opposed to destructive way?

In this episode we talk about what we can learn from our feelings of anger, certain ways that we can regulate and handle our feelings of anger when they feel like they're overwhelming, how we can use it to move forward as opposed to tearing down people and things around us.

If you're interested in growing, and levelling up your emotional intelligence, this is one series you won't want to miss!

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Tattoos
Produced by White Hot

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Neon Gaming by dopestuff

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Welcome to another episode of Side Quests, which we've created to have some more light-hearted discussion, outside of the realm of self-improvement. Yeah, life lessons and personal growth are important, but, life is also about doing the things that you love, those things that bring you joy. We want to celebrate the fact that we are gamers, we are nerds, and so, we created Side Quests as a means of sharing what we've been playing, watching, reading, listening to... You name it!

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Tattoos
Produced by White Hot

Side Quests tune provided by https://pixabay.com
Neon Gaming by dopestuff

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