self-care Archives - The ClearOut

Flipping the Script and Messing with Expectations – Episode 230

In this episode, Dara considers the power of defying expectations. Partly prompted by a conversation with his dementia-affected father, his thoughts are also informed by a New York psychologist who worked with first responders to World Trade Center attacks. Role-reversal can be both destabilising and disarming, but it rarely goes unnoticed, and it often provokes both consternation and resentment.

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Is That What You Believe? The Thoughts That Shape Our Reality – Episode 149

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In this episode, Dara once again finds himself considering his mental health battles. Emerging from a very recent depression, he examines the difference in his thinking when he is embattled versus when he is well. Why would he choose to believe one reality and not the other? Why, in spite of very persuasive negative thoughts, does his ‘better’ self prevail? And why does he compare these differing states and beliefs to acting reviews?

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July Miscellany! Movies, Weddings, and Reading the Signs – Episode 114

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In this episode Dara reviews some recently watched movies, including William Friedkin’s To Live and Die in LA (1985), and Sidney Lumet’s Prince of the City (1981), two much-lauded cop thrillers that each have their strengths and weaknesses and are very much products of their time.

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Hugs, Threats, Non-Transferable Skill Sets, and a Day Told in Reverse – Episode 104

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This week’s episode begins and ends with a hug, because we all need a hug sometimes, right? Dara thinks so, and he looks at the idea of self-soothing in a wellness context, arguing that it is a particularly useful practice when aligned with mindfulness.

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Pillars, Pathfinders, and Dodging Space Trash – Episode 90

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Dara is not in the mood for this week’s episode. He simply doesn’t have the headspace. But he talks himself into it and soon warms up as he mentions how a recent football podcast planted the seed for what he wants to talk about – touchstones. What are the reference points that help us negotiate the world in which we find ourselves? Who are the pillar-like figures that we feel we can lean on? Who remains unchanged?

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Goldfish Memory and the Things We Get Used To – Episode 85

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If last week was the wrap-up of the year, this week is assessing the landscape of the year to come. Dara acknowledges the generic themes he has embraced for the moment that’s in it and tries to contextualise his own attitude to the beginning of another year. Part of that attitude is informed by his birthday falling in January, something that has helped him cultivate a lifelong affinity for the month and what it can represent.

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The Helpless Gobshite Episode! A Defence of Men – Episode 76

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In this free-roaming episode, Dara attempts to thread the needle from poor mental health to perceived male incompetence and on to a celebration of non-toxic men.

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The 1st Birthday Episode! – Receiving Transmissions of Joy – Episode 53

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In this episode Dara is very pleased to be celebrating a year of The ClearOut. He revisits the last twelve months and talks about some of the other ways he was spending his time.

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Life Above and Below the Surface, or Listening to the Deep Respondent Self – Episode 49

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In this mental health-focused episode, Dara reflects on a recent spell of bad form and speaks openly about some of the personal trickiness he has faced over the last couple of years. He talks about his marriage and his skirmishes with depression and presents an argument for being okay with a range of emotions and perceptions that are conventionally considered to be negative.

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The Cartography of a Small World, or It’s Lovely to be Here! – Episode 40

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In this deceptively positive episode, Dara is emerging from a fortnight of disruptions and disturbances that have laid him low. Over the course of the show, he examines not only the necessary compromises and recalibrations that must accompany a successful recovery, but also the contradictions that can occur in normally reliable wellness strategies.

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self-care

Flipping the Script and Messing with Expectations – Episode 230

Is That What You Believe? The Thoughts That Shape Our Reality – Episode 149

July Miscellany! Movies, Weddings, and Reading the Signs – Episode 114

Hugs, Threats, Non-Transferable Skill Sets, and a Day Told in Reverse – Episode 104

Pillars, Pathfinders, and Dodging Space Trash – Episode 90

Goldfish Memory and the Things We Get Used To – Episode 85

The Helpless Gobshite Episode! A Defence of Men – Episode 76

The 1st Birthday Episode! – Receiving Transmissions of Joy – Episode 53

Life Above and Below the Surface, or Listening to the Deep Respondent Self – Episode 49

The Cartography of a Small World, or It’s Lovely to be Here! – Episode 40

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