Podcast Episode 4

Ladies, I am back with another episode and yes, I know that this episode is delayed. Sorry about that. This happens unfortunately, because we extended our travel and there was just no room for me to be able to record this episode as we had a bit of a hectic scheduling the last days of the trip. And then, you know what happened? When I came home, so this is actually funny, so when we arrived, I don’t remember what time during the day, and then unpacked, put on a movie and just relaxed after the flight. After the flight usually I get a little bit tired and a little bit groggy so I put on a movie. I put on the movie “Get Him To The Greek” with Russell Brand. So funny, by the way, I watched it before, but I wanted to watch it again as I love Russell Brand and it’s like 4:00 PM at that time and I can barely keep my eyes open. So I’m trying and trying to focus on the movie, but it’s not working.

I fall asleep at five o’clock in the afternoon and guess when I wake up. The following day at 8:00 AM, so that was quite an intense sleep, I would say. Okay, my maths are not the greatest, but is that 15 hours of sleep? I think it is 15. I can’t remember. Last time I slept for 15 hours nonstop it was one of those sleeps where you don’t even wake up once. And you know what’s kind of bizarre is that it was tough for me to even wake up at 8:00 AM. I woke up because I got woken up by external factors. Not because I actually felt rested. I promise you I could have continued sleeping for a few more hours. Anyway, that is me after a travel.

And I don’t know if anybody else has this thing, but I am fine when I travel to a destination. I don’t feel tired from my travel, but after I had been on any form of trip, regardless if it’s a work trip, if it’s kind of a relaxing trip, holiday, chill, vacation, whatever, it doesn’t matter what I did during the trip, I always feel very tired when I come back. And I also always have the first, usually 48 hours when I am a total zombie, which was actually also the case now. Hence why podcasts got delayed.

I have a few announcements, however. So I had a few ladies who asked me what has happened with [Anna Bey] podcast on Instagram. And I’m currently working through this technical hiccup of Instagram. So soon my account will be back. Don’t worry. I will announce everything. So meanwhile, just continue communicating with me on the School Of Affluence Instagram accounts, because there everything is as normal. And also another question that I was getting a lot, what happened with the winner of the podcast competition? Now, because I was away, I actually delayed the draw with one week. It was supposed to be already on October 1st, but now it’s already October 9th, but I actually already have drawn the winner. And because I was delayed with one week of drawing the winner, I actually decided to do three winners instead. And I’m going to announce who they are. I’ve actually already contacted them. So they are aware of the fact that they won, and I’m really happy for them.

Congratulations to all of you three. And if you wonder how I did the draw, I received all of these podcast reviews, screenshot to my email inbox and what I basically did is that I closed my eyes and I just randomly scroll, scroll, scroll, and then just stopped anywhere. Just like a random pick. So congratulations to all of you, ladies. You have won all access to all of my courses and you are already live on the platform. So enjoy and keep me posted on your progress.

And then as I’m talking about my course, let me also give you the update that Secrets of the Elite Woman Program, which is the signature program of my finishing school is currently closed for enrollment. But if you want to get on the waitlist, then visit https://www.eliteupgrade.com/join-the-waitlist. We are going to open up the doors soon so make sure you keep an eye on your inbox because you will be the first one to know when the door’s open.

Okay, ladies, I want to actually give you a quick recap of what happened actually after we last spoke. I was in Greece, I was in Santorini and then I went to the Greek Islands and then I actually ended my Greece trip in Athens. So just want to give you a little update there. What has been going on, because initially we went to Santorini and we were only going to be in Santorini for, I don’t know, few days, four days, but then we decided to extend our trip and our friends were there and one thing just led to another. So we ended up having a really long trip as a result, but it was actually really nice. I must say, I want to give Greece a big shout out. We ended on a bit of a wrong foot last year when I went to Mykonos for 10 days and I really didn’t really enjoy that trip.

I mean, listen, I wasn’t suffering at all or anything like that. I’m talking now first-class problems here. Mykonos is a great island, it’s just that it wasn’t exactly what I wanted at that time. It was a little bit too much kind of party scene, a little bit too much burning man style, a little bit too young crowd for me. I mean, don’t forget, I am more of a mature lady now. No, I can’t. I’m not mature, but I’m not 20 anymore. So of course I will want to perhaps be around a little bit of a different crowd, maybe a crowd that is more in my age or older, perhaps.

I don’t know, but this trip really made me reconcile with Greece and especially once I went to the Greek Islands. Now mind you, I loved Santorini. What a beautiful destination, but Santorini is one of those places that I feel maybe I would only visit it once or maybe again in, I don’t know, 10, 20 years. It just feels like you’ve seen it once. All good. Let me explore something else. But with the Greek islands, there are so many, so many, I mean, Santorini is also a Greek Island by the way, but I’m talking now, generally speaking, the Greek Islands and how nice it is to just cruise around there, whether you are renting a boat or if you’re doing it by land. I never thought that I would appreciate the kind of low key islands as much as I did.

I feel like in recent years, because I have been very much… I mean, I’m going to be honest with you. I am obsessed with comfort. I like to be good taking care of. I feel like I worked hard on upgrading my life. So of course, now whenever I travel, I really want everything to be first-class, five-star you name it. But I do forget sometimes that actually there is a really beautiful side to the simple life. And I’m really not saying this from like a princess perspective that, “Oh, I’m so above everything now.” Not at all. Truly, I am a person who is very versatile, who enjoys both low key settings, low key people, as much as I enjoy the fine living and the elegant lifestyle. Right. I also know within myself that from time to time, it also gets a little bit boring to just be in the affluent community or just see the elegance and the affluence all the time.

It’s nice to have a break and it’s so healthy and I guess what I’m just trying to say is that I feel like I haven’t had that break in a long time and this trip really did give me that break. Those days that we spent on the little low-key islands, staying in the three-star hotel, which by the way… I mean, three star might sound bad in some people’s ears, but actually let me tell you, the standard of a room was it could have been a Four Season hotel. It was truly like a five-star room with your own private little pool, beautiful decor, brand new. I mean really top-notch level.

It’s just that the difference between the stars of the hotels is oftentimes based on the facilities, but of course you also sometimes notice it and if the place is well kept, or if it’s like up to a certain standard, but truly this place, it was on a five-star level, premises wise, however, they didn’t have a gym, they didn’t have a spa, they didn’t have room service. They didn’t have like a valet parking, all those types of things that really is part of a five-star hotel.

But that’s the thing, ladies. It’s nice to have a little break from that because otherwise you start going blind and you start becoming too numb to reality. So I really do believe that it’s good to mix things up. And for me, Greece really opened up my eyes because I feel in a way that I have forgotten the more simple life. I haven’t done that in a very long time so it was a good refresher for me. And I also realized that I want to do it next year again. I want to go back to the Greek Islands. I want to just roam around between the islands. Just feel free in the way and I don’t know, connect with nature somehow. But what was really nice with this trip is that what an amazing time of the year to visit Greece.

This is a hot tip. Okay. Take note of this little tip because when I will go back to Greece next year, believe me, I will truly go back around this time because the weather was absolutely perfect. We didn’t even have one cloudy day. The temperature was not too hot. Surely you might need to have a little bit of a long sleeve at night, but that’s it and not even always by the way. And then what was of course amazing, but of course this is partly due to COVID, the beaches and all their sites were empty. There were almost no people in sight. You did have a little bit of tourism, of course, but because it’s low season, there was a lot of good availability. You don’t have the stressful bookings. You don’t have to be panicking that you need to book in advance many, many months because things are going to be sold out.

I mean, this trip we really booked at the last minute. The day before we were going to arrive, we booked our hotels and everything. So that’s what I really like about traveling in low season. There are no competition for anything. But I guess the best part for me was being alone or having very few people on the beaches. We actually had a boat at our disposal and we went to some really secluded beaches, some very popular beaches and small islands as well. And the captain was telling us that you’re really lucky because usually it’s full of boats here, full of yachts, even though this is a secluded beach, it still has a little bit of a crowd going on.

But during this time we were the only ones and there was such a strong feeling of freedom that I really appreciated it. And that I really felt like I haven’t had in a long time. And putting this experience together with the fact that we were just kind of roaming around on these islands and then we were just kind of exploring the islands, going to the local [foreign language], meeting the local people and just absorbing their energy, how they live their life, so simple, so unhurried, so unbothered by the rest of the world. And I think their unbothering us really did inspire me. And I feel like this trip gave me so much. Also a good reminder to myself, like I said, sometimes it’s really easy to get too comfortable and just do the whole five star resort, trip after trip after trip.

And by the way, I’m not going to shame myself because I am going to continue doing that. I love that. That’s my preference in travel. But like I said, it is so important to also balance it up, to just take that little break because all of a sudden I had all this new ideas, all this new inspiration and creativity that came to me because I was in a different state of energy and I absorbed other type of energy from my surroundings than I would have usually done. And this is why it’s so important not to do the same thing all the time to the point that you just become blind.

So that was my spiritual awakening in the Greek islands. Then we went for a few days to Athens and also again, amazing time to go to Athens because it’s not too hot. And because it was COVID, it was also a wonderful time to go and explore some of the truly historical and magnificent historical sites. We went to Acropolis. We went after 5:00 PM, which is the best time to see Acropolis, right before sunset. And also, COVID has just brought us negativity after negativity this year. But you know what, at least one positive thing that COVID gave us this year is the fact that you can actually finally enjoy the historical sites and the sight-seeing spots without having too many crowds and too many tourists. Because when we went to Acropolis, the fact that we were not the only ones there, but it was empty compared to how it usually is.

Usually you have to hike up and you have to queue for a really long time. And you have to be like in the sardine factory with all these people around you and forget about taking good footage with your camera. No, no, no, no. But this time I felt like I could have a private photo-shoot in Acropolis and how often does that happen, ladies? But of course my Acropolis experience wasn’t just for the pictures. I felt there was such a powerful energy there. And being able to actually feel this energy and the sunset when there’s not all these crowds there and this commotion, that’s when you really feel like you can connect with this historical place and with the sight-seeing spots and that’s what I really felt that I did.

I still remember the Acropolis experience. It was one of the highlights of my trip. So I really need to tell you that if you are in Athens right now or in the near by future, please follow my advice. Go there after 5:00 PM, go there right now. You are going to have an amazing experience. Trust me. It’s definitely one of the best historical places that I’ve ever seen. All right, ladies, my tourist promotion for Greece is now over.

In the previous episode, I was promoting Curacao. In this episode, it was Greece. Let’s see what’s going to be next. But you know what? I am going to always be honest with you. If I really fell in love with a destination, you really need to hear about it. Plus I was also raving about San Trope in last episodes so there are actually many great places in this world, but I do think that you should go to the Greek Islands and you know what? I get this question so often, “Can you recommend things to do on a budget?” et cetera. And by far is Greece. I feel almost like few places of such high quality that doesn’t necessarily have to cost that much because at these Greek islands, I mean surely sensory [inaudible] it can be costly, but you can still do that also on a budget. But the other low-key islands that we went to, they don’t really cost a lot. You can easily go and eat so well in the restaurant and not having to spend a lot of money.

And also you can live really nice. We stayed in a nice three star hotel, shout out Milos Resort Hotel, and it didn’t cost that much. So you can actually live well. You just have to know where to look and the Greek islands is definitely one of those places where I think you should go look, if you want to do a high quality budget trip.

This episode I actually wanted to dedicate it to what’s about to happen next. This might not be applicable for everybody in the world, but it is certainly applicable to big parts of the world, especially us in Europe, especially a big chunk of Northern America. And of course we have parts of Asia. I’m talking about winter. Winter, 2020, winter 2021. And after having had a rather tough year, I think all of us had it tough in some way or another. And I also do believe that it’s been a very different year. So things has not really been running as usual, meaning that might have affected our mental health. And this topic is really close to my heart because I was born in the Northern countries. I grew up in Scandinavia. I lived there up until the age of 19 and I swore to never come back because I didn’t understand because I can still not understand how somebody can willingly want to live in such a cold country.

And I’m not by the way, judging anybody who live so North. I know that we live also in places for various reasons, usually because of our community and family, et cetera. But I personally felt when I was living there that it’s too dark, it’s too depressing. And it’s too cold for me to be able to survive here for the rest of my life. I need sunshine. I need lighter weather. And even though I am not really living in the southern country, I am in Switzerland and it’s also a little bit dull. I’m not going to lie during winter months, but the winters here are far from as harsh as they are in Sweden and not as long either. So I feel like I have this little trauma instilled in me, the fear for winter, because I remember when I used to live in Sweden, how dreadful it felt when summer was over and it was so short.

And then this really long winter is coming and you are just entering October. As you know, there is November, December, January, February, March, and April is not really warm. So it’s a tough, tough time I had ladies. And I know I’m saying this in a very honest way. I don’t want to scare you up or feel uncomfortable, those who are in these countries. But I also want to really paint the picture for those who do not really understand why winter feels like a big anxious cloud sometimes. Here in Switzerland, it’s not as bad and we have it also easier because we can go up to the mountains at any time. And there we always have sun and there you always have a bit of fun as well. So that kind of breaks up the long, horrendous winter time because of the mountain and skiing.

But I am not going to lie. I mean, October, November, December, January, February, March, it is going to be a cooler climate, sun might not be a regular occurrence and so on. I mean, how I do it is that, of course I managed to survive because I travel on a monthly basis. However, due to COVID, this is not possible. And it hasn’t been possible earlier this year. So that actually did affect a little bit my mental health during COVID, because I felt it was really difficult not being able to travel as I was used to that lifestyle. Staying put here in Switzerland when the weather was not summer yet. And I was craving summer in March and April. But what about now? We are in the beginning of October after all, we are during COVID times. We do not know if there’s going to be another lockdown or what’s going to happen.

We’re probably going to live even more restricted than we usually live. And that will affect our mental health. How are we going to survive so many months, five months, six months like this. This is what I want to talk about because I feel like… I mean, I’m not an expert on this subject. Like I don’t have all the answers, but I do think about the subject a lot myself, because even though I live in Switzerland and it’s not as harsh as in Sweden, but it’s still not, let’s say Bahamas or Florida, or a really southern country where you’d never have this issue. So one of the things that’s really important to think about is, find out what your mental health needs from you in order to feel balanced. What balances you, what keeps you grounded? What is your stress release? And this is where we want to apply things that are obviously not destructive.

We don’t want to be like, “Oh, I love drinking.” Or, “I love shopping or gambling. That’s my stress release.” We don’t want to go destructive here. We want to have healthy stress release practices set up for us. My stress release is nature and walking and running and spending time with animals and horseback riding and dancing and writing, journaling, reading as well and many other things. And it’s really important to actually find out what your things are and really write down them as a list because it’s easy to think about what really makes us feel grounded and makes us feel good, but it’s actually harder to do it, to execute it and to really put it in to your routine. And my next point is actually about improving your morning routine in particular. I am myself struggling with this right now so much.

So, I’m not giving you advice, thinking about I have it all together. Not at all. My morning routine is actually pretty horrible right now. And I don’t know what, but I’m in this weird funk where I just cannot get out of this really terrible morning routine that I have for me. And where do I personally want to be? I want to be somewhere where I wake up and I don’t reach for my phone the first thing. And yes, ladies, those who remember my YouTube video, where I said that you shouldn’t bring your phone into the bedroom, that was our life back then. My partner continued with this rule, but I started breaking this rule, even though I know I shouldn’t. The thing is, okay, to my little defense, I don’t want to be defensive, but I am going to actually explain why my phone ends up in the bedroom with me the entire time.

It’s very easy for me to have insomnia at night. And I am actually in a very good sleeping phase where I have very little to none insomnia and this has been ongoing for a long time and I’m so grateful for this phase that I’m in. I don’t take my melatonin pills anymore. I stopped with that. Instead what really helps me is to listen to a podcast as I fall asleep. And that has been my go-to method. And I do it practically almost every night, unless I fall asleep by myself. And for that reason, I end up having the phone in my bedroom next to me because of the night before. So this is a little bit of a catch-22 situation. What am I going to do? Because I find it much harder to fall asleep when I don’t have anything to listen to.

And unfortunately I cannot do a sound machine or anything like that because then my partner will be affected. I can only listen to something if I listen through headphones. But maybe actually, you know what, as I was saying this, it got me thinking maybe I can still leave my phone in the other room as I wear my AirPods, which is by the way not healthy to use for sleeping. But listen, until I found a better solution, if anybody knows of wireless headphones that are actually good for sleeping, please, please, please reach out to me because I am looking for something else than airpods, but I haven’t found anything yet. Okay. This is what I’m going to do, ladies. I’m going to leave my phone in the other because as they’re wireless headphones, they will actually still reach into my bedroom. So yes, that’s what I’m going to do.

Ha-ha. Managed to actually answer my own question. Okay. So back to morning routine. The phone is a nasty habit as part of your waking up routine because especially if you start scrolling on social media or you start reading through emails that causes you stress. Now all of these things basically means that you start your day in a stressful way, and that usually sets the tone for your day. And that’s really not a productive way of starting your day. You want to start your day with positivity, with good energy. That’s why your morning routine is so important. A lot of people who practice a good morning routine… there are by the way, books on the subject. There is a wonderful book that I read called Morning Routine. I really recommend reading that one. There’s also the 5:00 AM Club, I think it’s called. Really read those books if you want to improve your morning routine. You will get a lot of inspiration and ideas.

But a lot of people, they start their day, maybe with meditation, maybe with journaling, maybe with positive affirmations or a gratitude list, et cetera. And that’s a really healthy way for your mental health to start your day because you tune into something positive and you ground yourself. I love journaling in the morning, just empty the brain, the first thing, when you wake up, write about whatever. I also like meditation, but I don’t manage to meditate first thing in the morning because it makes me just fall asleep again. This is a thing why I love reaching for my phone first thing in the morning because the phone makes me wake up. So I use it as a tool to wake up. I’m not really going to go more into depth of what to do in a morning routine, but I really think it’s something that should be thought about, how you start your day and that you really have focus on starting it in a positive way, because that is going to help you with your mental health.

For some people, maybe a positive evening routine might also be very necessary or even more important than a morning routine. For me, because I am more of a morning person morning routines are my gem.

Now, what else is good for your mental health? Definitely an activity that you’re really passionate about, something that you really, really enjoy doing. Not like, “Okay, I’m going to play tennis because all the affluent ladies in my neighborhood play tennis.” But in reality, you kind of don’t like it. You just kind of do it for the sake of it or for show. No, instead you should be doing an activity or a hobby that you really, really enjoy. For me that’s horseback riding, that’s dancing. I love those things or being around animals. I am not going to lie. I don’t do enough of them. And that’s something that I’m also working on. I started horseback riding again, and I’m trying to get back into dancing, but it’s a little bit tough right now because of COVID. But anything you can do despite of COVID, please focus on doing that.

When I go to the stable, I’m a totally different person mentally. It’s like all my health depo becomes refilled with such positive energy. And I disconnect from reality for a second and just get all this new inspiration and creativity back again. And I think that’s what’s really important is to think about what activities in your life fill you up naturally with this type of positive energy, seek out these activities during winter in particular. During summer we have all the time in the world to just like hang around and be lazy and just be beach bums and drink too much wine and eat too much good food. And that kind of nourishes our soul during summer. But winter time, we really need to connect with the source because it is going to be tougher to gain that type of energy in that form. Exercise is another thing, but please don’t overlook and don’t be lazy with.

I know that I sound probably like a nagger right now or somebody who speaks in cliches, but truly what makes us release endorphins if not exercise. I tend to do more running during winter months than I do in summer and that’s really because I do a lot of cardio primarily for the health benefits and the endorphin release. And it really does help you stay balanced and stay afloat. It really helps you with mental health balance, really ladies. If you haven’t tried it, really do try it. I’m not saying this is going to cure all your problems, but it’s going to make you feel stronger and make you feel like you can get through things easier and yeah, stay afloat.

Now my last point that I want to share with you is, how important it is to make an effort to make the most out of your weekends. I know that majority of us, we do have a Monday to Friday work lifestyle or somehow a 40 hour work week. So we have only 48 hours of our week to really just do what we want to do and have fun and relax and all of those things. But how is it if we’re just going to go to work and then on the weekends, all we do is like Netflix and chill, not gaining any form of new inspiration or motivation. And I’m not throwing shade at this lifestyle because I know there are introverts out there who feel like this nourishes them a lot and that’s fine. But I do think that a lot of you ladies out there, you might actually be able to gain a lot of new energy and positive energy when you are out and you do nice things. That could be, for instance, you go hiking on the weekends.

If you have mountains around you, you can go to the mountains or you can go to the wilderness or you can go and do some sightseeing in a neighboring city or in the town. Maybe you have the beach near you and you can just go and connect with the water there. I don’t know. Or maybe you have this really nice community where you live. You have all your family there, all your friends. Really take the weekends to connect with everybody and gain energy from life this way. I guess the whole point of this episode is to really think about what do you need to feel good and how do you stay balanced? And from where do you draw that energy to make you feel balanced? And I’m not saying now in an energy vampire type of thing, but actually there are healthy ways how to absorb energy from our surroundings to energize ourselves and at the same time as you do that, you release positive energy to your surroundings.

So it’s like a give and take type of cycle. That was my whole point of this episode. I have been thinking about all of these things that are shared with you today because I have also winter season ahead. Now I know with positivity and knowing where to find balance and draw energy, I know this winter is going to be easy peasy, but at the same time, I want to stay realistic and understand where the obstacles are and that life is not always a happy journey and that you have to make a little bit of an effort to make it a pleasant journey. And that’s what I’m planning on doing. And I hope I gave you some ideas on how to do that too.

Now ladies, apologies again for the delay of this episode. Next week, I will be back on the Wednesday. So don’t worry. Everything is back to normal. And meanwhile, connect with me on @annabey Instagram account. And if you still haven’t watched my YouTube channel, I’m also on YouTube, under the name of Anna Bey there. Now ladies stay strong. Winter is coming, but it’s nothing that we cannot survive. I will talk to you next week.

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