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Content Note: This episode includes discussions around suicide. Please take care while listening.

How can you hack your thinking to help you unlock your full potential?

How do you find strength and resilience when you’re going through a tough time?

And what’s the best way to support loved ones during their darkest moments?

Positive Psychologist Niyc Pidgeon is on a mission to equip millions of people around the world with the life-saving psychological tools that can protect mental health and help unleash their full potential.

Tune in to discover: the surprising difference between traditional and positive psychology, the common mindset blocks that hold people back from achieving their dreams, her go-to techniques for creating an empowered mindset, the critical role of relationships in mental health, and what each of us can do to support someone who’s struggling — even if we’re already at capacity ourselves.

So if you’re ready to build resilience, foster positive mental health, and rewire your thinking, then press play now — this episode is for you.

About Niyc Pidgeon

Niyc Pidgeon is the founder of online training empire Unstoppable SuccessⓇ and Creator of the Positive Psychology Coach Academy CertificationⓇ Program. 

She is an acclaimed international speaker, award winning Positive Psychologist MSc, triple certified high performance & success coach, and a best selling Hay House author.

Niyc has more than a decade of experience in business, coaching, and psychology, has mentored tens of thousands of people to create massive breakthroughs, lasting positive change, and unstoppable success in their lives & businesses, and is on a mission to help a billion people become more mentally healthy.

In this episode we chat about:

• The remarkable story of how she pivoted from mechanical engineering to transforming lives with positive psychology (3:00)
• The surprising difference between traditional psychology and positive psychology (8:38)
• Her current mission — and how it led her to start writing books (10:19)
• The mindset blocks holding us back from our true potential (and how to overcome them) (13:03)
• Game-changing techniques for shifting into a positive and empowered mindset (14:38)
• Why connection is crucial for mental health and how to foster belonging in relationships (18:41)
• The truth about why suicide is on the rise and what we can do about it (24:06)
• How to support someone who’s struggling, even when you’re emotionally depleted (26:49)
• Simple yet powerful ways to build and strengthen your mindset (29:21)
• The one book she believes could change lives if added to the school curriculum (34:10)

Episode resources:

• SheLaunch (join here)
• Mastering Your Mean Girl by Melissa Ambrosini (book)
• Open Wide by Melissa Ambrosini (book)
• Comparisonitis by Melissa Ambrosini (book)
• Time Magic by Melissa Ambrosini and Nick Broadhurst (book)
• Niyc Pidgeon (website)
• One More Day: Find Strength and Resilience through Your Darkest Times with Life-Saving Tools from Positive Psychology by Niyc Pidgeon (book)
• Now Is Your Chance: A 30-Day Guide to Living Your Happiest Life Using Positive Psychology by Niyc Pidgeon (book)
• Unstoppable Success with Niyc Pidgeon (podcast)
• Unleash Your Earning Potential as an Online Coach (podcast)
• Niyc Pidgeon (Instagram)
• The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. (book)
• Raise Your Vibration (website)
• The Love language Quiz (website)

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The following transcript has been automatically generated and not checked for accuracy.

Melissa: [00:00:00] In episode 639 with Nicola Pidgeon, we are talking all about mental health, suicide prevention, unlocking your full potential, mindset hacks that will upgrade every area of your life. Plus so much more. Welcome to the Melissa Ambrosini show. I’m your host, Melissa, best selling author of Mastering Your Mean Girl, Open Wide, Comparisonitis.

And time magic. And I’m here to remind you that love is sexy, healthy is liberating, and wealthy isn’t a dirty word. Each week I’ll be getting up close and personal with thought leaders from around the globe, as well as your weekly dose of motivation so that you can create epic change in your own life and become the best version of yourself possible.

Are you ready? Beautiful. Beautiful. Hey, beautiful and welcome back to the show. I’m so excited about this episode because it’s a really important topic and I [00:01:00] love and adore Nicola. She is amazing. We have known each other for such a long time. She came to my very first book launch for Mastering Your Mean Girl in 2015 in LA.

And we stayed in each other’s world since then. So I’m so excited for you guys to hear from her today. And for those of you that have never heard of her, she’s the founder of the online training empire, unstoppable success, and creator of the positive psychology coach Academy certification program. She’s an acclaimed international speaker, award winning positive psychologist, triple certified high performance and success coach, and a bestselling Hay House author.

She has more than a decade of experience in business coaching and psychology. And has mentored tens of thousands of people to create massive breakthroughs, lasting positive change and unstoppable success in their lives and businesses. And she is on a mission to help a billion people become more mentally healthy, which I absolutely love.

And for everything that we mentioned in today’s episode, you can check out in the show notes and that’s over at [00:02:00] melissarambrosini. com forward slash. Six, three, nine. Now, without further ado, let’s bring on the incredible Nicola Pidgeon.

Nick, welcome to the show. I’m so excited to have you here, beautiful, but before we dive in, can you tell us what you had for breakfast this morning? 

Niyc: Oh my goodness, that’s a great question. I usually don’t eat breakfast because I usually do intermittent fasting, but today I did. So it’s a lucky day. I actually had Greek yogurt and I had cereal and then I put almond milk on it as well.

So it’s a high protein favorite of mine. 

Melissa: Oh, I love it. I love it so much. Well, I am so excited to have you here. Now, we met in 2016 when I was in LA touring with Mastering Your Mean Girl and we haven’t seen each other in person since then, but I’ve loved following your journey and you’re such a ray of sunshine and it is so great to have you here.[00:03:00] 

But for those that have not heard your story and don’t know about your journey, can you share with us your story and how you got to where you are today? Like what did you think you were going to do when you finished school and how did you get here? 

Niyc: Oh, I love this story because it’s just such a curveball.

So I was supposed to study mechanical and automotive engineering and I wanted to work in Formula One. As you do. I know, right? It’s just so bizarre. At the time I had like really long nails as well. So I remember people saying, how on earth are you going to work on cars? with nails like that, but I didn’t have to.

So I ended up having a huge career pivot when I was probably, I mean, still super young, like 18 years old and I’d moved to Perth in Australia. For six months. Yeah. I don’t know if you know this a long, long time ago. I didn’t. Yeah. And my partner at the time, he was playing professional cricket and he used to leave the UK to go to Australia [00:04:00] in the off season.

So he was going to see a sports psychologist and go to see a personal trainer. And he came home one day and he said, Nick, I’ve had this crazy like visualization session. Back then I did not know what visualization was. How old were you at this time? This was when I was still a teenager, so I’d got two scholarships to study engineering.

But when he said, do you want to come to Australia with me? I said, yeah, like I actually do. So I took a gap year and I would deferred my place. And I’m glad that I did because when he was telling me about this. visualization thing. He said, the psychologist said to him, look around the cricket field in your mind and don’t look at the fielders that you see, look for the gaps in between them instead.

So in that single sentence, I just thought, Oh my goodness, how much time do we focus? We spend focusing on obstacles and [00:05:00] what’s going wrong and what might be different if we actually focused on opportunities and what’s possible instead. So I canceled my engineering degrees. I trained to be a personal trainer and I went on to study psychology at university and I’d never studied psychology before, I didn’t do it at high school.

So it was a real big pivot, but it was one that was born from real deep connection with my intuition. You know, when something just feels right, I was like, this feels, what? It looks on the outside that I’m making a crazy decision, but it felt so right in my body. I really just trusted that and I went with it.

Melissa: Amazing. And then what happened after that? You were in Australia or did you come back and start your studying? 

Niyc: I was in Australia for six months and then I went back to the UK, started my first degree and worked as a personal trainer alongside it. So I was doing 40 hours a [00:06:00] week as a personal trainer, squishing in my university studies around that.

And. I was really enjoying what I was doing, but was kind of looking for what the next thing was because whilst I was studying psychology, I couldn’t see how that would translate into a career. I thought that maybe I would go on to get my charter in psychology and I would work as a psychologist, as a therapist, but something wasn’t quite landing.

until I walked past a notice board and I saw a advertisement for an afterschool lecture and it said it was an afterschool lecture about this thing called positive psychology and I thought what on earth is that it sounds amazing I’m gonna go and I had another one of those moments that was like this is the thing that you’re supposed to be doing.

So it spoke about gratitude and the science of well being. And how we can [00:07:00] actually feel better more of the time and focus on performance rather than just on disorder and disease when it comes to mental health. So I decided that I was going to study that for my master’s degree. And so after my undergrad, I went on to do that and I’m just so glad that I did.

And 

Melissa: then did you start seeing clients one on one? What happened after you graduated? So I had experience 

Niyc: with the, the world of athletes and the world of sport because of my partner who was a professional cricket player. I also had one of my friends whose partner was a professional rugby player. And I ended up working in a business with my friend’s mom, coaching a professional athlete, how to transition their sports psychology skills and their entrepreneurial skills to set up businesses after they leave sport.

So that was like, God, that was a long time ago. That was like 2012, eh, [00:08:00] now. And at the same time I set up a supplements company. So I was very much in the health and wellness kind of sporty space. And when I came out of my master’s degree, rather than going into doing like one on one therapy, I did have a consultation room to do coaching.

And I was doing events and my local coffee shop where I was speaking to like nine people or 30 people about how you can live your best life. So I was teaching the tools of positive psychology and I was just kind of showing up and winging it and doing my best. 

Melissa: Beautiful. And tell us the difference between psychology and positive psychology.

What’s the difference? 

Niyc: So psychology, as usual, is focused more on disorder and disease and kind of unpacking what it is that goes wrong with us and what goes wrong with life. And it has a classification of if you have these certain [00:09:00] symptoms, then you would be diagnosed with a particular mental health condition.

So we’d look at what anxiety is, what bipolar is, or what depression is. Positive psychology was invented much later in the year 2000, almost as a counterbalance to that, because there was nothing yet that focused on human strength and virtue. So there was a different classification that was made about what goes right with people and what goes right with the world, and how people and communities and businesses can thrive.

So when that was developed, I mean, Just think about how good you feel when you know that you’re good at something. So it focuses on strength and I think that’s so powerful because you can always do more and be more when you already have a strong grounding to start from. So having both sides and understanding that there’s value in [00:10:00] going and doing your trauma work and unpatterning.

And repatterning things from your childhood, but then also looking at what are the tools that I can use right now to actually help me feel better in this moment and be able to move forward with a greater sense of agency and power and success. 

Melissa: Yeah. Beautiful. So tell us what you do right now, like work wise now.

You’ve got your book that has just come out, which is amazing. It’s so beautiful. And I’ll link to it in the show notes as well. But what else are you doing now? 

Niyc: Thank you. So I have the two books. The first one is Now Is Your Chance, which is a 30 day guide to living a happiest life using positive psychology.

And then the new book, One More Day, takes it a step further and it kind of goes deeper and it looks more about the mental health aspect of positive psychology and how these positive tools can actually help you. boost your good feelings, protect your mental health, [00:11:00] and also prevent against suicide. So the books have always been a adventure for me.

I love writing. I love the thought leadership part of it. And then I also have my positive psychology coach certification and my high level mastermind as well, which is a business mastermind. Because what I realized is that I can’t do all of this work alone. And I really love to activate leaders so that they can take the tools out and so that they can use them in their businesses and their families in their careers and also like for themselves.

But I have this huge goal of being able to help a billion people on the planet. And that sounds like a lot of people, but actually it’s pretty easy to do. If I can train 10, 000 leaders in positive psychology and then they can go and have a client. And then there’s something called the positive psychology ripple effect that happens.

So when someone experiences [00:12:00] positive psychology coaching, that person goes out and you might think, okay, I experienced positive psychology coaching. I then go and meet you at lunch. We talk about it. It helps you feel good too. Of course. But what they actually saw is that it’s not just your friends or your family or your immediate circle that it helps, it actually helps every single person that you come into contact with.

by the phenomenon of emotional contagion. So 135 people are impacted by every one person that gets coached. So three layers deep. I have it stuck on my wall here. So we’re the same, you’ve got your vision board behind you. I’ve got mine up here as well. And I have impact a billion people through positive psychology coaching, train 10, 000 leaders.

They help a thousand students. They each help 135 people. So a billion people. 

Melissa: Wow, babe, that is so beautiful. Yeah. Easy peasy. I love it. That’s so beautiful. And the [00:13:00] power of that ripple effect. Hey, that’s just so powerful. So in your work, what do you see are some of the biggest common mindset blocks that are holding people back from living their dream life to having the business and the personal life 

Niyc: of their dreams?

I think one of the big things is that it’s got to be, it has to be hard and it has to take a long time. Someone asked me in a magazine interview a while ago, like, do you really think that you can change your mindset in a month? And it made me giggle because I actually know that you can change your mindset and the way that you feel in a moment, nevermind in a month.

Though it doesn’t have to be complicated or complex, but we do have to get started. So I think a lot of people can almost put up blockers before they’ve even begun because it seems like they’re going to have this big mountain to climb and I’ve got to build the business and I’ve got to do it all at once right now and it’s going to feel really hard.

But when you actually look at the compounding effect [00:14:00] of small positive daily action in the right direction, you realize that over time you can look back and say, Oh, you know what? I built the thing and I did it just by putting one foot in front of the other. And keeping on moving forward, and you’re able to see that that really does have a powerful, positive impact.

I also think that if people knew what it really took to be an entrepreneur, most people wouldn’t start. Because there’s a lot that goes into it as well. 

Melissa: Yes, absolutely. I love that. So it’s the story that it’s going to take a long time and it’s going to be really hard work. And it’s actually not the truth.

So I love that so much. So what are some key tools or techniques that people can start to use today to shift from a negative to a more empowering positive mindset? 

Niyc: Yeah, my biggest hack, and it’s not rocket science, is gratitude. Now, I know that you teach this, I know that we talk about it a lot, but how often are you [00:15:00] actually practicing it and practicing it in a way that you feel really, really connected to the things that you’re grateful for.

So in positive psychology, what we do is we study the different types of exercises and tools that work and we look at how they work and how to get the best impact from them. So one of the really kind of publicized gratitude interventions is called three good things. So it’s think about three things you’re grateful for and instantly you’ll feel a shift.

But sometimes if you’re doing that and you’re kind of doing it passively rather than really connecting with it, it can be like, right, what am I grateful for today? My health, my family, and the sunshine. Great. Okay. What I actually recommend is you can take that one level and lay it deeper. So you could practice gratitude and we could do it together.

You could share your gratitudes with a friend. And it’s proven that gratitude is stronger when it’s shared. So that is a way that [00:16:00] you could up level your gratitude practice. Another way is by writing a more in depth letter to someone that you’ve never properly thanked. And I just think these really simple shifts You write that letter, I guarantee there’ll be tears.

And I love doing it. And that’s actually proven to boost your well being for up to a month. So whether you’re a business person or no business person, why wouldn’t you do that if you want to feel better more of the time? 

Melissa: And gratitude and thank you letters, they are free to do. They don’t take a long time, but they have a huge impact and ripple effect.

And it’s often the little things that are easy to do. They’re also easy not to do them, but they make such a powerful impact in your life. Like I do my gratitude journal every single night. And there’s times where I just list it off and then I’m like, hang on a minute, stop and really feel like, really [00:17:00] feel.

And my husband and I, we’ve gone through stages where we always share every morning, what we’re grateful for every evening. We’re currently not sleeping in the same bed at the moment because I broke my ankle a couple of months ago and I was in a moon boot and I was having to get up and down, you know, multiple times to go to the bathroom.

I’m also pregnant. So he was sleeping in the other room, so I didn’t wake him up so many times in the night. So we got out of the habit of doing that every morning because we’d roll over and that was the first thing that we would do. And when we would do it, goodness me, I felt a difference. Like I would go into my day feeling so different.

So you’ve inspired me to get back into that practice with my husband and it’s so simple. It’s so simple. So I love that. Now we know that business and life, it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. You know, there’s things that we experienced. So how do you coach your entrepreneurs to cultivate, you know, more of a positive mindset in the face of.

You know, [00:18:00] those road bumps that we might hit. 

Niyc: And there’s so much that goes on behind the scenes with entrepreneurship. I feel like one of the biggest dangers is not being honest about that and not actually sharing how hard it is. I think that what’s really benefited my students first of all is celebrating the resistance and celebrating the challenges when it comes up.

Because in the process of if you’re trying to wish that it isn’t happening, or you’re trying to ignore it, you’re actually not able to get the beautiful benefits and lessons that are often within these challenging times. And then the second part of that is being in community and being willing to open up and reach out for help.

So the biggest protective factor for mental health is actually having a sense of belonging. And having relationships that feel like [00:19:00] you’re supported within them and also giving each other the opportunity to support one another as well. So I heard something that, I don’t even remember where I heard it, but someone said that if you are not opening up and being vulnerable and asking for help from your friends.

you’re robbing them of the opportunity to be a great friend. So you know what it feels like when you’re able to support and help someone, it feels like an honor. So I think we get to get better at that and just notice how enriching it is, how connecting it is, and how much it strengthens our relationships when we do ask for help.

Melissa: So do we have to share everything with every one of our friends? Because I feel like we’ve got to be discerning. So like my two best friends who intimately know what’s going on in my life or, you know, I share very intimately with. But I don’t do that with everybody. So can you talk to that? Is it just one person we need?

Do we need [00:20:00] lots? Do we need to do it with everybody? Yes, science 

Niyc: says that it’s just one person that we need. So that’s actually proven. And it’s also shown that it can sometimes do more harm than good if we share with the wrong people. Or too many? Yeah, I think there’s a level of discernment and it’s also looking at who your core support squad is.

Who it is that, and I say, make a list of three people that you could turn to in times of hardship or challenge and share with each other what it is that you need and what it is that helps you to feel good. So I call it the 3 3 3 method and it’s identify who your three people are, then identify three tools that help you.

And it can be really simple gateway tools like a meditation or putting on your favorite music, going for a walk, having a excellent salt bath, but something that’s going to create a [00:21:00] micro shift for you. And then it’s three actions that you can take once you created the shift and you’re feeling a little bit better and you’re maybe more regulated and ready to take some action.

And then take your 3 3 3 list and share it with the people that are on your list so you each know how you can support each other when you really need it. And I, I think as well you have to be discerning. Because not everybody is as in integrity in communication as you might be, or as you might like to be.

others to be. So if you know that somebody is a person who often gossips about other people, they might not be the best people to tell you deepest, darkest secrets because often what you see is if someone’s talking about someone else, then they might talk about you too. 

Melissa: Absolutely. And is it [00:22:00] important that this person is not our partner or not our mother and it’s a friend?

Is it important that it is someone outside of partner and family? 

Niyc: It can be whoever feels good for you. I mean, it could also be a therapist or it could be your personal trainer. I remember when I made a list, I actually called it my United Council of Support because when I was going through a really tough time, I wanted to be able to kind of lean on my people that little bit more.

So I had my key friends, I had my therapist, I had my coaches and mentors. I had my Pilates instructor and there’s different levels of sharing with each person. I mean, with my Pilates instructor, I might not share anything verbally. I knew that that was a support system for me because I could go and I could let the stress out of my body by moving it and by practicing breath work.

So [00:23:00] I knew that she was a really strong support for me, whether I shared or I didn’t share verbally. So it’s looking for what those, where those people are and also how they support you. Because some friends or your spouse might be great for being a cheerleader. That’s also being supportive. Then you might have your best friends who you share with see real deepest darkest secrets.

Doesn’t have to be the same with everyone. 

Melissa: Yeah. I love that. And coming back to what you were saying, what I said before is you’ve got to be discerning with who you share what with, because you want them to hold your heart. When you share, you’re like, you’re putting your heart in their hands and you want them to hold your heart with.

Integrity and honesty and love. And so, yeah, for me, I know my people. I am so clear on who I share what with and where I feel the most safe and those places are where I go when I need to. So I love that so much. And like you said, [00:24:00] I love that. The data shows it’s just one person you need, one person. Now we know that suicide rates are on the rise, which is just shocking.

Can you talk about this? Because I’ve lost two people from suicide. So I would love to hear about what’s going on, what we can do, how can we support people because this one person, you know. Everyone was so shocked, like had no idea that they were going through this. So let’s talk about this. Why do you think it’s on the rise?

What can we do? How can we support? Let’s go there. 

Niyc: Yeah. So 2023 was the highest rates of suicide that we have ever seen, and it is alarming how fast the rates are increasing in kids or in young people. Whilst the rates are the highest they’ve ever been, suicide is also the number one [00:25:00] most preventable cause of death.

So when I hear that, it actually makes the topic of suicide become a topic of hope. Because when we know what we can do to prevent it, then actually, what I want to see is, I don’t know what it was like in Australia, but in the UK, we used to be able to smoke on aeroplanes. And that to me is just completely outrageous.

You would not even think about doing that now. It’s like, I want that same feeling and energy and sentiment to be looking back at, oh my goodness, remember when suicide was a thing? And for it to be as outrageous as smoking on airplanes is. That is my vision for the future. I love that vision. Right. And I know that it’s proven that talking helps.

So thank you for being willing to open up and to speak about your experience and to have me on the show to talk about this because it used to be something that [00:26:00] was a taboo topic and it’s now something that is, we cannot ignore this anymore. And through writing the book and having conversations with my friends and people that I come across from my day to day life.

I realize that suicide has touched most people. So we need to do better at having conversations, knowing what kind of questions to ask. But ultimately it’s about us resourcing ourselves before we go out and try and pour into other people. Because if we’re not feeling strong and solid and happy and looking after our own wellness.

We’re not going to be able to be there for the others that we love. 

Melissa: Yes, absolutely. So it’s about filling ourselves up. Absolutely. I’m a huge fan of that. Okay. So if we suspect someone is going through a really hard time and we’re full, what are the questions we can ask? How can we support them? 

Niyc: It’s really [00:27:00] simple to start.

So. I noticed in communication and in conversations, it’s really easy just to answer the question, how are you? With, oh, I’m fine, I’m doing good, and yeah, like put a nice little smile on. But what does that even mean anymore? So we started asking our friendship group, okay, now how are you really? How are you really today?

How are you feeling today? How are you feeling on a scale of one to 10 today? And why did you rate yourself as that? It’s something so simple, but. That little extra prompt or the little bit of digging that you can do can help us to be more open in our conversation. If you suspect that someone is really struggling and that at the point of crisis, you need to actually ask a direct question and you need to say like, have you ever thought about taking your own life?

Do you have a plan for that? And you either call the emergency services or [00:28:00] there’s a text and crisis hotline. That you can message or you can call and the international number is 988. There’s a bunch in all different locations around the world. But the most important thing is to connect with others and don’t just sit there and try and figure it out alone.

Because what I’ve realized is what’s personal is universal. And once you realize that we all have hard things, they, the challenges just come in different packages at different times for each of us. But we’re able to remember that these negative thoughts and suicidal ideation is actually temporary. So if we can keep going one more day or sometimes it’s not even one more day, it’s sometimes it’s one more hour or one more minute or one more moment just to get through so that you can realize like, Oh, now that that feeling’s gone, it’s passed.

And okay, I’m glad that I didn’t. Listen to that. So I’m glad that I [00:29:00] did something to make myself feel better. And it’s just knowing that we have access to tools that can really help and not to wait until you’re in a time of crisis to start, but to start now and help build your resilience and build. Oh, I think of it like a toolkit, but it build a toolkit for another tool in there so that if you do need it, you’ve got it.

Melissa: What else can we do to strengthen our mindset? You’ve mentioned gratitude, things like that, but what else can we do that, you know, that anxiety, bipolar, all of these things are just going up and up and up. Is there anything else that we can do to take care of our own mental health and then to help others?

Niyc: And it’s a complex topic. There’s not one solution, but there are many solutions. And the most important thing is that you start and you feel and find what fit for you. We talk about something [00:30:00] called a person activity fit. So you’ve got to find just like going to the gym. Some people like Pilates. Some people absolutely hate it.

Some people love running. You’ve got to find your thing. So if we talk about anxiety, then my go to would be. Doing a brain dump of everything that you feel like is on your mind and on your heart, writing it down, getting it out, putting it to one side, and then practicing a breathwork pattern. Something like a 1 1 2 breath or a 4 7 8 breath.

So that’s where the exhale is longer than the inhale. So it actually puts your body into rest and digest and it calms your nervous system and gets it out of fight or flight. Now that can take two minutes. It doesn’t have to take an hour, but you do have to remember to do it. And I think actually, if we’re winding it all the way back and we’re simplifying it, we want to look at what those inflection points are.

Because [00:31:00] when you’re struggling, it’s very hard to think about what you need to do. So it’s more likely that you’re going to have a thought of everything’s going wrong. It feels really hard right now. What am I going to do? I don’t know what to do. Okay. So we need to be able to remember and have easy access to the tools.

So what I love to do is I have, I joke, I say like the notes section of my phone is just filled with so many tools. I call them tiny tools. It’s a list of things that help me to feel good. And I know that my one thing can be look at the list of tiny tools and choose something that you’re going to do.

Okay. So my one thing is not feeling great today. Open up the notes section of my phone, let’s look at the list, what can I do? And that’s so simple and easy that I’ll often do like 15 of them in a day. They’re so tiny. And that gives you a sense of accomplishment and helps that dopamine in your brain so you know that [00:32:00] you’ve done something good.

Melissa: I love that so much. I’m going to do some tiny tools in my phone as well. Can you give us some examples of what’s on your list? 

Niyc: Yeah, there’s a lot on there. So I have moving my body, I have breath work, I have meditation, I have my infrared sauna on there. I have sending someone a gratitude text, leaving a book review for someone.

So actually like being kind and paying it forwards. I have on there phoning someone that you know is going to cheer you up. I have baths, I have red light therapy. I have blasting disco music, all sorts of things like that. I also have some of the tools on there that are actually the positive psychology tools.

So it might be something like doing a best possible self visualization. Now what that would look like is focusing on the best possible outcome and actually doing a scripting. So [00:33:00] writing down what it would look like if you were experiencing the best possible health right now. or the best possible relationship and then once you’ve written it out and what ask yourself what would be a 10 out of 10 in this area of my life.

Then closing your eyes and just allowing yourself to see and feel into that vision for your future. And I really like to break it down to a specific area of life, because again, when you’re struggling, it can be hard to think about the ultimate vision for the future when everything has gone as well as it possibly could.

So you can practice this on a micro level with a specific situation or scenario that you might be experiencing right now that you’re ready to change. 

Melissa: I love that so much. I’m definitely going to create my own list. I just love that so much. And a lot of those things you do on your own and a lot of them are free and they don’t take long and they make such a big impact.

They’re big needle [00:34:00] movers and I feel like we need to be doing multiple of those every single day. It’s like the ultimate self care. So I love that. idea. So thank you for sharing. Now, let’s pretend you have a magic wand and you could put one book in the school curriculum of every high school around the world.

Now, let’s presume your books are already in there because they absolutely should be. If you could choose one other book, what would it be? 

Niyc: That’s a great question. Have you read The Body Keeps the Score? 

Melissa: Yes. Yeah. 

Niyc: That was a pivotal book for me. I remember I was going through burnout and I was healing heavy metals poisoning and mold poisoning and reading that book just felt like it was truth.

That feeling where it all makes sense and I would just love for kids to understand that mind body connection and. what emotions [00:35:00] actually do in our body? I think that would be a really great one. It’s a great question as well. I love that. 

Melissa: Yes, I’ll link to that as well as both of your amazing books in the show notes as well because they’re all incredible books.

Now I want to talk about how your day looks. Can you talk us through a quote unquote typical day in your life? From the moment you wake up to go to bed, all the little things that you do, rituals, routines, when do you work? When do you work out? Talk us through a quote unquote typical day. 

Niyc: Yes. I love this.

So. I have got much better at sleeping and I always believe that your day actually starts the night before. So I love to have an early night and sometimes it doesn’t happen. It depends on jet lag and all of those things because I do travel a lot as well. But I wake up feeling rested. I don’t have an alarm so I like to wake up when the sun comes up and that feels really good for me.

I take some of my supplements, so I have an underactive thyroid, so I always start with that first of all, and I’ll [00:36:00] drink a big glass of water with electrolytes in. So I used to be the girl that went really fast and did as much high intensity training in the morning and had all of the caffeine, but I learned that actually you need to wait for 90 minutes before you have caffeine.

So I’ll have my salt first. It depends on what my flow for the day is. I, again, I’m less structured and prescriptive than I used to be. And I’m more, have general principles and rules where I know that I’ll always work out in my day. And sometimes it’ll be in the afternoon, sometimes it’ll be in the morning.

So this morning I got up, I went on my Peloton for 30 minutes. I then went on my treadmill and I did an uphill walk, so I was very hot by the end of it. I then went in my sauna, and I have a cold plunge as well in the house. So that kind of routine there [00:37:00] feels really, really good. And with traveling, I’m always looking how I can optimize to calm inflammation in my body.

So I take supplements for that. The infrared’s really good. I also have my infrared mat here in my office. I have a 11 a. m. start time for my calls with clients. And that gives me the morning to kind of feel into what I want to be focusing on for myself within my own practice and my own rituals. I’ll usually do a Kundalini meditation, so that involves breath work, chanting, and I’ve been practicing Kundalini for 11 years now.

Melissa: Wow. Do you follow an app or a YouTube? Like what’s your favorite? Cause I love Kundalini. Like my first introduction to it was in 2010 and it actually, I did like an intensive 10 day intensive and at the end of it, I ended up in hospital. Not because of the Kundalini [00:38:00] yoga, because it stirred up so. much in me that I ended up like so unwell and having like physical health issues.

But also I was going through anxiety, depression and panic. All these things. So I ended up in hospital, but I haven’t done a lot of it since, and not out of fear or anything, just like, I haven’t found a great teacher, but I love it. It is just so powerful. So where do you do it? Do you do it online? Tell us your favorite places.

Niyc: I actually moved house to be next to my Kundalini studio, which is ridiculous. But I always, I like to optimize for convenience. So I like everything to be, that’s why I have so much stuff in the house. So I go to a teacher called Tej. I’ve been to her class. Have you? Oh my god, I love it. Yeah, so I go to her.

I’ve been going to her for a long, long time and she also has online as well as in person. And then one of my best friends in the world, Kyle Gray, [00:39:00] he also has an amazing Kundalini membership and he came to teach at my Barbados retreat. So I’ll do either Tej or I’ll do Kyle online. And then when I go in person, I’ll go to Tej, because I like doing it in person.

It feels slightly different in terms of the power of the energetic connection, but hands down it’s the best thing that I’ve ever done for my business, myself, for my happiness, for just, it’s an all in one. It touches on all of the different elements. 

Melissa: Yeah. So how long do you do every day? I’ll definitely 

Niyc: do 11 minutes.

That is like my non negotiable and that’s a prosperity chant and meditation. So we do it and we’ve done it for a thousand days and then we change the meditation and then do it for another thousand days. So this is my third thousand day and I think we’re on something like 360 ish now. 

Melissa: And it’s chanting and meditating.

Beautiful. We’ll have [00:40:00] to link to it in the show notes so people can find it and do it. 

Niyc: Yeah, you can do it free on Instagram as well. She goes live on Instagram, but, and does it at 9:00 AM Pacific every morning, or you can log in on a membership 

Melissa: and this is Tesh? Mm-hmm . Wow. Okay. That’s amazing. I’ll definitely link to that in the show notes because it’s so powerful.

I love it. You’ve inspired me to get back into it. Okay. So you do your 11 minute. What happens in your day after that? 

Niyc: So I’ll usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’ll do client calls and I’ll be having calls with my team. I usually have Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays that are call free. And they said, I know the question was about my day, but my days are different and I look at the week.

So the week is a really powerful container for me because I feel like what I learned through growing the businesses over the last 13 years. Is, I like to have variety and I do batching, but then I like to have a day off from [00:41:00] calls after I’ve done a bunch of calls on one day. So if I’m on calls, I’ll maybe do four in a day.

I might have another afternoon workout. I love going for lunch here in Beverly Hills, so I’ll usually split my day in two, around about three, 4:00 PM and then I’ll start a new day and I’ll come back. I’ll maybe do some writing, or I will film some things. So I’m really good at batching and I’m really in the flow as well.

So every day can look different, but I, I think the structure actually gives you more freedom and flow. So I like having something set in place so then I can enjoy the spaciousness around them. 

Melissa: Beautiful. And then what time do you wrap up your work day and what do you do in the evening? 

Niyc: Very different. So I like to usually wrap up at like 8 p.

1. But when I was writing the book, that 8pm could sometimes become 2am. That wasn’t great. But I love to wind down. So I have my infrared mat and that has [00:42:00] a setting on it where it helps you either sleep or meditate and it puts the PEMF frequencies through your body. I switch my phone off or on airplane mode at 8 or 9 p.
2. So I have time away from screens and time away from notifications. And that really, really helps as I kind of get into getting ready for going to bed. I’ll usually do some sort of like self massage, so I have my Hypervolt gun or even just getting like your nice favorite kind of oils and like lotions.

And that really helps me as well, get ready for a really good sleep at night. And then I’ll do a hypnosis or a meditation before I go to bed. 

Melissa: Beautiful. Sounds so delicious. I love that. Thank you so much for sharing. Okay. I’ve got three rapid fire questions for you now. Are you ready? Yes. Now, I believe that we can all be wildly wealthy, fabulously healthy and bursting with [00:43:00] love.

So these questions are around health, wealth and love. So what’s one thing that we can do today for our health? 

Niyc: Move your body. When you move your body, you move your mood. And I just think it’s so simple. Someone, Tal Ben Shahar said, not exercising is the equivalent to taking depressants, so we got to move.

Melissa: And can I just say that I moved from my mental health, like truly, and like I mentioned before, I broke my ankle eight weeks ago. And so I was in a moon boot and I couldn’t do any movement. I couldn’t even go for a walk for six weeks. And that affected me so much. So I love, you move your body to move your mood.

I love that saying. You move your body to move your mood. If you’ve only got 15 minutes. It’s better than nothing. But you know, like I try and incorporate movement into my everyday life. Like right now I’m standing up and I’m swaying and things like that. And the swaying [00:44:00] is more cause I’m heavily pregnant 

Niyc: or even shaking.

Like I love shaking your whole body. It feels 

Melissa: so good. Exactly. Walking, exercise, dance, whatever. Just try and move your body as much as possible. I love that so much. Okay. Next one, hun. What is one thing that we can do for more wealth in our life? 

Niyc: Hmm. For me, it’s relationships. It’s investing in your relationships and realizing that that is actually the real rich.

I think that we get so obsessed with financial wealth but we look at what is it that actually creates the quality of our life and if we’ve got no one to share that financial wealth with. Then we’re not going to enjoy it as much. So it’s investing intentionally in upgrading the quality of your conversations that you’re having and making sure that you’re in these flourishing, positive relationships that feel good for you.

Melissa: Absolutely. And this will probably carry on to the next one, which is what can we do for more love [00:45:00] in our life? You kind of ticked that off, but is there anything else? What’s another thing we can do for more love in our life? 

Niyc: More love. I, I love, I mean, even looking at your love languages and one of the things that I like to practice or I’ve noticed over the last year is not making an assumption that I know what my love language is.

I used to think it was touch and gifts. And then I noticed that actually it’s touch and quality time. And I looked with my like friends and the people that I’m in relationship with, and I looked at. Okay, so now I’ve noticed that I got it wrong or I changed mine. What is it that they think their love languages are and how are they showing up in our relationship and have they got it right?

And I actually found as well that one of my friends thought theirs was touch and words of affirmation, but it actually wasn’t, it was touch and acts of service. So you can often see if you look at how [00:46:00] someone behaves and what they do rather than what they say. what they, how they give love and how they receive love.

So I think that like a little bit more mindfulness around how we give and receive love be really really beneficial. 

Melissa: Absolutely. So beautiful. Such an easy thing to do. I love Gary Chapman’s work. He’s actually coming on the podcast very soon, The Love Languages. It’s so powerful. I really recommend everyone go and do the test to find out what your love languages are and you can also do it for your children too, which is a game changer.

So I’ll link to that in the show notes as well. Babe, this has been so amazing. Is there anything else that you want to share with us? Anything about the book? Any last parting words of wisdom? Go for it. 

Niyc: Yeah, I think with the book, it’s understanding that this is a book for everyone right now. And if you haven’t had an experience with suicide or mental health or suicidal thinking, please do not automatically assume that the book [00:47:00] is not for you.

The book is a book about hope. Everybody needs to read it, whether it is to help you or to help a friend or you’ve got kids. You never know when they might need the tools that are in there. So that’s my invitation to take the journey and to start to boost our positivity. work on our mental health right now and you can grab the book from onemoredaybook.

com and it’s also in all major bookstores. I’m going to come to Australia and do a tour next year as well so I think I’ll come there before you end up here. 

Melissa: Yes, I think so, but I will end up there one day again soon, but yes, check out her amazing book. Again, I’ll link to it in the show notes one more day.

Go and follow Nick on Instagram. What’s your handle? 

Niyc: It’s Nick Pidge on Instagram and I love hanging out there and doing voice notes. 

Melissa: Yeah, me too. I love it as well. You are helping. You are serving. You are supporting so many people. My love. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. [00:48:00] How can I and the listeners give back and serve you today?

Oh, thank you so much. 

Niyc: I mean, if there’s someone that, you know, that would benefit from the book, I would love to invite you to pay it forward. So usually what we do, whether it’s an event or with us. buy a book, buy a book for you and buy one for someone else. And we’ve had students who actually like leave the book on a coffee table and then someone comes in.

I had a girl who has a salon. Someone came in and they really needed it. And if there’s a book review that you could leave as well, so people understand. it’s for them, that would be amazing. Thank you. 

Melissa: Yes, absolutely. Buy one for you, buy one for someone else. Leave a review. Leaving reviews is beautiful. I love that it was on your list of things, your tiny list of things to do, because as an author, reviews are everything, and for the podcast as well, so that could be on people’s list, to go and leave a podcast review or a book review, but Nick, thank you so much for being here, for doing the work that you [00:49:00] do, for being such a bright light in this world.

I love you. I absolutely love following you and sharing this journey with you, so thank you for being here. 

Niyc: Thank you for having me.

Melissa: What an important conversation. I think now more than ever, we need to take care of our own mental health and to check in with the people that we love or check in with anyone for that matter. and make sure that they’re doing okay. So I hope you got a lot out of this. I hope you love this conversation.

And if you did, please subscribe and follow the show and leave me a review on Apple podcasts and send me a screenshot of the review to helloatmelissarambrosini. com and I will send you my wildly wealthy meditation as a little thank you gift. Now come and tell me on Instagram at melissarambrosini what you got from this episode.

I love connecting with you and I love hearing your biggest key takeaways, so please jump on over there and share them with me. And before I go, I just wanted to say thank you so much for [00:50:00] being here. I’m so grateful. And I love that you just want to be the best, the healthiest and the happiest version of yourself.

And I want to acknowledge you for showing up today. You my friend, rock. Now, if there’s someone in your life that you can think of that would really benefit from this episode, please share it with them right now. You can take a screenshot, share it on your social media, email it to them, text it to them, do whatever you’ve got to do to get this in their ears.

And until next time, don’t forget that love is sexy, healthy is liberating, and wealthy isn’t a dirty word.

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Thank you so much for listening. I’m so honored that you’re here and would be SO grateful if you could leave me a review on Apple podcasts, that way we can inspire and educate even more people together.

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P.P.S. Please seek advice from a qualified holistic practitioner before starting any new health practice.