#302 18 Ways to Improve Your Mental Health
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Hello everybody and welcome back to the Level Up English podcast, the best place to come to practice the English language, learn about the British accent and culture. With me, your host, Michael Lavers, who is sweating quite a lot here. I'm still home here in Bangkok, Thailand, and I am trying to cope with the heat.

I'm trying to get in the habit of not using my aircon while I'm recording because it affects the audio quality. And hopefully it's not too obvious. I think if you're watching the YouTube version, you may see me sweating and getting a bit red faced. But hopefully I can stay calm today and not get too hot.

But anyway, I think this is quite an important episode today, and it's one that was requested, suggested by a listener, by one of you. So thank you. I always have a long list of ideas for topics for the podcast, but if you ever have a request or suggestion for me, let me know. I'd love to try to make episodes that are useful for you.

Uh, some of them have been on my list for a long time. So if I take a while to get to it, I do apologize. Uh, but yeah, this one I feel like was quite a good one and I, I've got quite a lot to say about it. And you may have seen by the title, this is the topic of mental health and depression maybe. So obviously it's quite a deep, serious topic. It's not one that I take lightly. Uh,

However, you know, I'm always quite light, I suppose, in the way that I talk. So I should mention right at the beginning that if it's not already obvious, I am not a mental health expert. I understand that everyone is different.

So with that in mind, I'm going to be talking today about some ways to improve our mental health. But I want to make it really clear that these are just my ideas. I'm not really prescribing these to everyone. I'm not saying that you should do them. To prescribe is like what a doctor does, like you should do this.

But these might be some things that you can take on, ideas for yourself to improve your mental health.

But yeah, it's really important to say that if you are suffering with a mental health issue, then yeah, it's important to see the right professional, whether that's a therapist or a doctor, or even if that's not available to you, just a friend to talk to, I suppose. But yeah, don't take this as professional advice. Take it as always the main goal of this podcast, which is

practicing English, English listening practice, and also phrases and vocabulary as well. So hopefully you'll see it in that way. So one thing that I think will make a difference in your mental health is something we spoke about a few episodes ago on the podcast, and this is being optimistic, right? And I think this is one of the key things that helps me and

Maybe, unfortunately, I have the feeling that this comes to some people more naturally than others. Some people are just naturally more optimistic. And I feel like that's kind of me. I feel like even during bad times, I always have that feeling like, well, things will be good one day, even though I'm not happy right now.

it's going to be fine one day. It's always going to be fine in the end. This isn't something I really try to do. It's just I naturally feel quite optimistic, even during the difficult times.

I know for some people this is much harder to do. I probably would guess that you can practice being optimistic. You can still have a go. It's like a habit to think positively. I should say, actually, if you haven't seen that episode, optimistic just means positive. It really means you have a positive feeling about the future.

But, yeah, that's one thing that is not too difficult for me. So I guess I'm quite lucky in that sense. But if not, hopefully it's something you can practice. But, yeah, with that in mind, I've got some things I want to talk about today. And

Also, I would say the habits and practices I'm going to share today, it's better to try these things and do it gradually rather than all at once. I think that's a much nicer way. So let's say, for example, you are feeling a little bit down. You're struggling with mental health. Maybe you're also talking to a therapist, which is great, but you want to make some changes in your life.

Well, changing everything can be quite overwhelming, right? So maybe just picking one thing, working on that, and then making gradual changes, you know, day by day, week by week, until you feel much better. I'm saying that because that's exactly what I did. Slowly over time, adding in these positive habits to my life.

So the first one that I thought of, which worked for me, was making the habit of going for a walk every day. And that means outside, walking outside every day. This might depend where you live, but I think in most places...

A walk outside would be good if the air quality is acceptable. It's not always the case in places like where I live, but it's a rule I've made for myself. Just go for a walk outside every day. I have currently done that for over 600 days. I think it's almost 700 days now. I've been outside for a walk every single day in the last almost 700 days.

It's such a great way to get out of a slump, we could say. This phrase, to get out of a slump, means to recover or get better after some time of low mood or low motivation. It's very easy to be in a slump when you stay inside all the time. It's a horrible feeling. I've been there and it can feel quite bad.

But if you make the time, make the habit of going for a walk every day, just 10 minutes doesn't have to be long, just around the neighborhood, around the park, something like that, then it's a really great way to reset and refresh your mind and get out of a slump. I find for me, when I go for a walk, I always feel better.

And yeah, I think probably after this recording, I'm going to go for a little walk. It's getting cooler now in the day. So I'm going to go for a walk, go to the shop maybe and just breathe in some fresher air, I suppose. And I think that will be good for my mental health today. So that's the first one. The next one I thought of is one that I used to do a lot and I did it so habitually. That's the adverb for habit. Habitually.

I did it so habitually that it became natural for me. I don't have to try anymore, which is really great, really nice for me. And this is to practice some stoic meditations. This is a topic we spoke about way back in episode 106. So would that be four years ago? Is that right? So it's 200 episodes ago, that four years ago, really? Yeah.

Have I got my maths right there? That seems so long ago. But anyway, in episode 106, I spoke about Stoicism, this ancient Greek philosophy. And they have some really nice meditations or ways of thinking that encourage positivity and healthy mental health, we can say. That's a weird phrase, healthy health. But you know what I mean.

And I'll give you two examples now. One of them that is quite meaningful for me, it sounds a bit depressing, but this is imagining that you're already at the end of your life, or maybe you've already left this world, right? And, you know, wherever you are in heaven or something, you're looking back on your life and what you're doing right now, you can think of it like a

a memory or a dream or a vision of what you did right and i think the thing that i heard was you see your creator whatever you believe in and they say okay i'll give you one more chance to live your life go back experience your life uh maybe i'll let you do it for five minutes one hour one day you don't really know how long but just go back and appreciate your life

before you enter the next world. Kind of like that. And I hope I explained that well enough, but it's kind of like you imagine that

that you're having another chance at your life and you'll look around, you look at the sky and you think, wow, I'm so lucky to be alive. Just like taking a breath, enjoying the comfort of the seat or the feeling of the ground beneath my feet. You really appreciate all these little things. And if I didn't quite explain that well enough, maybe go back and listen to episode 106 where I might have explained it better. But that's one that I really, it really means a lot to me anyway. It works for me anyway. Yeah.

So that's a nice one. And there's a few more I mentioned in that episode, like, you know, you're living the dream life of someone else, or maybe you're living the dream life of your future self. Maybe, you know, just like now, you might think back to your childhood and think, oh, those days were so good. I was so happy back then. Well, the older version of you may be looking back on their life or your life at this exact moment in time.

So, you know, maybe Michael, me, when I am 80 years old, I'll be thinking, wow, when I was in my 30s, my life was so good. I was so happy back then. I was living in the good times, right? And thinking that way, hopefully I'll be happy when I'm 80. But also it gives you some appreciation to your health and where you are in life right now. Whatever age you are, it can work at any age. So that's stoic meditations.

The next one is talking to someone. I already mentioned therapy. I tried therapy for the first time a few years ago when I spoke to my therapist regularly. And it was really nice. It's kind of just like talking to a friend, but talking to someone who is very open. They don't interrupt you. They let you kind of go through different paths in your mind.

And it's amazing what you can learn by talking with someone who is completely present with you. And maybe they'll make some suggestions or try to see patterns in what you're saying. And, you know, maybe not all therapists are going to be great, but if you find a good one, it can be so therapeutic. That's the adjective for therapy. But it can really feel so good when you talk to someone.

And of course, if that's not available to you for financial reasons or something else, then a friend or family member can be as good, I suppose, if they are willing to listen to you and not talk about themselves all the time. Maybe you can be there for each other in different moments. But you're just talking with people is a really great way to feel better and opening up to them. This phrasal verb, to open up,

It's kind of like opening your heart to someone else. It just means to share your thoughts or your feelings with someone, to open up to someone. Very important as well, in my opinion. The next thing that I have made a habit of doing is exercising every day.

I haven't quite done it recently because of some injuries, but I try my best to exercise every day. Sometimes it's going to the gym, going for a run, going cycling, going swimming. I try to make it varied, which makes it more fun and interesting as well. But also regular. I think regular is very important to make it into a habit. And for me, I found that it's a slippery slope.

Because once you start doing it, you might actually realise this feels really good. My mood is better. I'm seeing positive changes in my physical appearance as well. And you might want to keep going and do more and more and more. So this phrase, slippery slope, this expression is like when you start something.

And it leads to more and more serious or worse of the same situation or consequences. So just imagine you're on a mountain and you slip and you're going down faster and faster and faster. It's kind of like that idea. So once you start going to the gym, you may get addicted. It's a slippery slope and you might do more and more and more.

A little bit like me, I started cycling. Like, oh, this is quite fun. Let me do more. Let me cycle around the whole of Taiwan. And now I'm thinking even more like, can I cycle along Japan? Can I cycle around the whole of the UK? Like, how far can I go with cycling? So you might say I'm a little bit addicted. I'm always thinking about bigger physical challenges, which no doubt will end up in more injuries. So I've got to be careful.

But yes, that's a good one to do. It feels great and you want to do more. It's good for your body and your mind. So yeah, start small if you haven't got a habit already and make it bigger from there. Going into nature is a great option as well. And this could also be linked to exercise, of course, but it could be totally separate as well. Just spending time where there's some greenery around you. I know it could be difficult for some of us. I live in a city and

Fortunately, I can get to nature fairly quickly in one hour, maybe I could get to some natural areas. But I mean, even a park could be nice. I can get to a park in one minute, which is really great for me. But yeah, maybe if you're in some places, it might be more difficult. I think greenery is just so important.

I know we have a lot of listeners in places like Saudi Arabia where there's not much greenery there as far as I know. I've never been there. I've flown over before and I've seen from the plane how much sand you have. And it must be quite difficult. I wonder how it feels. I don't know if going to the desert has the same effects. I feel like there's something about green, which is quite nice.

But yeah, maybe you can create a space in your house or maybe you have some nice parks where you get a similar effect from being in nature. Somewhere peaceful, away from big roads and traffic and ugly buildings, I would say. But yeah, do what we can. Do what we can.

It's very easy to ruminate about things that worry us when we're surrounded by these big buildings and stressful highways all the time. So nature is a great way to unwind. Ruminate, by the way, slightly advanced word, is to think deeply about something again and again, to keep continuously thinking about something deeply.

is often used in a negative way, I would say, like ruminating about this problem at work, cycling around again and again, thinking about the same thing. And when you go to nature, no podcast, no nothing, no music, relax. It's a way to stop ruminating and take a break. And speaking of taking a break and going to nature, I think this is connected. Taking a mindful moment.

I've tried to make a habit of doing this as well. In fact, there are some really good apps you can use on your phone. I forget the names of them, but I know there are a few where they can notify you throughout the day. And it might just say, take a breath, or it might give you some message of gratitude or something like that. And in the past, that has been really useful for me to take a mindful moment because it's not always easy to remember when we're in the middle of something.

So yeah, this is usually involving taking a breath, a deep breath, and focusing on small things that we often overlook, we often don't see. So this might mean stopping, lowering my shoulders, quite high they were before, and looking

Taking a deep breath, looking at the sky. Wow, look at that beautiful cloud. Oh, the sun shining on the leaves is amazing, right? All these little things, appreciation for maybe where you are, the clothes that you're wearing. Oh, this is such a nice shirt. The friends you have. Just taking a breath and being mindful of the things that are around you in your life right now. That's a great way to improve your mental health, I think.

Just little moments throughout the day can make a big difference. And yeah, kind of speaking of habits and routines, one thing that most of us do every day is eat and drink. So of course, this is hugely important. Healthy eating and drinking is

staying hydrated, making sure you're drinking enough water, which is something that for some reason is so easy to forget to do. I, yeah, I don't drink enough maybe, but I try my best to stay hydrated, especially on talking or day like today. So yeah, eating and drinking. I think it's also very easy to have an all or nothing attitude when

This phrase, all or nothing. Kind of like a lot of people are like this, where there are only two options. We either do everything perfectly or we do nothing. Right. And I think this comes up in many different ways in life, but one of them is with health. I'll give an example for myself. If I, for lunch, have an unhealthy meal, I might order some

fast food like a burger and some greasy chips or something like that it's not very good for me maybe a big coca-cola kind of sugary drink i feel not so great afterwards

Once you've had that unhealthy meal, you feel less motivated to go to the gym because it's kind of like, well, I've already ruined my health today. I don't want to go to the gym. Like going to McDonald's and then going to the gym, it just seems a bit weird. No offence to McDonald's, but I think a lot of people act that way where we either do everything healthy or nothing healthy. It's kind of like, I've already ruined my health today. Let's just give up. I'll try again tomorrow, right? Yeah.

And yeah, maybe that's a problem. But I think one way to encourage that is just, yeah, just start with the basics. Start with healthy eating and hydration. And it's much easier to have other things on there. Other things, how can I say, added to that. So what I mean is if you have a really healthy salad for lunch, you'll be much more motivated to...

go for a run after that or look after your body even further. So again, it's all or nothing. I relate to that a lot, but let me know if that is the same for you. Maybe it's not, but I think most people are similar. Another similar one to that is alcohol, quit alcohol. I spoke about this last week on my silly, stupid mistakes when I used to drink alcohol.

And it's very difficult to live a healthy lifestyle when you drink. Partly because alcohol is just unhealthy. That's not good for your body. And also...

because of the effects of alcohol. So again, if you drink on Saturday night, on Sunday, you're going to feel groggy. Groggy kind of just means tired, weak, confused maybe. Often when you're not feeling well, like you're hungover, you feel groggy, a tired, horrible feeling.

uh yeah it's a horrible feeling when you're groggy you're hungover and you're not going to do anything healthy when you're hungover you're probably going to eat more unhealthy food and then the next day it's just going to carry over to the next day and the next day so it just it's not conducive to a healthy lifestyle which means it doesn't match a healthy lifestyle so if you want to be super healthy consider reducing or maybe quitting alcohol that's also something i would recommend

Again, it's all personal recommendations, but that's one that was big for me. I think around about the same time that I quit alcohol, I also took up yoga. To take up means to begin a new hobby. And for me, that was a really nice way to have some me time. I've always loved my me time. Usually it's been yoga, going for a walk on my own, sometimes going for a meal on my own as well. It's...

much more common in Asia, I find, than it is in the UK. When I've been for a meal, like to a restaurant alone in the UK, I feel there's some negative feelings about it. Maybe people looking at me thinking I'm a bit weird or thinking I'm lonely.

you know, in Asia, I feel like it's quite normal. I see it all the time. I don't feel awkward here going for a meal on my own. I did it yesterday. In fact, I had lunch out in a restaurant all alone, had a great time. I was watching a YouTube video on my phone or something. I wasn't totally in the moment, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. And yeah, I think if you can take some me time, that's great. If you can learn to enjoy being by yourself,

Because we can't always be with other people. We can't always rely on other people. So let's try to make a friend out of ourselves. There's a great quote, a great line I heard before, which is we can't pour from an empty cup.

So the cup here is yourself, basically. We have to look after ourselves first before we can help other people. If your cup is empty, you can't pour water into other people's cups. You can't help other people. We can't pour from an empty cup. We need to look after ourselves and enjoy being alone sometimes. So that's my opinion there.

I would say the thing I struggle with the most, however, is sleep. I'm always fighting between having a fun evening, watching videos, playing games, relaxing in the evening and getting a good night's sleep.

I probably get around eight hours of sleep maybe, but I feel like it's not quite enough. I need to improve a little bit. Could be much worse, of course, but I believe that a good day, a good day starts the previous day. If you want to have a really nice, what day is it today? It's Tuesday when I'm recording this. So if you want to have a really nice Tuesday, that starts on Monday evening. So that might be no caffeine, close to bedtime.

and sleep early. Get a good night's sleep and you'll wake up feeling refreshed hopefully and ready for the next day. So yeah, get a good night's sleep. Something that I would like to improve on but it's always been a struggle for me. It's always so difficult. I feel like there's not enough time in the day. I want more hours in the day to go gym, work, study languages, meet friends, all these things I want to do.

And yeah, sleep is always the thing that's easiest to, you know, what's the word? Sacrifice, which is not a good idea. Here's one thing, though, that I think is easier for some people than others. Some of us are naturally very curious and we're always interested in trying new things. And because of that, we might have a feeling of purpose or happiness through all these new hobbies.

So, I would recommend to everyone is try to learn new skills. I guess all of you are learning English, which is great. And think about, maybe reflect on how much happiness that brings you. Maybe some, maybe it's different for everyone. But personally, I love being like

on a journey to learn something. I quite like learning languages because it gives me a goal, a purpose, I suppose. I always say I'm never going to get to the end. I'm never going to 100% Japanese, unfortunately. But maybe that's part of the fun. You know, maybe that journey is quite nice. So, I think making strides in something is really good for your mental health. Making a stride. Stride is like a big step.

So making strides just means progress or improvements. You're improving. If you're making a stride in a new skill, it can feel quite motivating and it's a reason to wake up in the morning. Now, I wake up usually quite excited to start my day when I'm thinking, yes, I can't wait to go and improve my language skills. It's going to be really good.

Whatever skill is for you, find something where you can be excited to wake up and work on that skill. If you don't have any hobbies or skills that you're working on, it can be quite depressing if you don't have anything like that. So find something would be my advice, my non-professional advice. One more thing that I think I do naturally without even realising is always having something to look forward to.

This might be not the best advice. I could also understand the opposite argument, which is it's important to be happy with the moment, the present moment, and not always looking forward. But I do think we can appreciate having something exciting on the horizon. That means coming up in the future.

And for most people, this might be a holiday or trip, or it could be something like seeing a concert, a music concert, having a party planned, whatever you enjoy, really. For me, it's always trips. I think at this moment in time, I have one, two, three, four. I have four trips planned for the next four months, basically.

um so that keeps me excited i'm always excited about the future because there's always something going on it doesn't have to be a really big one can be a small one something local as well uh but yeah i think that's always nice having something planned on the calendar to make it feel like the future is less scary right that's kind of a nice thing to have um

This is perhaps one of the biggest ones for me. Now, this next one is very personal for me. It may not be the same for everyone, but this is having a clean environment. I really, truly believe that a messy environment, a messy room or messy desk reflects a messy mind.

Again, I think it's not for everyone. My wife, for example, I don't think she'll listen to this, so I can say she's a bit messier than me and she seems...

Like it doesn't really seem to bother her. But I'm a little bit more crazy when it comes to tidying. So if my desk is messy, it will really affect my mental health and my mind feels messy. So I will admit it might depend on the person. But if you're not sure who you are in this area, try tidying up. Try making one space in your house, maybe your room, your bedroom, totally spotless, which means totally clean.

and see how it makes you feel.

For me, I'm very sensitive. I can feel when I walk into a room that's a bit messy, I feel low and heavy and a little bit unhappy. But when I walk into a room that's clean, no mess, tidy, I feel light, positive, optimistic. I love that feeling. So I always make sure I go to bed with no mess in the house. The whole flat is clean before I go to sleep, which is

maybe helps with my sleep as well who knows so that's me so yeah i guess just think about what level of mess you can tolerate it's going to be different for everyone but to tolerate is to accept something that is difficult or not pleasant i cannot tolerate really any mess personally

One that I think might help you is to get off social media. This is common advice, I thought I would include it. I personally don't feel it affects me too much, but maybe that's because, for example, on Instagram, I mostly only follow English teachers and because I am not learning English, their content is not that interesting for me. So I'm not super attracted to spending lots of time on Instagram.

And the only things I really watch are cat videos, anywhere like cute cat videos, which I think makes me feel quite happy. It can lift my mood. So I guess it depends. But for many people, social media can be anxiety inducing. You may know anxiety. So if you feel anxious, you feel stressed and worried. Anxiety is the noun. Inducing.

To induce kind of means to cause, to cause a feeling, to induce a feeling. This is I-N-D-U-C-E. Americans might say induce, but I say induce. So anxiety inducing. It causes anxiety. So you might say social media is an anxiety inducing thing.

thing. For many people, you might be comparing your life to other people, seeing how things are done. I kind of feel like that when I look at some other people living in Bangkok on social media, I might feel some anxiety or some comparison, maybe is a better word, where they're doing something that I really want to do and I kind of feel annoyed that I'm not doing it. So I do feel that way sometimes. So

If you feel that social media affects you negatively, then give it a break. Maybe get off completely. You don't need social media. So consider taking a break and see how you feel. I...

think this next one is a bit controversial, but again, I did a whole episode about this in the past. And this is to, again, it's not a rule, it's not an order, but this is to consider not watching the news or reducing your consumption of the news.

So I actually quite strongly believe that we don't need to watch the news every day. You might like to, which is a totally different story. But I think some people feel like in order to be a good citizen or in order to be a good person in the world, they need to watch the news every day. And there are arguments for both sides. Of course, it's not good news.

Maybe it's not always a good thing to ignore what's happening in the world.

But I think we also have to accept the way that we are built, whether you believe we were created or we evolved, we are not built as humans to absorb the bad news of the entire world. Traditionally in the past, we've had small tribes of people, small villages of people, and you might hear bad news a few times every year, but we're just not built to accept bad news every day.

So I think we have to understand that and we have to put our mental health first because again, like we said before, if your cup is empty and you're drained and you're feeling really anxious, you are not in a good position to help other people. So see if you can put yourself first and once you feel healthy in a good place, then maybe you can consider going back, right? But yeah, another thing, another possible idea to consider is

Only seeing the news or consuming the news on a weekly or monthly basis. There are some great services that can summarize the news for you. This is everything that happened in the last week, for example. Here's the big things that happened in the last week.

So you're still getting the news, but you're not starting your day with the bad news every morning, which is affecting you negatively. So there's also some middle ground you could try. It's great if you can find a source of news that doesn't sensationalise. That's a long word, but it's the verb of sensationalise.

So sensationalise, sensationalise. This is to show something in a way that exaggerates it or makes it seem more dramatic, right? A lot of news are...

articles and companies will do this where they make something more sensational. They make it seem like really crazy, maybe much more than it really is because they want you to click on it, to watch it, to consume their news.

You might have a flood, for example, where floods are not good, where there's lots of water in a place. And if it's a non-sensational news source, it might say, there is a flood in this town. Simple statement of the fact. If it's sensational, it might say, it's a bit crazy, but it might say, there is a flood. Is this the sign of the end of the world?

Big question mark at the end. Probably not, right? But these kind of sensational news stories make you more anxious and worried and stressed.

So find something that works for you. A great recommendation I would have is my friend Stephen, who also focuses news or caters towards English learners at the Send7 podcast, which is Simple English News Daily. We did an episode before on this podcast a couple of months ago. Great option if you want some simple English news where he also covers some positive stories as well to balance out the good and the bad.

So that's quite a nice option. I think I'm going to very quickly list off a few more now. I don't want to go for too long today. I don't want to take too much of your time, but spend time with animals that you love. Every week I go to a cat cafe and spend time with some cute, lovely cats. That's a big part of my routine. I also walk around with some cat food in my bag. So whenever I see a stray cat, I give it some food and

Obviously, the cat is very happy and I feel so warm and happy that the cat has a meal as well. It's a great feeling for me and my mental health. So if you're a cat person, a dog person, whatever, be around fluffy friends. That's a great option. This one is much harder for me, but finding a purpose, finding meaning in life. This is a huge question, but obviously that's great for mental health. What is your reason to wake up in the morning?

Many of us, maybe most of us don't really know. That's fine. Don't put too much pressure on yourself, but maybe consider how you can help people. Charity work, helping people in small ways, donating money, time.

All these things can go a long way in helping us feel better too. It's a win-win really. They get your help and you feel better for helping. So I think that's a great option. And the final thing is just one consideration. We've spoken a lot today about what you can add to your life to improve your mental health. But sometimes we need the complete opposite. We need to subtract.

To subtract means to take away. It's the opposite of add. And yeah, sometimes we're doing too many things and we need to reduce the things we're doing, reduce the number of things we're doing to simplify our lives. And

Maybe take some time every day to just look at the clouds, meditate, go for a walk with no purpose, walk around. Don't think about where you're going. Don't listen to a podcast. Just do something every day where you have no plans. You're doing nothing. And I think that can be really nice. Just take some time out. So consider if you're doing too many things. That could also cause you some stress as well.

So I think that's the final thing I'll mention on this topic of mental health. I've listed many, many ways that you can improve your mental health today. Again, just my ideas. And of course, it's not a complete list either. So if you want to continue the conversation, please do. You can go to levelupenglish.school slash podcast 302.

and leave a comment on that page. You can also leave a comment on Spotify as well. If that's where you listen on Spotify, you can leave a comment on the app there as well. I will read them all eventually and I'll try to reply to most of them, but it can be challenging sometimes, but I will read all of them. So that's an option. But yeah, I hope this was helpful. Tell me your opinions and hopefully you feel positive after hearing this anyway, if nothing else.

I think we can say another thank you today to another audio message. This is a lovely one I got recently. So let's have a listen and say thank you to them. Hello, Michael. How are you doing? I am an English teacher from Egypt and I have learned many things from you.

Thank you for your podcast. I hope you can continue your journey of teaching us English. Of course, you're a native English speaker, so I have learned many things from you. Thank you so much, and you are one of my best tutors.

till now please continue and i hope i can watch more of your episodes soon thank you very much so there we have it that was a lovely audio message from muhammad in egypt thank you so much it really does mean a lot to me it warms my heart that you're finding the podcast helpful and

And hopefully getting some benefit from it as well. So, yeah, thank you. Once again, really appreciate that. And if anyone else wants to leave an audio message, you can do that anytime on the website. If you click on the podcast button at levelupenglish.com.

I also had a lovely review on Apple Podcasts. I want to say a quick thank you to Joe Levy, who said, first time hearing your podcast, but already love the way you do it.

I'm really enjoying the podcast. Great. Thank you. So that's really nice. After you listen just one time, you already left a review. Thank you so much. That's very kind of you. That's helping me in New Zealand, apparently. So thank you.

And a good one, another good one from Taiwan. And this person said, I listened to the episode about cycling in Taiwan. Your experience is authentic. Our government rarely invests in practical infrastructure or addresses the underlying issues that hinder the growth of the travel industry. Instead, they focus on advertising and providing subsidies.

Taiwan has the potential to become a fantastic destination for cycling, but unfortunately they don't capitalize on this opportunity. Instead they allow cyclists to engage in dangerous encounters with trucks on the road.

So yeah, that is a lovely comment. It's not a nice one like the previous one, but yeah, this is a really good piece of feedback, I suppose, from the previous episode about Taiwan. So first of all, really well-written review. Lovely English that I have to say. But yeah, it's

Kind of nice to hear that you agree also being from Taiwan. I did have some really nice memories, really good times in Taiwan, really good cycling trips there. But yeah, as I said, for the most part, I was a bit disappointed that I was just cycling along the road. Sometimes felt quite unsafe, which I didn't expect because of all the nice marketing about the cycling infrastructure in Taiwan.

But, you know, maybe by Asian standards, it's not bad, you know, compared to Bangkok. It's lovely, right? But yeah, I do want to just make it clear. I had a lovely time in Taiwan apart from the typhoon, basically. So, yeah, I just want to make that very clear. Yeah, thank you so much, though. You didn't give your name, but I appreciate your review and the five stars on Apple Podcasts.

Let's just say one more quote. Now, I'm going to leave you with a quote from Brene Brown, who says, talk to yourself like you would to someone you love. I chose this quote specifically because I love it. It really does mean a lot to me to treat yourself like you would another person. You know, don't be mean to yourself. Even the thoughts you think about yourself, try to treat yourself like yourself.

you deserve to be loved, right? That's very important. So lovely quote to end on. Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode. Hope you enjoyed it. And I will see you in the next one. Goodbye, everyone.

You have been listening to the Level Up English podcast. If you would like to leave a question to be answered on a future episode, then please go to levelupenglish.school forward slash podcast. That's levelupenglish.school slash podcast. And I'll answer your question on a future episode. Thanks for listening.