#105 Negativity Bias and the Brain with Katie Warriner & Emma Guns

16th Jun 2021

Today I have a very honest conversation about eating disorders, negativity bias and the brain with Emma Guns and Katie Warriner.

Trigger Warning On today’s show we discuss eating disorders

Katie is one of the UK’s leading Performance Psychologists, working behind the scenes and on the big stage with some of the world’s best athletes, leaders and organisations. From the sports field to the boardroom, the helicopter pad to the operating theatre, Katie helps people train the mindset skills and practices essential to thriving under pressure.  She has been embedded in Olympic sports for the last decade, supporting many of our most successful athletes at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games. But she was also a professional athlete herself who had to overcome the issues surrounding food being used solely as a tool for performance and how that was ingrained into her as an impressionable teenager chasing olympic ambitions.

Emma Gunavardhana, is better known by her media name Emma Guns, and is an award-winning beauty journalist and podcaster who I describe as UK’s answer  to Joe Rogan. The Emma Guns Show, covers topics including beauty, wellness, mental health, eating disorders, business, entrepreneurship and finance. Emma prides herself on covering a variety of topics in a way that’ll be relevant and meaningful to her global audience. And today I wanted her to share her relationship with food and her personal experience of self confidence and diet. 

Both of my guests  are pragmatic thinkers as well as passionate advocates for supporting people to develop the mindset they need to thrive. But I do want to exercise caution with  today’s show for anyone uncomfortable listening to stories around binge eating disorders, guilt, body dysmorphia and depression.

Today you will hear about:

• Self-compassion and how our brains work 
• Katie’s experience of negative self-image and body dysmorphia
• How food can be naively perceived as a means to achieve something or equally to fill a void
• Connections as the antidote to shame
• Why guilt is a natural and healthy emotion
• And how we can use negativity as a foundation for change

In addition, Katie  runs online courses  for athletes who want to train their mental game as well as some for anyone who wants to invest in their mental health and well-being. Listeners can get a 20% discount to either of the courses, details are below.