The Morning Upgrade Podcast Featuring Seline Shenoy

Thank you for tuning in today for episode #8 of The Morning Upgrade Podcast. Today, I’m talking to Seline Shenoy, owner of The Dream Catcher blog, where she expresses herself in writing through her personal journey. Her goal is to help others see things differently in life through her blog posts. We talk about her morning routines and how she practices mindfulness throughout the day. 

Tops Points in This Episode

• Working out every day is a good way to develop the mind/body connection. 
• Learning to be ok with imperfections and making mistakes. 
• Taking the time to slow down and be fully present in the day. 

Resources & Links

Connect with Seline Shenoy on The Dream Catcher Blog

Share Link for this episode

Find The Books Mentioned on Kindle or Audible: 

The Gift of Imperfection by Brene Brown

12 Pillars by Jim Rohn 

Life Strategies by Dr. Phil

Subscribe to The Morning Upgrade Podcast

I hope you enjoyed this episode and will join me each week as I speak to entrepreneurs that have a growth mindset. Just click the button below and subscribe. Be sure to leave a review on iTunes so others can find the show and feel inspired. 

Transcription

Announcer:

Welcome to the morning upgrade podcast with Ryan Cote. Where we feature casual conversations with entrepreneurs about personal development and growth.

Ryan Cote:

Hey everyone, this is Ryan Cote with The Morning Upgrade podcast. Today, I’m excited to be talking with Seline Shenoy. Hey Seline.

Seline Shenoy:

Hi Ryan, how are you doing?

Ryan Cote:

I’m doing good. It’s but can’t complain. So why don’t you start by telling everyone what you do and what you enjoy doing, what your interests are?

Seline Shenoy:

Absolutely. So I am a blogger, a podcaster, a journalist, and I’m also a former life coach. I’m known as the founder of the dream catcher blog. It’s my passion project. I call it my Dharma because it really fills me with joy because I get to engage my creative side but I also get to help people live better lives. And for me, that’s everything. And besides that outside of content creation, I love to read, I love to read non-fiction books mostly, listen to podcasts. Before the pandemic, I loved to go to the movies, concerts, shows, anything that would broaden my horizons and expose me to any kind of art form. So that’s something I’m really missing right now, but I’ve been able to find other ways to meet that need. So, yeah, that’s me in a nutshell.

Ryan Cote:

Yeah. I love movies too. Now we don’t go to movies, but we have Netflix and Hulu, and all the streaming services.

Seline Shenoy:

There’s something about going to the movie theater, right? It’s an experience, you know, when you get the popcorn you’re sitting down and you’re in that dark room, that dark hall. So yeah, I’m kind of missing that, but I guess we’ve all learned to adapt now to the new normal.

Ryan Cote:

Yes, I suppose. What do you like about creating content? Like what attracts you to content creation so much?

Seline Shenoy:

As I said, it’s just the whole creative process. I feel that I’m able to express myself, express the things that I learned from my own journey and to what I learned from my own personal education, and do that in a way that makes sense to people that resonates with people and could help them see things in a different way. And for some reason, that’s really important to me. I feel that everything starts with the mind and how we think. So if I’m able to help people see things differently in a way that would be beneficial for them, in a way that will help them live better lives, that’s just so fulfilling to me. And yeah, I just feel like that’s just a good use of my life force. And I think that’s why content creation is so appealing to me. It comes naturally to me and I just enjoy doing it.

Ryan Cote:

Let’s talk about personal development. What’s your approach to personal development and self-growth?

Seline Shenoy:

Well, Ryan personal development is so big for me and it’s evolved over the years. My first self-help book that I read was when I was 16 and it was Dr. Phil’s life strategies. I don’t know if you read that book, but it really was for me, the foundation of the whole personal growth chapter in my life. And for me, it was so eye-opening, I was like, wow, this really makes sense. And I just remember taking out my journal and making notes and something just clicked in me and it had a sense of rightness to it. And then I went on to read other self-help experts like Gary Zukav, Cheryl Richardson, Wayne Dyer, basically, anyone who was on Oprah. So in the beginning self-help was very, I was very bookish about it, I was very theoretical about it. But then life happened to me, I faced a lot of challenges, a lot of tough lessons as everyone else faces. And then I realized that personal development isn’t just about what you read in a book, it’s in the doing, you got to actually have to apply what you learned. So that’s when I started putting it into practice. I develop rituals, systems, and things to just keep me grounded. So this whole personal development journey, it’s a journey.

 And recently I’ve also learned about this whole idea that it’s not really about perfection. It’s not about doing everything perfectly. It’s okay to make mistakes. I don’t know if you’ve heard of Brenae Brown, but she’s somebody who talks a lot about being okay with our imperfections. And for someone like me, who is a go-getter and who is a perfectionist this was so important for me to learn because I used to get so burned out. And I used to have this inner critic, I used to be my own worst enemy. I was always competing with myself. So I learned to accept the fact that I’m not always going to be perfect and making mistakes is part of the process of growing and becoming better. And I also have learned recently that it’s important to slow down and be more present, be more mindful of everything that’s going on in your life. Because if you’re always in this go, go, go kind of mode, you miss everything. So it’s really important to just take that time to be still, look around you and really process everything, be present to what’s going on in your life because that’s where the wisdom and the knowledge that you gained from all of this, that’s what it really crystallizes. That’s when it really becomes solid and you’re able to use that in your everyday life, but also communicate that to people. And yeah, I think right now, what I’m really working on is being mindful and slowing down. So that’s where I’m at right now with my journey and who knows where I’m going to go in the future.

Ryan Cote:

So first of all, life strategies I have not read. So I’ll have to put that on my list. I’ve never actually consumed any content by Dr. Phil. I’m a big Jim Rowan fan. Darren Hardy.

Seline Shenoy:

Oh, I love Jim Rowan.

Ryan Cote:

Yeah, I got one of his books, it’s called 12 pillars. It’s a parable about life lessons. I’m actually reading it to my kids now because it’s a story. So they’re actually, I think, paying attention. It’s a real quick read and I like it a lot, but anything by Jim Rowan I like, but I’ll have to check out life strategies. I’ve never read that.

Seline Shenoy:

Yeah. I mean, that came about, I think in 99 and I actually got it autographed by Dr. Phil, it was a couple of years ago when I went to the show, so I was super thrilled about that.

Ryan Cote:

The other thing you mentioned was slowing down. So that really resonates for me because I think it’s a hundred percent true and least for me, and I know a lot of entrepreneurs and really everyone, they’re just very busy all the time. And so it just becomes very distracting and time-consuming and I’m trying myself to learn to slow down, like I mentioned, Darren Hardy before, I’m a big fan of his books and his newsletter and all that stuff. And he had a whole series of lessons on how to live longer, just based on all the research his team put together. And one of the lessons was having downtime, like injecting scheduled downtime into your day, like reading a book, like you mentioned, non-fiction books or fiction or whatever, just taking the time to schedule downtime in your day. So thanks for sharing that.

Seline Shenoy:

Yeah. I mean, it could be as simple as just, you know, if you’re stuck in traffic or you’re waiting in line, just close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, just blank out. You don’t have to meditate for like an hour. Most people think that’s what mindfulness is about. It’s not, it’s about taking these mini-breaks, just don’t look at your phone. If you have a few minutes, don’t check your Instagram account, instead, just close your eyes, take a few deep breaths. And that in itself is enough to kind of get a reset and just get refreshed. So I think it’s really important for us to do that as part of self-care practice.

Ryan Cote:

 me you just made me think of something, about taking deep breaths, I was listening to Ed Mylett’s podcast and he had this doctor on and I, unfortunately, can’t remember his name. But he was talking about one of the best ways that he’s found that he teaches his patients on things, not anxiety, but it can be anxiety, but just relaxing your body is taking two breaths in and then one breath out. He said based on everything he’s studied and done and all that, it’s like two breasts in and one breath out is the best way just to calm your body. So that’s what I do if I’m feeling stressed about work or anything, it actually works. It’s crazy.

Seline Shenoy:

It’s that oxygen pumping into your blood, that does it.

Ryan Cote:

So you mentioned meditation, if you have a morning routine, what does that look like?

Seline Shenoy:

Oh yes. My morning routine. Well, for me, my morning routine involves a lot of physicalities. I like to wake up nice and early. I’m one of those early risers. There’s something about waking up early that’s just, I don’t know, for some reason it puts me on the right track for the rest of the day. So the first thing I do in the morning is to make sure I drink plenty of water. And then I worked out, I do about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how much time I have. I do weights, I run, lots of stretching. And for me, it’s not just about the vanity and just the fact that exercising makes you look better. I mean, of course, that’s a plus point, but what it really does is it grounds me and it puts me in the right frame of mind for the rest of my day. I heard Dwayne Johnson say something similar in an interview about his ritual of working out first thing in the morning. And something he mentioned was that it’s that time when you can really feel like your disconnected from the rest of the world in a good way, where you can just kind of be with your thoughts, it’s sort of like a meditative practice and you can really connect with your body and just feel grounded.

And for me that does wonder, if I ever miss a workout, which is almost never, I feel it, I feel out of sorts and it impacts my mind and how I think. I’m sure you’ve heard of that mind-body connection, right? So I feel like if I’m taking care of my body and I feel strong, it kind of transfers to my mind and how I think. So that’s one thing I’m very particular about that. And I make sure I eat a healthy and nutritious breakfast. I can’t understand people who do that fasting or who skip breakfast for whatever reason. I can never do that and just can not work for me. I mean, if they do it more power to them, I know that there’s this big interval fasting thing that’s getting really popular. And for me, that’s like, no way I can’t do that. But each to their own. And besides that, I love to listen to music, music is a big part of my life. And I listened to podcasts, personal development podcasts, podcasts on spirituality. So yeah, that’s my morning routine. It’s super important for me and it gives me the momentum that I need to be productive and just be in a good mood, for the most part.

Ryan Cote:

You’re feeding your body and you’re feeding your mind, that’s the first thing you do. One more question for you and then it would be great if you could tell everyone how they can find out more about you if they want to connect with you. My last question, and I think you partially answered it with more of the routines you have in the morning, but are there any habits that you have that you really believe in that really help you that you want to share?

Seline Shenoy:

Well, I think people need to always be learning something, as for me, it’s like if you’re not learning you’re non-growing. So I’m a big proponent of reading, I love reading books, but if you’re not someone who considers yourself a big reader, listen to audiobooks, listen to podcasts, take some online courses, anything that makes you curious. Learning doesn’t have to have that sort of utility value. I mean, you could just learn because you’re curious about something, if you’re curious about cocaine or I don’t know, anything that can stimulate your mind. And there’s plenty of that. I mean, you have the masterclasses now where you can learn from people like these experts from different fields. So just kind of being open to growing and expanding your mind. It’ll just broaden your horizons. So just being open to being a student of life is going to benefit you in so many ways, personally and professionally. So I really encourage people to be open to growing and learning.

Ryan Cote:

Yeah. I mean, what a great time to be alive, where we can have books. And like you mentioned that masterclass service, which I haven’t watched before, but I’ve seen their ads everywhere. This is a great time to be alive, where we have access to all these experts that are willing to share for pennies on a dollar.

Seline Shenoy:

Right, we are living in the age of information and I think it’s really important to be judicious about who you’re learning from because the fallout from this is that everyone is kind of claiming to be an expert when they’re not. So you have to be careful about who you’re learning from and kind of figure out who’s the real deal and finding the gurus that really appeal to you and be selective about that.

Ryan Cote:

Very true. Well, thanks, Seline I really enjoyed our conversation. If people want to connect with you, what’s the best website or websites that they should visit.

Seline Shenoy:

I would encourage them to visit my blog. That’s the dream catcher. The address is thedreamcatch.com. If they want to connect with me personally, they can go to my website, which is selineshenoy.com.

Ryan Cote:

Thanks again, and thanks to everyone for listening.

Announcer:

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