Glassbox Joseph Pack

The first ever episode of the Glassbox Podcast sees Joe and David talk about the beginning of Joe's nomadic journey, the common mental health issues he's been battling and how you can deal with stress, anxiety and depression whilst working remotely.

Nootropics aren't a new thing but their popularity has grown over the past few years. Joe's been trying out L-Tyrosine to help with his ADHD. We also discuss the probability of loneliness on the road and the huge possibilities of connecting with new people.

Nootropics

In 1972, Roman psychologist and chemist, Corneliu E. Giurgea coined the phrase Nootropics. And in 2018, Joe (with the advice from David) decided to try some out. We discuss the effect it's hard in today's episode.

In case you're unsure, Nootropics are legal supplements that improve cognitive function, particularly executive functions such as memory, creativity and motivation in healthy individuals.

Loneliness

In 2015, 1,001 business travelers were studied to understand the physiological, psychological and emotional costs to frequent travel. Over 50% of participants claimed that loneliness is the most stressful part.

Life as a nomad can become lonely. Today we discuss why and how you can go about avoiding loneliness.

Joe's been testing his sleep pattern and using an app called Rain Rain to help improve it. He's also tried (with little reward) to find an insurance package for nomads that covers mental health.

Sometimes you're sat up for hours on end struggling to sleep. It happens to the best of us. Recently Joe's been struggling with sleep, thus the experiments begin. David explains a smart process for removing sleep halthing thoughts from your head via an app called Rain Rain.

Although we don't discuss Safety Wing in the episode (because it literally hadn't been released at the time of recording) we felt it had to be included in the show notes. They're the world's first dedicated digtial nomad insurance, by digital nomads. Although this is a huge leap forwards, the world is still missing a nomad insurance package that covers mental health.

We'll cover Safety Wing in an episode soon.

David explains why he believes that changing the way we talk about anxiety & depression, by referring to it as being stuck, could help to lift the stigma on mental health.

Unfortunately, people often shy away from talking about depression & anxiety because the negative stigma attached infers a sense that makes most people close off. Instead, we should start to refer to anxiety & depression as being stuck, and the job of the therapist is to make you unstuck.

David also talks about a new type of rapid therapy, no more than 10 to 15 minutes, where a therapist simply checks in with you to make sure all is ok up top.

Joe talks about ego and status holding people back and how he feels so thankful that he doesn't look for approval from others. He ain't keeping up with the Jones's that's for sure.

Today, we discuss how the DASS-21 scorecard can be used to measure your mental health. We also touch on potential loneliness while traveling, and how diet affects your mood.

The DASS-21 (a scorecard for depression, anxiety & stress) is widely used to help psychotherapists measure the three most common forms of mental health issues. David and Joe discuss how the scorecard will be used on a weekly basis to measure Joe's happiness as he travels across the planet without the comfort or structure of home.

They also discuss the importance of diet and how eating well can improve mental health, cognitive functions and overall mood.
- DASS-21
- NomadList