Davinia Taylor’s Crisis Comforts
December 15, 2023. Series 7. Episode 78
As regular listeners will know, at the end of all our conversations we ask our guests for their three crisis comforts; their go-tos for inspiration and strength during the challenging times. Short but perfectly formed advice for getting you through the tough moments.
Over the years we have heard some incredibly interesting and useful tips for anyone who might be feeling the weight of their own problems.
In this episode Davinia Taylor, best-selling author and biohacking superstar, shares her Crisis Comforts with us. The full episode is available below, but here is a little taster…
*DISCLAIMER – This episode includes discussion about addiction issues. Anyone struggling should seek professional help from an expert.
https://www.talktofrank.com/get-help/find-support-near-you
FULL EPISODE
Links:
Hack your Hormones, Davinia Taylor (Sunday Times No. 1 Bestseller) – https://amzn.eu/d/5RyN8ag
It’s Not a Diet (Sunday Times No. 1 Bestseller) – https://amzn.eu/d/b2gBSKu
Stream/buy ‘Allies’ by Some Velvet Morning: https://ampl.ink/qp6bm
Some Velvet Morning Website: www.somevelvetmorning.co.uk
Your Daily Practice: Sleep by Myndstream: https://open.spotify.com/track/5OX9XgJufFz9g63o2Dv2i5?si=b2f9397c92084682
Production team:
Host – Andy Coulson
CWC production team: Louise Difford and Jane Sankey
With special thanks to Global
For all PR and guest approaches please contact – [email protected]
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Andy Coulson: [0:00:05] Hello. I’m Andy Coulson and welcome back to Crisis What Crisis and another Crisis Comforts episode. Short but perfectly formed advice for getting you through the tough times.
As regular listeners will know, at the end of our conversations we ask all our guests for their three Crisis Comforts, their go-tos for inspiration and strength during the challenging times. Over the years we have accumulated some incredibly interesting and much more importantly useful tips for anyone who might be feeling the weight of their own problems.
I’ve just had a fascinating conversation with actress, best-selling author and entrepreneur Davinia Taylor and I would encourage you to listen to her full episode, it’s full of useful stuff. But if you’re short on time, here is a taster. And remember, you can also listen to all our conversations in full wherever you get your podcasts. You can follow us on Instagram and TikTok, just go to the top of our home page at www.crisiswhat crisis.com for links. Many thanks for listening.
Andy Coulson: [0:01:02] Before you go, I’m going to ask you for your Crisis Comforts. These are three things that you’ve sort of leant on, relied on, sort of you know, use, have in mind in those difficult moments. There is only one rule; it can’t be another human being. I’m wondering whether or not your dogs, who I know feature heavily on your social media, whether they would be included.
Davinia Taylor: [0:01:27] They’re another double-edge sword. They actually cause me great anxiety because they run off all the time and I’m often seen traipsing around Lancashire screaming ‘Chico’, absolutely terrified they’ve been run over by a tractor. But so far so good, they are both in my house now.
Okay, so in cases of emergency there’s a brilliant amino acid that’s found in green and black tea, called L-Theanine. And it- what it does it is pushes up a hormone called gaba, which is your anti-anxiety hormone. So if you take a- I sell it actually, full disclosure, but you can get it all over the internet. I sell it under the name of Calm, for obvious reasons.
But L-Theanine boosts your gaba so it dampens down and takes the edge off cortisol. So when you’re feeling overwhelmed, say you’ve got, I don’t know, either an exam as a teenager, or your mind is whirring at night, you know, often when people put their head on their pillow that’s when they start thinking about arguments the had in 1995, that’s when L-Theanine comes in.
It takes the chatter out your brain and it helps you have a cool, calm energy. It doesn’t give you energy, it just takes the edge off the overwhelmed energy. It works brilliantly with caffeine, so if you get the jitters from caffeine this will take the edge off that and it will also stop caffeine insomnia later on. So I have it in the afternoon with my afternoon coffees. So that is a really good one. It’s not expensive, L-Theanine.
Another thing I do is use hot and cold. So I’ve got one of these pop-up sauna things that I put next to my bed. In front of my bed I’ve got a TV, which is totally unhealthy but I don’t care, it’s my equivalent of a glass of wine. I’ll sit in that for forty minutes, it’s an infrared sauna, and what that does is a bit like a healthy microwave the light waves from the infrared penetrate deep into the skin to your organs. So you sweat from the inside out, as opposed to a heat sauna which is the skin in, this is from the inside out. So you have a much better detox.
Again, facilitating the liver, if you’ve got stress or anything like that the liver is taking the burden. So you want to get the stress out of the liver, an infrared sauna will do that. About £200, you can get them online. But make sure it is an infrared sauna.
And then I will chase that with a cold shower. And it sounds counter-intuitive having a cold shower at night, but the body understands what time of day it is from the light signal, so make sure you dim your lights. Because- I’ll get into the cold shower, we’re talking thirty seconds. And when the body realises it’s in shock, first of all it gets a little bit alert, and then it realises it’s actually safe, so when you get out the shower all of a sudden you get a cascade of parasympathetic nervous system hormones which are your cosy hormones, because you’re safe. Serotonin, oxytocin and also melatonin, your sleep hormone. So it’ll calm you down. And if you’re really at your wits end, get a spike mat. They’re about a tenner online, and get the one with the pillow. It’s sort of like acupressure, and again what it does-
Andy Coulson: [0:04:19] I have used one, they’re bloody agony.
Davinia Taylor: [0:04:21] But it doesn’t take long, your body will adapt. Once it realises it’s not actually being impaled, again, more parasympathetic. And it’s a really good way to relax because it’ll change your focus. I do most of this while the telly is on, and I always wear blue blocking glasses at night because the blue light’s going to affect your sleep, and sleep is the pillar.
But there’s three hacks for you. So you’ve got your L-Theanine, you’ve got your sauna pod, you’ve got your cold water, and of course the spike mat. And if you’re really, really struggling with sleep, get yourself some Magnesium L-Threonate, that will really relax you. And for twitchy legs as well it’s great.
So they are my sort of go-tos. So during the day L-Theanine, and at night it’s always my little routine which is the equivalent of my glass of wine.
Andy Coulson: [0:05:06] Amazing. Davinia, thank you so much. It’s been great to see you, great to talk to you, and that conversation I think is absolutely chock full of useful stuff. So, thank you so much.
Davinia Taylor: [0:05:19] Thank you for having me, and I’m pleased I’m being useful.
Andy Coulson: [0:05:22] If you’ve enjoyed this conversation with Davinia, please do give us a rating and a review, it really helps. And if you hit subscribe wherever you download your podcasts from you will find loads more useful Crisis conversations. You can follow us on Instagram and TikTok, and you can watch the full episodes on YouTube. Just search for Crisis What Crisis podcast. And you can also find full transcripts of this and every episode on our website, crisiswhatcrisis.com
Thanks again for joining us.
End of Recording