The Mood Booster Podcast

73. Leaving The City and Living Off The Land w/ Gaz Oakley

Reflecting on: Slow Living, Nature and Self Sufficiency with Gaz Oakley | The Mood Booster Podcast Ep. 73 The Home of Wellbeing and Joy 🌱 Welcome back to The Mood Booster Podcast. This week Charlie and Dr Marcus are joined by for one of our most reflective and grounding conversations yet. From leaving London behind and reconnecting with nature, to growing food, rejecting labels, building community, fatherhood, sustainability, anxiety, and the pursuit of a slower life, this episode explores what it really means to live intentionally in a world that constantly pushes us towards speed, convenience, and consumption. Gaz shares how reconnecting with the land completely changed his relationship with food, wellbeing, stress, identity, and purpose, and why modern life can leave so many of us feeling disconnected from what truly matters. This is an honest, thoughtful, and wide ranging conversation about nature, self sufficiency, mental health, compassion, and finding joy in simpler ways of living. 🎧 In This Episode Charlie, Dr Marcus and Gaz explore slow living as both a philosophy and a practical way of life. The conversation moves through growing your own food, reconnecting with nature, anxiety and nervous system regulation, community living, the pressures of modern culture, labels and identity, fatherhood, sustainability, consumerism, and the emotional impact of living more intentionally. Gaz also opens up about why he no longer labels himself vegan, the complexities of modern food systems, and how trying to live compassionately often means embracing nuance rather than extremes. 🛠 Practical Advice The key insight from this episode is that wellbeing is often found in reconnection rather than accumulation. Reconnecting with nature, community, craftsmanship, slower routines, meaningful work, and the simple act of growing or creating something with your hands can profoundly change the way we experience stress, purpose, and joy. 📍 𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝: Community and Connection, Introspection and Inspiration, Wellbeing and Joy 🔔 Don’t forget to follow and review, it really helps us grow  📲 Follow us for more: 👉 Instagram: @themoodboosterofficial  [https://www.instagram.com/themoodboosterofficial/] 👉 TikTok: @themoodboosterofficial  [https://www.tiktok.com/@themoodboosterofficial] 🌍 Website: www.themoodbooster.co.uk [http://www.themoodbooster.co.uk/]  🎥 Prefer video? Watch this episode on YouTube @TheMoodBoosterOfficial  [https://www.youtube.com/@TheMoodBoosterOfficial]

72. Friday Focus: The Science of Nostalgia and Why Your Brain Is Wired to Live in the Past

The Home of Wellbeing and Joy 🌱 Welcome to Episode 72 of The Mood Booster Podcast. In this Friday Focus episode, Dr Marcus and Charlie takes Monday's conversation on nostalgia and distils it into the essential psychology, the origins, the science, and the tools that help you understand what your brain is actually doing when it pulls you back to the past. We begin at the very beginning. The word nostalgia itself is built from two ancient Greek words: nostos, meaning homecoming, and algos, meaning pain. It was coined in 1688 by Swiss physician Johannes Hofer to describe a condition he observed in Swiss mercenaries who became so consumed by longing for home that they developed physical symptoms including anxiety, fever, and in some cases death. What began as a medical diagnosis eventually became one of the most universal human experiences we know. From there, Dr Marcus unpacks the psychology of why we feel nostalgia at all, the competing theories around it, and crucially why we seem to feel it more intensely right now. In times of hardship, austerity, and uncertainty, the brain reaches for the familiar comfort of the past. It is a mood regulation mechanism, and once you understand it that way, it starts to make a lot more sense. We also look at how this psychological vulnerability is being actively exploited, from political parties building entire campaigns around restoration and return, to brands like Claude using nostalgia in advertising to create emotional connection and drive behaviour. The episode closes with a set of practical tools designed to help you notice when nostalgia is pulling at you, understand what it is telling you about what might be missing in your present, and use that awareness to make meaningful changes rather than simply retreating into the past. 📍 𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝: Community and Connection, Introspection and Inspiration, Wellbeing and Joy 🔔 Don’t forget to follow and review, it really helps us grow  📲 Follow us for more:  👉 Instagram: @themoodboosterofficial  [https://www.instagram.com/themoodboosterofficial/] 👉 TikTok: @themoodboosterofficial  [https://www.tiktok.com/@themoodboosterofficial] 🌍 Website: www.themoodbooster.co.uk [http://www.themoodbooster.co.uk/]  🎥 Prefer video? Watch this episode on YouTube @TheMoodBoosterOfficial  [https://www.youtube.com/@TheMoodBoosterOfficial]

71. The Dark Side of Nostalgia + Why Looking Back Feels So Good Right Now

Reflecting on: Nostalgia | Why Your Brain Lives in the Past and What It Says About the Present | The Mood Booster Podcast Ep. 71 The Home of Wellbeing and Joy 🌱 Welcome back to The Mood Booster Podcast. This week Charlie and Dr Marcus are reflecting on nostalgia. Why we crave the past, why it feels so comforting, and why right now, more than ever, the world seems to be looking backwards. From the rise of Reform UK and Make America Great Again to the fact that more songs in the Billboard top 100 are over a decade old than ever before, nostalgia is not just a personal feeling. It is a cultural force. And understanding why it pulls at us so powerfully, what it is doing in our brains and what it is actually telling us about how we are feeling in the present, might be one of the most useful things you can do for your own wellbeing right now. This is a wide ranging, honest, and genuinely fascinating conversation that moves from politics to pop culture to personal memory, and lands somewhere that feels both grounding and hopeful. 🎧 In This Episode Charlie and Dr Marcus explore nostalgia as a psychological and cultural phenomenon, from positivity bias and how memory distorts the past, to why low mood triggers nostalgic thinking, what nostalgia is actually doing for us emotionally, how it is being used in politics and media, the tension between present moment living and the pull of the past, and how to find joy in the now without abandoning the warmth of looking back. 🛠 Practical Advice The key insight from this episode is that nostalgia is not weakness or delusion. It is your brain's way of regulating mood and reminding you of what matters to you. The question is not how to stop looking back but how to use those memories as a compass for the present rather than an escape from it. 📍 𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝: Community and Connection, Introspection and Inspiration, Wellbeing and Joy 🔔 Don’t forget to follow and review, it really helps us grow  📲 Follow us for more:  👉 Instagram: @themoodboosterofficial  [https://www.instagram.com/themoodboosterofficial/] 👉 TikTok: @themoodboosterofficial  [https://www.tiktok.com/@themoodboosterofficial] 🌍 Website: www.themoodbooster.co.uk [http://www.themoodbooster.co.uk/]  🎥 Prefer video? Watch this episode on YouTube @TheMoodBoosterOfficial  [https://www.youtube.com/@TheMoodBoosterOfficial]

70. We Need to Be Honest With You. The Mood Booster Is Changing

🌱 The Mood Booster Podcast | A New Chapter for the Mood Booster Something is changing. And we wanted to tell you about it ourselves. Episode 70 felt like the right moment to pause, check in, and be honest. Charlie and Dr Marcus have been frustrated. Not with each other, not with the podcast, but with the feeling that something important has been missing. That something is you. In this episode, recorded outdoors with the portable mics, they open up about where the Mood Booster is heading next and why the community has always been the whole point. 🎧 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞: ✨ Why Charlie and Dr Marcus went back to the drawing board ✨ What has been missing from the Mood Booster ✨ The new format and what it means for you ✨ Why everyday people inspire us more than experts ✨ A conversation that changed everything 🛠 Practical Takeaways: The biggest takeaway from this episode is a question. What is your story? The Mood Booster has always believed that joy is found in the everyday, not just in the lives of experts and high achievers. From episode 70 onwards, that belief becomes the format. If you have something to share, a struggle, a small win, a lived experience, they want to hear from you. Get in touch via Instagram at @themoodboosterofficial. 📍 𝐏𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐝: Community and Connection, Introspection and Inspiration, Wellbeing and Joy 🔔 Don’t forget to follow and review, it really helps us grow  📲 Follow us for more:  👉 Instagram: @themoodboosterofficial  [https://www.instagram.com/themoodboosterofficial/] 👉 TikTok: @themoodboosterofficial  [https://www.tiktok.com/@themoodboosterofficial] 🌍 Website: www.themoodbooster.co.uk [http://www.themoodbooster.co.uk/]  🎥 Prefer video? Watch this episode on YouTube @TheMoodBoosterOfficial  [https://www.youtube.com/@TheMoodBoosterOfficial]

69. Is Social Media Bad For Our Wellbeing?

Welcome to Episode 69 of The Mood Booster Podcast. This week, Charlie and Dr Marcus take things somewhere different. Recorded in Madeira, surrounded by mountains and good food, this episode is a proper debate. The motion: social media is inherently bad for our mental wellbeing. Charlie argues for it. Dr Marcus argues against. And genuinely disagree.  From comparison culture and body image ideals to the power of community and the very existence of The Mood Booster itself, this is an honest, unscripted back and forth between two people who see the same platform very differently. The question that sits underneath all of it: if social media does more harm than good, does using it make you a hypocrite?  🎧 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞:   * The debate: is social media inherently bad for our wellbeing?   * Comparison culture and the mental health cost of scrolling   * Body image ideals and who is responsible for what we see   * Whether regulation sits with the consumer or the platforms   * The power of online community and connection   * Can you criticise social media and still use it without being a hypocrite?   🛠 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞:   This one is less about tools and more about honest reflection. The debate format forces both sides to sit with the tension rather than reach for easy answers. If you use social media, which most of us do, this episode will give you a clearer sense of why it affects you the way it does and what, if anything, you  📍 Pillars Explored  Introspection and Reflection, Wellbeing and Joy, Presence and Gratitude  🔔 Don’t forget to follow and review, it really helps us grow  📲 Follow us for more:  👉 Instagram: @themoodboosterofficial  👉 TikTok: @themoodboosterofficial  🌍 Website: www.themoodbooster.co.uk [http://www.themoodbooster.co.uk/]  🎥 Prefer video? Watch this episode on YouTube @TheMoodBoosterOfficial