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navigating mental wellness

science meets life

Sevda Leavy's blog — modern Holistic thriving
for lives lived across borders

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If you’re here for polished prose, I regret to inform you that my inner editor is perpetually on coffee break—welcome anyway!

AI Use Cases for Everyday Wellness

My 3PM brain had two modes: complete rebellion or desperate coffee runs. When a colleague suggested Brain.fm, AI-powered neuroscience-based sound technology, I smiled politely while mentally filing it under "things that definitely won't work." Curiosity won though, and I hit play on Brain.fm.

The strange ambient patterns slipped past my usual afternoon resistance, and my skepticism dissolved into surprised focus. There I sat, actually working, while my coffee maker watched from the kitchen counter, clearly questioning our relationship. Who knew AI could make my coffee maker jealous?

My client dozed off during our session - not the gentle meditation drift, but full-on, mouth-open snoring. After months of battling insomnia, he'd finally found peace through an AI app syncing with his heart rate to craft personalized sleep sounds. My professional pride whispered something about fifteen years of training being outperformed by algorithms, but his peaceful face told a different story. Some healing still happens best on a therapist’s couch.

Struggling with sleep? Try Endel AI's biosync mode with your Apple Watch for a personalized soundscape.

The soft glow of my phone lit up the quiet room as midnight crept in. I lay propped against a stack of pillows, scrolling through nothing in particular, the mindfulness I preach to clients conspicuously absent. In a bid for redemption, I tapped open an AI meditation app, its algorithmic soundscapes promising peace.

The irony of outsourcing my zen to AI wasn’t lost on me, but there I was, letting binary code guide me to deep sleep. Eight hours later, I had to laugh—decades of meditation practice, and it was an app that led me to tranquility. Apparently, inner peace really does come with a download button these days.

For someone who prides themselves on teaching mindful decision-making, getting stuck on lunch options felt ironic. In a moment of surrender, I asked GPT to suggest the best spot.
“Pizza place or smoothie bar?” it replied, somehow turning my simple dilemma into an existential crisis. I chose both—because apparently, my professional judgment now amounts to refusing to pick between wellness and joy.

The result? A spot serving cauliflower crust pizzas next to a juice bar. Sometimes, outsourcing your inner debate to a machine leads to surprisingly clever solutions.

The moment I noticed the black strap peeking out from my client’s pant leg, my heart skipped. Was that an ankle monitor? As I tried to find a tactful way to ask about “recent life transitions,” he caught my glance and smiled. “It’s an Apollo Neuro,” he explained, rolling up his pant leg to reveal a sleek device. “The vibrations keep me calm.”

For a second, I wondered if gadgets were about to make therapists obsolete. But then he added, “It makes it easier to really open up here.” With a sense of quiet relief, I realized: no matter how smart AI gets, human connection is one upgrade it will never have.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, I found myself staring into my fridge, playing that universal game of “maybe something new appeared since I last checked.” On a whim, I asked ChatGPT for ideas. When it offered to analyze my random assortment via my phone camera, I hesitated—letting AI inspect my questionable groceries felt uncomfortably like inviting my mom over for a surprise kitchen audit.
But then, like magic, it crafted a gourmet recipe from my leftovers and nearly-expired produce. Even my sad, lonely carrot found its purpose in life.

Professional curiosity got the better of me today—I decided to try AI therapy, just to see how it feels on the other side. I asked Character AI's therapist, “Why do I feel let down when things don’t go the way I hoped?” The AI replied, “It’s natural to feel disappointed when reality doesn’t match your expectations.” Such a therapy cliché that I actually cringed—then caught myself laughing. Was I really expecting genuine empathy from an algorithm? But maybe the algorithm wasn’t so off-base after all.

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The mind-body connection isn't philosophy—it's biochemistry.

“

My DNA speaks three languages—sometimes my thoughts get lost in translation.
Cross-cultural empathy appreciated!

Practical Wellness Journeys

I’ve been staring at my brain wave patterns like an explorer searching for buried treasure, hoping to unlock the secret map to creativity. Armed with a new Muse headband, I tracked my alpha waves for a week—those magical brain states when calmness opens the door for creative thinking.

Turns out my peak alpha activity happens between 7-8 PM, right in the middle of chopping vegetables and burning pesto. Now my kitchen counter doubles as a creative studio, with a magnetic notepad catching ideas between stir-fries. It seems the secret to great thinking is not thinking at all.

Somewhere between my fifth coffee and second existential crisis of the day, I stumbled on a PubMed article claiming that humming could activate the vagus nerve—the magical brain-body superhighway that helps regulate stress. It was the kind of discovery that makes you rethink your student loans.

Determined to embrace science, I began with a gentle hum that quickly escalated into something between Gregorian chant and dying whale. Lisa, my therapy dog, raised her head, gave me a withering look, and crawled under my desk, clearly unimpressed with my attempt at inner peace.

My morning meditation wasn’t going as planned—less mindful awareness, more mind-tripping fridge audit. In a bid to keep hunger from wrecking my zen, I’d downed my “wakeup juice” beforehand. It seemed like the perfect hack to keep me sitting still—until my glucose monitor buzzed mid-om.

Sitting cross-legged, I watched my blood sugar plummet and my thoughts scatter like caffeinated squirrels.My genius solution backfired spectacularly, turning what should have been a serene session into utter chaos. Apparently, I can’t just juice my way to mindful awareness—maybe next time, I’ll try to butter it.

Guilt crept in with my third snooze button press, but my Oura ring chimed in with unexpected wisdom: "Your resting heart rate dipped late last night. If you feel low on energy, consider adding restorative breaks today." The to-do list loomed large, but then I heard my meditation teacher’s voice: “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

Between ancient wisdom and algorithmic permission, my guilt dissolved like morning mist. Turns out, even the busiest day runs better when you let the smart ring to set the tempo.

I was mid-session when my stomach let out a roar that rivaled a hungry lion. My client politely ignored nature's symphony, but that evening, I ordered a Viome microbiome testing kit. It was time to investigate the chaos and let AI analyze my gut’s underground rave.

Sure enough, it confirmed a bacterial mutiny but offered a personalized peace treaty. Two weeks later, my gut was so quiet I could finally hear my brain requesting coffee breaks to keep the neurons happy. It’s official: my organs need group therapy before I can claim peace.

When late-night doomscrolling convinced me AI was just a few codes away from world domination, I did what any self-respecting therapist would do: dove into research on toad venom ceremonies. Centuries-old amphibian remedies seemed like the perfect antidote to tech-induced anxiety.

Before I knew it, I was lying under a canopy of stars, participating in a guided ceremony. One carefully administered dose later, I found myself oddly at peace. My phone’s health app even noted my pulse had dipped into Zen territory, apparently untroubled by existential threats. Turns out a little old-world tradition can work wonders on new-world challenges.

I’m not a morning person—the kind who greets their reflection with a scowl before coffee. This morning, a sticky note by my mirror commanded: “Smile.” I gave it a half-hearted attempt, but then Fabulous, my habit-tracking app, had its own suggestion: “Take three deep breaths. On each inhale, think of something good ahead. On each exhale, let that joy fill you.”

Skeptical but curious, I followed along. By the third breath, something shifted—not enough to make me a morning person, but enough to admit that Fabulous outdid my old-school CBT sticky note strategy. I smiled. Who knew upgrading from paper to pixels would actually upgrade my mood?

I stared at my morning smoothie with the intensity of a detective sizing up a suspect. My nutrition app, Cronometer, had just revealed—with the precision of a meddling grandmother—that my carefully crafted breakfast was embarrassingly low on protein. “Consider adding mushrooms,” it chirped, casually dismantling my sense of accomplishment.

As a therapist, I preach the beauty of imperfection. Yet here I was, fixated on the protein content of a smoothie. Maybe that’s the answer: let the app chase perfection, so I don’t have to.

@ Leavy Holistic Counseling
2028 E Ben White Blvd #240-4224 Austin TX 78741
mail@leavycon.com
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navigating mental wellness

Sevda Leavy's blog — modern Holistic thrivingfor lives lived across borders

Sevda Leavy's blog — modern Holistic thriving
for lives lived across borders