Your Body Can Change Your Mind

As a follow up to last week's video, we will talk about how you can begin to shape your mind by taking action.  How profound!  Basically, "fake it 'til you make it" isn't just a cliché:  it works!

Amy Cuddy discusses what to do about boosting your confidence by controlling your posture.  Plus, she has the research to back it up.  Just watch the video if you haven't seen it yet.  Prior to really improving your confidence with her techniques, we must discuss "the beginning".  There is a first, necessary step that we can't take for granted in improving ourselves:  responsibility.

Before you can ever begin, you need the power that comes from taking responsibility for you.  Not just what you do and say, but what you think and feel.  Nobody can make you feel anything.  So if you're a nurse with an unruly patient who is purposely trying to get on your nerves, realize that how you feel is completely up to you.  You don't have to turn over control of your emotions to anyone or anything.

We can decide how to react, how to feel, how to think, about any circumstance.  There are many great books written on this subject, not the least of which is by Viktor Frankl, who was a Holocaust survivor and writes beautifully about self-responsibility.  The essential point of all the wisdom you can find on the subject is that you decide how you think and feel.  You can control yourself, making every situation, especially the negative ones, into building blocks for your spirit.  Of course, you don't get there in a day.  It takes practice, but practice is something we are all doing.  Success simply comes from going in the right direction consistently.

Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are

The #1 Way to More Fun

My wife and I have been married for eleven years!   Yesterday, a patient told me that eleven years is a good start, having just celebrated her 57th anniversary with her husband.  The day of our marriage, the officiator sat us down to give us some advice.  I remember expecting to hear "love each other", duh, or "the secret is to play together."  You know, all the cliche stuff.  Instead, he said that we would have real joy together if we worked hard.  What a jip, right?

Kind of like this post...didn't the title say "fun"?  So here it is!  The number one way to have more fun is to work. What?!  But it's true.  The happiest people work hard, from Hollywood to Harrisburg, actors to landscapers, from children to retirees.  All work and no play makes us dull, but have you ever stopped to think what does all play and no work make you?

Public examples of partying hard with no meaning or purpose end up yearning for something more. In other words, if we play long enough, the play becomes...less fun!  This wisdom was once considered common sense, and taken completely for granted.  Now, it's a life hack!

Any time we have fun, the enjoyment is more profound if we have worked hard first.  Finding purpose and dedicating our time and energy, our sweat and tears, makes the down time that much more appreciated.  This spells out the difference between leisure, which can recharge our batteries and create energy, and idleness, which drains energy and infects us with laziness.

So, work hard and have fun, and you'll get more out of both of these complimentary actions!

Spit is Your Natural Protector

But spit is so gross, right?  We get asked countless times how we can work in mouths, where there is all of that spit.  Did you know that spit is essential to a healthy mouth?  Without spit, you have xerostomia, or dry mouth, which is worse than you think.

Dry mouth is a side effect of certain medications, diseases, and medical treatments.  The symptoms are: a dry or sticky feeling in the mouth and throat, sores, recurrent thirst, bad breath, or a raw tongue.



photo credit goes to milan6

There are some over-the-counter oral aids out there to help with dry mouth, such as Biotene products and Oramoist patches, but something as small as sipping water and keeping your mouth moist throughout the day will help a lot.  Dry mouth can increase your chance of getting gum disease, cavities and certain conditions in the mouth like thrush.  In fact, those that have dry mouth can get cavities even if they brush their teeth three times per day!

Spit is your natural protector and helps keep bacteria at bay.  Saliva buffers acids in the mouth, so it removes the cause of cavities:  acid.  Even if you don't drink much soda, which is acidic, any breads or fruits or vegetables you eat give certain types of bacteria their food, and they produce acid.  Without saliva, you can't protect yourself against the acid, and your mouth stays tasting sour for hours on end.  We have seen patients who have no cavities at all, and they return in six months only to have a mouth full of cavities because of beginning a medication that has dry mouth as a side effect.  Don't wait!  If you think you have a dry mouth, call us and we can help get you protected from the consequences.

2 Great Steps to Accomplishing More...and Being Happy About It!

Recently, I watched an interview explaining the concept of managing energy instead of time with James Clear.  Time management is a favorite topic of efficiency consultants, but when the consultants leave, often employees and employers revert back to old habits of managing energy, usually not very efficiently.  We all tend to manage our energy:  we do what we think we have energy for, and sometimes that means sitting on the couch, watching a show, mowing down on potato chips.  Picture a Friday night and a heart-broken single woman eating ice cream while watching "Breakfast at Tiffany's".  She's managing energy!

We can be more efficient at managing our energy, which is always better in the long run than managing time.  If our time is very efficient and our energy is not, we will burn out at some point.  Of course, if we only manage energy, we may end up wasting time!  We need to be realistic about what we can accomplish with our time and our energy.  There are two essential parts to managing energy:  First, we must be aware of our energy expenditures; Second, we should plan for recharging energy.

Energy Expenditures

For example, I know that scheduling difficult tasks in the morning is great for me:  that's when I perform the best and the fastest.  Later in the day, I take longer to produce the same quality.  The further we get into a project without a break, the more apt we are to lowering quality.  Short-term projects for which we must devote intense energy and undivided attention may be best accomplished when we know we are at our best.


Just taking the time to be aware of our energy levels and how we are spending them is a big step in the right direction.  You have probably heard of getting enough sleep and eating a good breakfast on the day of a big test in school.  This is being aware of energy expenditures, and taking time to prepare, which leads us to how to prepare...

Recharging Energy

Also, I have to take time to process events every day, which is why I like hiking.  It recharges the batteries.  Because I enjoy talking to people and helping them, it recharges my energy.  Practically, if my schedule is so full that I don't have time to connect with people, I burn out quickly.  Plus my patients feel like cattle, and I feel like I am treating them like cattle.

Finding your recharge time isn't just like me playing the guitar at the end of the day:  I have to wait all day to do that.  There are things that give you energy that can be done during the day to give you a pick-up.  You will see your productivity go up as you take time to recharge throughout the day.

Be aware of your energy expenditures and take control of your energy and time management by recharging throughout the day or during a project.  You will see yourself getting more finished, at higher quality, and you'll be happier!

The Most Important Health Decision of Your Life

No, it isn't Cheerios or Life cereal in the morning!  It is definitely not whether to eat protein or carbohydrates.  The most important health decision of your life is one you make every single day, mostly without thinking much about it.  And although I care about oral health, we're not talking about whether to floss!

This essential of all decisions is...drum roll...how much sleep you will get.  Yes, very few things have as much impact on your life as your sleep.  Our bodies need down time, and so do our minds.  How we go about planning and preparing for this essential of all times means the difference between health and illness for most people.

Sufficient sleep has been linked to weight loss, lowering stress, reducing inflammation, increasing memory and attention, and many more things that are easy to miss when we are burning the candle at both ends.  Yes, if we find ourselves lacking energy or motivation or even if we seem to get sick easily, we should plan and prepare for better sleep.

Plan (Quantity)

There are people who can't plan their sleep, like those with narcolepsy or any other sleep disorder.  Yet if you have one of these disorders, you may be all to familiar with how much sleep is a necessary part of life on Earth!  Your doctor can help you control what seems uncontrollable.

For the rest of us, planning for at least seven hours of sleep is vital to staying healthy, but this doesn't mean they have to be seven consecutive hours.  There is evidence that in the past, it was common to sleep four hours, wake in the middle of the night to snack or write letters or for romance, and then sleep three to fours hours before getting up.

But getting hours of sleep at night, and power naps if needed during the day can help you reach the seven hours.  A quick Google search can show you how much study has been done on sleep and how much benefit there is from making sure you get enough.  If you really have no control over your schedule, then you can at least prepare to get a better night's sleep.

Prepare (Quality)

Sleep is important enough to prepare for!  Cramming in another episode of Walking Dead while munching Chex Mix is only great preparation if you want a long wakeful night of zombies and eating brains!  One thing that may be ruining your sleep quality is using technology within an hour before bed.  The screen from your phone or iPad may be preventing your brain from preparing for sleep, lowering your sleep quality.  Taking time to plan the next day, thinking about the day we just had, stretching and breathing exercises all can help us get better sleep.  And don't forget to brush your teeth before bed, the most important time to do it!