Category: Health

I don’t believe there is a single person on the planet that has not spent at least one night worrying about their health. The $3 trillion dollars spent in the healthcare sector in the US is more than any other country in the developed world. What’s worse, prevention in the US ranks low compared to other developed countries. The US ranks as one of the worst countries in preventing deaths from treatable conditions.

Having synthesized five drugs for cancer treatment and having worked in the healthcare industry for the best part of two decades, I can tell you with certainty that when it comes to our health, it is what we do not know that kills us. What are some of the least known hidden causes that prevent optimal health? Join me in finding out.

An Overlooked yet Powerful Antidote to Stress: Compassion!

We spend so much time and money trying to figure out how to neutralize the negative impact of stress on our busy, information-overloaded lives! Yet one of the simplest, and also ultra-effective, solutions flies right under our radar: Compassion!

Compassion is our response and action towards relieving another’s suffering.

Study after study provides compelling evidence that when we approach life from a compassionate and altruistic place, we are much healthier, happier and live longer.

I have noticed that every time my life gets challenging, something pulls me toward volunteering in my community, which every time has proven to be a profound contributor to my level of happiness and ability to stay “in my zen.”

I recently was sworn in as a court-appointed special advocate (CASA) for abused children in my community. Despite the pressures and demands of being a single mother entrepreneur, making the time to volunteer has significantly enhanced my resilience and has added so much positive energy to my life. Regardless of my time limitations, I know that by being a child’s advocate, my CASA child is:

  • half as likely to spend time in long-term foster care,
  • four times less likely to re-enter the child welfare system, and
  • able to receive more court-ordered services, such as therapy and educational assistance.

I want to tell you why you should consider giving back and why it is one of the most effective strategies against stress.

  1. Voluntary work is a great way to make new, meaningful friendships.

Despite the ease by which we are able to find and connect to our elementary school friends over Facebook, today one in four of us do not have a person in whom we can confide. We are most probably living in the midst of the worst loneliness crisis in the history of our species. Offering as little as one of your 168 hours in any given week to serve as a volunteer gives you access to an incredible pool of people who happen to be just as wonderful as you and just as passionate about the cause you are passionate about—so much so, that they are also working on it for free.

  1. Volunteering is good for your health.

Study after study consistently reflect that compassion, altruism and kindness have a profound impact in your health and wellbeing. In fact a study by the United Health Group and the Optum Institute found that volunteering has a significant positive impact on our physical, emotional, and psychological health. Out of the study participants, 78% of the ones who had volunteered over the prior twelve months reported lower stress levels and 94% reported improved mood.

  1. Volunteering is an amazing way to enhance your skills for free.

We never stop growing and evolving until our very last breath. Commitment to continuing education is always the best investment of our resources. But have you considered that you can receive free training in invaluable skills at the same time as you are improving the odds for a happy and successful life for a fellow human being? The incredible training offered by the CASA advocates of my county enhanced my knowledge of human development, the needs of my community, and the court system. If there is a cause that is near and dear to your heart, giving back to that cause can significantly enhance your skill set and your abilities.

  1. Volunteering is a “career-enhancing” move.

When employers are considering the career advancement of their employees, community involvement and volunteering have always topped the charts in reflecting personal character and ethos. From the opportunity to collaborate and foster teamwork to having statistics that show the benefits and the direct impact of your efforts, volunteer participation can absolutely enrich your resume and boost your ranking when compared to other candidates being considered for a promotion. I will never forget the incredible sense of pride I experienced being part of reducing the HIV infection rate in East Yorkshire, England as part of my voluntary youth outreach work. And trust me, employers noticed it too.

  1. By volunteering you can really make a difference.

Whether you are helping raise funds for the underserved, providing community education, or helping a child learn better coping mechanisms to deal with adversity, it feels amazing to know you are making a difference by positively impacting someone else’s life. Studies have found that one of the most critical components in restoring work-life balance hinges on how we feel about the work that we do, rather than on the number of hours we spend working. The experience of positively impacting the life of another through the humble contribution of your time and skills carries incredible power.

Throughout my life, I have been blessed with adventure—overcoming adversities and succeeding in three different countries, excelling academically, and meeting and exceeding most of my professional goals.

Yet, my lengthy tenure as a volunteer for AIDS Action (UK), my service on the Council for Drug Problems, and, most recently, my involvement with the court-appointed special advocate (CASA) program in my county top the chart in terms of my sense of accomplishment, joy, and life satisfaction.

While we struggle to keep up with the demands placed upon us and look for ways to reset and restore our precious body system balance, giving back is often the last activity we would consider as an avenue for increased well-being.

We turn to many other strategies to manage stress at the end of the day. We may drink a glass of wine, watch television, or take a sleeping aid.

But why not try out volunteering?

I am not sure of where you are in life or the challenges you may be facing. But I can guarantee you that by volunteering you will form friendships that will last a lifetime, garner incredible new skills, and know that you are actually making a difference in building community wellness. Volunteering is one of the most robust ways to not only get the maximum return on your investment, but to actually improve your own well-being and be the change you want to see in this world.

The Fear of Public Speaking

The fear of public speaking

The other day, I had the joy and honor of speaking to a group of twenty-five incredibly intelligent, accomplished, and successful people. My speaking topic provided insights as to what it means to “get out of our own way” — a topic I am so passionate about and quite the expert on, not just from my academic and professional credentials, but also from the consequences of my very own failure to get out of my own way!

Yet, right as my introduction was coming to an end and I was about to step up to the podium and start my speech, my heart began racing and I realized that despite my preparation and expertise, I was nervous.

Apparently, there are several studies that clearly indicate that public speaking tops the charts of people’s fears, with death actually following public speaking in second place! But I know better: The only reason my heart was racing was because of my thoughts about the situation.

After all, I love speaking, let alone when I have the honor to speak to intelligent people about what excites me the most— the incredible power of the human mind. And what more proof do I need as to how powerful our bodies and minds are than the way I was able to engage my cardiovascular system (along with several other body systems) to elicit an instantaneous response within milliseconds of choosing the meaning to give to that particular situation. I am certain, if no one was watching, we could all admit our deep, hidden fears of public humiliation, criticism, messing up, or forgetting our words.

Our immaculate brain, after all, has evolved with the default position of assuming the worst, not because there is anything wrong with us, but because this is what has kept us alive for millions of years.

The main problem with our brain’s propensity to assume the worst is that we tend to engage our amazing neurobiology for defense and not for optimal health and performance. It is well documented that when we operate from a “fearful, threatened space,” we are temporarily compromised, cognitively as well as emotionally.

Furthermore, our implicit memories are responsible for the way we think, which will drive the way we feel, which will determine the way we will act!

Our implicit memories have so much power, yet they are stored inside the fiber of our brain without our conscious awareness. We all know not to touch a flame, yet I am pretty certain most of us cannot recall the experience that makes us pull back from a flame when we get too close to one. In the same way, our thoughts about the potential criticism that might follow a public speech that we are about to give could come from experiences with our parents, our teachers, or an embarrassing event in front of our peers.

Although we can no longer influence what happened in the past, or the imprint those experiences left on our brain, we have a lot of power to “adjust the volume” of the thoughts that stem from procedural memory (a subset of implicit memory), if and when we choose what it is we want to place our attention on.

We can be realists and still focus on all that is positive and wonderful about any situation, retaining access to the thinking part of our brain, as opposed to losing our focus by employing our stress response and operating at diminished capacity. We now have a large body of research that reflects the robust benefits of mindfulness in accomplishing sophisticated brain structural changes. But more importantly, we can experience real life benefits when through those changes; we can enjoy a more balanced nervous system that is not exhausted from defending against imaginary threats that are not here and now.

The mechanism through which the brain changes in response to the environment is a Nobel Prize-winning concept, called neuroplasticity.

The wonderful thing is, we don’t need to be scientists to take advantage of the way we can slowly but surely intervene with our automatic thoughts that literally highjack our precious resources.

Fear is a universal and necessary emotion, but most of the things we are afraid of are not real dangers and threats but simply our thoughts fueled by our brains tendency to overestimate threats based on historical stored data. But if you would like to take an active stance against your own fears or if you are tired of playing, here are some effective ways to overcome unnecessary fears like our fear of public speaking.

  1. Make a list of your “unsubstantiated” fears.

While being kind to your self since we all have unnecessary fears, assess the cost of staying in the small comfort zone that your fear of “how will others judge you” defines you. You can then choose how you want to respond. Accept and acknowledge that your body is simply responding to the meaning you give to the situation and not to the situation it self.

  1. Increase your self-awareness.

What is your built in disposition to fear? Mine is to tilt towards anxiety. Yours could be anger. Becoming mindful of our default positions will give you the opportunity to change them when we are ready.

 

  1.   Work with your fears- Don’t let them work you.

Embrace the power of your mind and recognize that public speaking in and of itself does not present a threat or a danger to your survival. You can simply use this, or every unneeded fear in your life as a catalyst for the positive change you wish to see towards your own personal transformation.

There are plenty of practices we can incorporate in our lives to defeat our fears. You can access a cheat sheet of my favorite five step process to bust any fear, for free when you sign up to join my community. http://bit.ly/JoinMyndZen

I would love to hear your thoughts and learn from your experiences with fear.

After all, our fear of public speaking or any other fear over imaginary threats is part of our humanness, we all are afraid of certain things in life.

Yet only when we choose to see fear for what it truly is, an illusion, then, we can be free to express our feelings, our needs and our stories. And that my friends, is the most fundamental way to make a connection between our differences which science has now proven is the ultimate shield against fear.

 

Why your brain is a Pessimist

Negative Bias

brainDo you sometimes wonder why out of all the things that happen on any given day we tend to fixate on the negative ones, like a negative remark from our boss? If you get frustrated by your negative tendencies and are secretly jealous of the positive people in the world who seem to always be able to make lemonade out of lemons, do not despair. For our survival, our brain has indeed evolved with a negative default position, called the “Negative Bias.” However, once we understand the inner workings and reasons for our brain’s negative bias, we can work with our brain and harness its power to intercept the unnecessary fear, worry, and anxiety that the negative bias causes and improve our personal and professional life experiences.

What is Negative Bias?

Negative bias is simply a term describing our brain’s tendency to over-estimate threats and under-estimate rewards as a byproduct of our nervous system’s evolution to aid our survival. Our brain’s primary job is to scan the environment for threats and orchestrate our body’s response to do what it has to do to keep us alive. If you can, imagine taking a walk on a nature trail and hearing a rattling sound along your path. Within milliseconds your brain will get notified through your sense of hearing, and immediately check in for any past associations of that sound with a threat. If it finds one, it will then trigger your amygdala (your brain’s fear circuitry), which will in term elicit your stress response to re-direct your energy from essential functions to your large muscle groups so that you can flee from the “imminent threat” ahead. The end result is that your brain’s inner workings will make you run away from where you heard the rattling sound. If our brains were not so effective in responding to signals picked up from the environment, you and I would just keep walking toward the direction of the rattling sound and probably get bitten by a rattlesnake.

Now multiply this experience by 600 million years, during times in the history of our species when the conditions were harsh, and perhaps you can appreciate why our brain is such a pessimist. We did not inherit the genes of ancestors who were enjoying a moment to smell the flowers: Those ancestors got devoured by predators!

The problem with our brain’s negative bias

Once upon a time, our environment presented many threats to our survival. However, that is not the case today. The trouble with our brain’s “stone age” evolutionary propensity to tilt to the negative way of looking at things, inadvertently leads to an activation of our fight or flight response more times than what we are physiologically designed to handle. In fact, we know that when we operate under our stress-response-activation, essential functions, like our immune function, malfunction. We become temporarily compromised—physically, emotionally, perceptually, and cognitively.

We definitely need our brain to continue to assume the worst when we hear suspicious sounds while hiking in Yosemite National Forest. On the other hand, there are things we can incorporate into our day-to-day life to train our brain to become better at focusing on positive experiences to correct for the perceived threat false alarms.

The key to building a happier brain, and thus a happier life, is to give our brain experiences that will help it bounce back from an alarmed state to a calm state, where we regain access to the optimal functioning of our body systems and the executive functioning part of our brain. This executive part of our brain is involved with memory, learning, mediation of rewards, motivation, problem-solving and many more fabulous jobs.

We can build resilience and intercept unnecessary anger, worry, fear, and anxiety so we can return to the optimal state of calmness, joy, and peak performance.

Here are some simple things you can start doing every day to cultivate and grow your brain’s ability to collaborate with you to create the life experience you want.

1. Practice mindfulness meditation.

Far from a mystical practice, all that is required to reap the benefits of one of the best antidotes to negativity is to observe your thoughts and simply recognize worries, anxieties, and fears that are not happening right now and return to your breath.

2. Spend more time with people who nourish and support you and less time with people who are indifferent or negative towards you.

Although indifferent and negative people have their role to play in our lives too, don’t forget the power a parachute gives us when jumping off a plane. We need people who support our cause to weather the storms of life.

 3. When things get tough, return your attention to your Breath.

Remember that your breath is the only bodily function that involves both involuntary and voluntary muscles and nerves. By paying attention to your breath and minding its depth and regularity, you can impact your heart rate and calm yourself down.

 4. Instead of waiting, proactively ask for feedback.

Why wait for someone to express what we could have done better? Why not ask what it is that we should start, stop, or continue doing today?

 5. Be kind to others.

Love and kindness spread in ripples and they have superpowers in diminishing threat-related responses of our evolved nervous system. Being love is the best way to experience love.

 6. Be kind to yourself.

Not just in words, but in actions, forgive yourself for past mistakes, eliminate negative self-talk, and stand up for yourself when anyone treats you in an unkind way.

7. Make time to do things that nourish your spirit and make you come alive.

Walk in nature, paint, sing, dance, make love, take a break, plant an herb garden, volunteer, or do whatever makes you smile. I know time is a limited commodity. But our actions in every minute of every day are what birth our reality, our work, and our relationships.

Final thoughts

Throughout our life’s journey, we are guaranteed to face a mix of situations, some of which will be positive and some of which will be negative. Although we have adopted this notion that someday “everything in our life will fall into place” and we will then be able to finally enjoy the moment, we all need to remember: that moment is here now.

By deepening our awareness of our incredible brain’s inner workings and its built-in negativity bias, we can enhance our capacity to deal better with life’s challenges. Since we cannot prevent things from going wrong, what we can do instead is to put systems in place and incorporate tools, resources, and practices to control how adverse events impact us. Understanding the basis and the reasons behind our negative bias gives us the opportunity to use everyday experiences as a catalyst to retrain our brain to collaborate with us to change our life for the better. By purposefully incorporating practices that allow our nervous system to quickly return to baseline no matter what happens on the outside that causes it to get hi-jacked through our brain’s tendency to assume the worst, we are actually retraining our brain to be happier.

Because after all, how we handle negative situations whether they are perceived or real threats is one of our most profound opportunities to not just learn who we truly are at our core, but also who we can potentially be.

For regular inspiration, awareness, and practices that can teach you how to stay calm and balanced for the greatest health, happiness, and effectiveness regardless of your life situations, I invite you to join my community. http://bit.ly/JoinMyndZen. I would be honored to be your guide in re-acquainting you with your best self and helping you go from where you are to where you want to be.