Category: Weird Stuff

In a world where entertainment is right in our hands, you may ask yourself what is the point of reading? In today’s fast paced world, reading is becoming a dying habit because there are faster alternatives to consume on social media.
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I read about a book a month so I’m gonna give you my top 10 reasons on why reading is important and why you should read. 1.
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Reading is food for the brain.
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In my opinion, this is the biggest reason why reading is important.
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Just like how our body needs food to sustain itself and function optimally, our brain needs to continue learning new things to function at peak performance.
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The best part is that you can read fiction and non-fiction to get this benefit. Studies have shown that reading has the power to change your brain structure which makes you more empathetic and improves cognitive processes.
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By reading more, you become smarter since you are consuming a lot of information and you keep your brain in top shape.
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There’s this quote from Game of Thrones that sums this point up nicely.
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“My brother has his sword, King Robert has his warhammer, and I have my mind… and a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.” Tyrion Lannister 2. You become better at conversations.
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Books help expand your vocabulary which you can then use to express yourself better. Your speech will then be more refined and intelligent.
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Also, since reading widens your knowledge, you are empowered to participate in an interesting conversation.
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With the knowledge you gained from reading, you can add a unique perspective or sustain your argument.
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In this case, reading non-fiction can be better because you can learn about topics that show up more often in a regular conversation like technology. But there are also instances where reading fiction can be better like when there’s a new popular movie out based on a book and you read the original source material. 3.
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You can get mentored by a successful person for a very cheap price. Think about how much a successful person’s knowledge is worth. People are willing to pay millions to have lunch with Warren Buffett.
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If you are a normal person like me, you don’t have that kinda money.
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But with books, you can get mentored by a successful person for less than $50.
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A book is literally the exact words, ideas, mindsets, advice, and even the experience of the author put into a collection of papers.
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It’s almost like if the person is right there next to you speaking to you.
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75% of self made millionaires reported that they read at least 2 books a month. The knowledge you can get from reading is irreplaceable. 4.
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Reading improves your focus and concentration.
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In our fast paced world today, our attention spans are really short. Reading a book can help fix this because when you read, your attention is only focused on the story and you can be fully immersed.
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You might even achieve a flow state where you are 100% focused and forget about the world around you.
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Try reading for 10-20 minutes before work on your morning commute and you might find yourself more focused and productive at the office. 5.
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Reading opens your mind.
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As a reader, you will interact with different stories from different people with different ideas and beliefs.
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This helps open your mind and be more accepting of others as well as improve your ability to judge other people’s character. 6.
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Reading helps relax you.
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When you are reading something good, your mind is more relaxed and the subject you are reading about might even bring inner peace.
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If you are reading fiction, while you may not be fed the images and sound like when you are watching a movie, you can experience the images and sound with your imagination. The feeling you get from finishing a book can be better than the feeling of finishing a Netflix episode. 7.
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Reading helps improve your memory.
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Whether you are following your favorite character through their journey or remembering tips on how to make more money, you will be using the memory area of your brain and keep it active.
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When you really need to remember something important, it will be easier.
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Every new memory you make creates synapses or brain pathways and strengthens existing ones so memorizing will get easier. 8.
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Reading helps you make decisions better.
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When you are armed with all sorts of knowledge, making a decision can be easier because you see all possible options.
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You can make educated guesses on how each choice will play out and pick the one you like best. 9.
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Reading can help you sleep better.
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It can be hard to sleep when there’s a lot of things going on in your mind. Reading for a short period of time can help push away what is bothering you internally.
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Also, we often use electronics late at night which don’t exactly help us sleep better because bright lights signal our brain its time to wake up.
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Reading a book instead can help but make sure you put it down once it’s time to sleep. 10.
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You become who you are meant to be.
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This is a bit cheesy but by reading, you can change your personality or beliefs.
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Books open up completely new worlds for us to grow and develop as a person. Do you read often? Leave a comment below and check out this playlist of book summaries if you are interested.

– [Instructor] How to meditate for beginners. In this video, I’m gonna teach you everything that you need to know, from where to meditate, how you should meditate, how you should sit, if you should listen to music or not.
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I’m even going to tell you how to turn off your brain. Where should I meditate? Experts will tell you that you can meditate anywhere, but in my opinion, I think you should just pick a very quiet place where nobody can bother you.
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So this could be a bedroom, or a car, or a local library. Even a forest could work, just somewhere that’s very quiet and very peaceful. How long should I meditate for? I would recommend going for about five to 10 minutes. But it’s really important to set an alarm because if you don’t, you will always be thinking to yourself, has it been 10 minutes yet, should I stop? And the whole point of meditation is not to think. Also, quality is better than quantity here.
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In my opinion, being totally present and mindful for 10 seconds is way better than being a little bit present and mindful for 10 minutes. So longer is not necessarily better. What should I do with my body? Most people will tell you that you should not lay down when you meditate, but I don’t fully agree with this.
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I personally meditate twice a day, once in the morning then once before I go to bed.
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The only reason why I meditate at night is to help me sleep. So at night I will lay down.
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But in the morning, I will always sit because I don’t want to fall back asleep.
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But if you are only planning on meditating one time per day, definitely do it sitting, and I would recommend doing it in the morning. How should I sit? For total beginners, I would recommend sitting in a chair with your eyes closed, head facing forward, straight back, feet flat with your hands just relaxing on your legs. You will see Buddhist monks sitting cross legged with their feet facing up. This is the proper way to meditate.
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But I’ve personally noticed that a lot of newer people find this position to be very comfortable. I still think you should try it, but I would highly recommend just sitting normally in a crisscross position with your legs.
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But if that’s not comfortable, just sit in a chair. Once meditation becomes a daily habit, then we can try moving towards the Buddhist monk position. Should I listen to music? This one is really up to you.
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But for beginners, I would suggest listening to a very calm, relaxing piano song or maybe just something like nature sounds.
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I personally use an app called Relaxing Melodies. And no, this is not a sponsorship, and I listen to a song called “Eternity”.
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But meditating without music is totally fine as well. You have to just figure this out for yourself.
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Okay, now it’s time for the really important stuff. What should I do or what should I think about when I meditate? There are many different meditation techniques, but the one that I usually practice is something called mindfulness meditation.
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This is one of the most powerful meditation techniques in the entire world.
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And the whole idea around it, is to just focus on your breathing. When you are sitting down, you need to inhale through your nose, then exhale through your nose.
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But the key thing here is that you have to focus all of your attention on your breath, like the sensations of the air, hitting your nose, how the air fills your body and lungs, the slight pause between your inhale and your exhale. This focused attention is the thing that will get your brain to stop thinking.
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Now, many new people who try meditation will say things like, “I’m still thinking, “I have an itch that I keep scratching, “I can’t do this, meditation just doesn’t work for me.” It’s completely normal and to be expected to experience all of that stuff.
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I’ve been meditating twice a day for six years, and I still get itchy on my face, thoughts still come into my brain, but if you keep breathing, and you trust the meditation process, those thoughts and those itches will eventually go away.
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However, if you really are struggling not to think then you can use my little boy breathing hack. When I inhale through my nose, I will stick my belly out a little bit as if I’m filling up my belly with air. This is actually known as belly breathing, and it’s actually the most relaxing way to breathe. I know this sounds like incredibly simple and a bit silly, but I promise that if you try this, you will feel so much better, even throughout your day-to-day life.
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Now it’s time for the million dollar question. How can I actually get this habit to stick? The best way to build this habit is to establish a habit trigger.
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A habit trigger can be anything that triggers you to think about the habit that you’re trying to build. For example, I have a friend who wanted to start developing the habit of listening to audio books every single day. So every single time that he ate food, he would listen to an audio book, his habit trigger was eating.
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So every time he ate food, he immediately thought, “Oh, it’s time to listen to another audio book.” So if you’re meditating in the morning, I would recommend you using something like the shower as your habit trigger.
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So right after you shower, it’s time to meditate. Or maybe you can tell yourself that you can’t have your morning cup of coffee or even your breakfast until you meditate. And if none of that works, you can always just place a big sign on your door that says, you can’t leave the house until you meditate. If you want to feel inspired and amazing about meditation, then watch my video where I talk about the shocking benefits of meditation. And when I say shocking, I really do mean they are shocking.
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So feel free to click the screen now and I’ll see you there.

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Hey there everybody and welcome to this episode  of the week by week guide to depression treatment   this is part 1 of 14 and i’m  your host dr dawn elise snipes   in this series i’m going to explore one potential  treatment path for somebody with depression  
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depression looks different for each and  every person so no one treatment path   will look exactly the same but this gives you a  general idea of what treatment might look like   this particular video explores what  the initial session will look like
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as a helpful hint over the next few  weeks i will be going over a lot of   stuff for more in-depth information  about particular techniques or issues   in-depth videos can be found on the youtube  channel at doc snipes dot com slash youtube
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the first thing that i do when people come into  treatment is you know get to know them and then   we start talking about what their symptoms are i  typically don’t get too hung up on the dsm or the   diagnostic criteria because depression may look  different for every person and there are a lot  
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of symptoms that occur with depression that are  not in the diagnostic manual so i start by asking   for each symptom the person has when it started  is it something that started a week ago or three   years ago what was different before it started  what do they think causes it what makes it worse  
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and what makes it better even if just a little bit  or for a short period of time this will give us an   idea about potential causes of the symptom about  potential things that the person already does or   skills they already have that we can build on and  about things the person knows already don’t work  
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i also encourage them to watch the video what  causes that symptom on the youtube channel   to learn more about what causes each of the  symptoms that we’re going to start talking about physically when somebody is depressed  they may experience sleep disturbances  
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likewise people who don’t sleep  well often develop depression   many of these symptoms can either cause depression  or be caused by depression and it’s important to   understand that and recognize the reciprocal  nature eating disturbances are another issue  
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that come up sometimes people have no appetite  sometimes all they want to do is eat junk food   and that kind of makes sense because when we  are under stress sometimes our body says you   know what now’s not the time to eat we need to  worry about fighting or fleeing not resting and  
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digesting other times our body is experiencing  imbalances in neurotransmitters and foods we eat   that are high fat high sugar foods tend to  cause the release of dopamine and serotonin   and endorphins which are feel-good chemicals i  always look at what is the behavior telling me  
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another symptom is gi distress some  people may experience constipation when   people get depressed it’s often a  slowing of their whole system including   their gut so we want to look at constipation and  pain pain in the gut can be made worse because of  
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changes in the gut bacteria because of the  depression or because of what they’re eating   and generally pain can be made  worse when people are depressed   because when we’re depressed our pain tolerance  actually often goes down things that may have been  
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not painful or not you know notable before they  were depressed now are are painful to them we want   to recognize that that actually is a legit symptom  of changes in in neurochemicals in the person   when people are depressed they often don’t move a  lot and they often sleep a lot more which can also  
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contribute to muscle imbalances and pain so we’re  going to talk about pain because pain also can   cause depression low energy can be caused by sleep  disturbances poor nutrition or chronic pain or a   lot of other things and we want to recognize that  when we have low energy it’s hard to get motivated  
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it’s hard to feel like you’ve got any  get up and go which can contribute to   feeling depressed you know you just you want to  sit on the sofa all the time different than low   energy which is just not having the energy not  having the gas to go is slowing and that is like  
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moving into a 60 mile an hour wind when people  are depressed it often feels like it takes 10   times more energy to move to walk to take a shower  than it did when they weren’t depressed addiction   also often comes up because when people are  depressed they often try to self-medicate in some  
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way and make it go away this can be behavioral  addictions like shopping or gaming it can gambling   it can be chemical addictions it can you know  and in there we’re also including nicotine   so addictions may get worse addictions also alter  the neuro chemical levels or the brain chemicals  
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which can contribute to mood symptoms impulsive  behaviors some people don’t have enough energy   to even think about it other people occasionally  have these little spurts of energy and they engage   in risk-taking behaviors or impulsive behaviors in  order to feel something you know that’s the brief  
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moment where they have this adrenaline rush and  they’re like oh my gosh that’s incredible and   immunity when your immune system goes haywire  it can contribute to systemic inflammation   people who have autoimmune disorders are well  aware of this but any time your immune system is  
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triggered it can trigger associated inflammation  that inflammation has also been associated   with an increase in depressive symptoms  likewise depression and stress can trigger   an increase in inflammatory cytokines in the  body and an increase in immunity in inflammation  
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all of these symptoms have a back and forth   affectively well of course the person  is presenting for depression so they’re   depressed they may also experience apathy or low  motivation they just they don’t really care about  
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much of anything or what we call anhedonia and  that’s feeling numb not feeling super depressed   not feeling you know super happy super anxious  just not feeling guilt anger and anxiety are also   very prominent symptoms in people with depression  and in treatment if somebody’s experiencing these  
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things we talk about what’s triggering them  and will process some of those issues but right   now we’re just trying to get a picture of what  depression looks like for the person cognitively   or mentally people who are depressed often have  difficulty making decisions and thinking clearly  
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now this can be caused by insufficient sleep poor  nutrition depression itself a variety of things   but these things also make it harder to do  your daily activities which can contribute   to feeling hopeless helpless and depressed  pessimism can cause depression if you’ve  
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always been sort of a negative nelly then that  can contribute to feeling helpless and hopeless   a lot of times when people are depressed  though they can start feeling more pessimistic   because when they’re depressed they notice  more of the negative stuff they notice more  
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of the stuff that’s out of their control and  it can contribute to feelings of depression   ruminations a lot of times  when people are depressed   they have thoughts that bounce around in  their head and you know there’s a lot of  
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reasons for this but what’s important to  recognize is those thoughts are generally   critical negative pessimistic and they tend to  be very overwhelming and loud that negative inner   critic or that those hecklers in your gallery  tend to be a lot louder when when you’re depressed  
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environmentally i found that for a lot of people  they’re outside represents what’s going on on   their inside so if they’re disorganized or  disheveled that gives me a clue that that   that may be how they’re feeling inside because  of all the things that we’ve talked about already  
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people may be experiencing difficulty at school  or work and resulting financial difficulties   difficulty in these areas contributes to stress  and distress and often worsens depression   relationally people who are depressed often  withdraw from others they can’t take the input  
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from other people they don’t have the energy to  deal with their own stuff let alone anybody else’s   stuff they may withdraw from others because other  people may try to cheer them up which makes them   feel rejected or misunderstood or other people  may withdraw from them because they just can’t  
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take being around somebody who’s so depressed  they may experience impatience or irritability   again because they are overwhelmed when people  bring stuff to them when when life happens it   can feel overwhelming and it can trigger that  fight-or-flight response low self-esteem is very  
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common in depression a lot of times because of  the depression the person is not doing the things   they think they should or the way they used to  and it makes them feel bad about themself now   people with low self-esteem from long ago can also  develop depression partly as a result of that so  
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yin and yang toxic relationships  also tend to cause depression and may   flourish when somebody is depressed  because people who are depressed may   tolerate toxic behavior more because they  just don’t have the energy to address it
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once we’ve identified what each symptom looks  like for that person when it’s started what   makes it better what makes it worse etc then  we’re going to identify what recovery from each   symptom looks like and for a lot of things when  we talk about psychology we use what’s called  
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a likert scale and an anchored likert scale has  words that go along with each point on the scale   so for somebody’s mood one may be miserable two  may be okay three is happy four is really excited   and five is unbelievably ecstatic we don’t expect  them to get to five a whole lot but that gives  
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us an idea of where we are starting so people can  rank their moods or rank the behavior on a regular   basis so we can track its progress we will work to  define goals for people’s symptoms that are smart   specific measurable achievable rewarding and time  limited for example i will have more energy as  
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evidenced by being able to work out go to work and  do at least 90 percent of my normal adulting tasks   without getting completely worn out or feeling  weighed down now this is a goal the person is   setting for three months from now not for next  week this is ultimately where they want to be  
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i will sleep better as evidenced by getting at  least seven solid hours of quality sleep each   night i will get motivation back as evidenced  by doing the things that i need and want to do   most days it’s important with goals not to  set extreme goals that are a hundred percent  
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of the time because generally we can’t  do things a hundred percent of the time   so if you set a goal that’s like that then  you’re setting yourself up for failure the next thing i do in this first session  with the person is create a support  
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plan change causes crisis and crisis causes change  it doesn’t matter what the change is it can be a   positive change like getting healthier or bringing  a new baby to the into the family but that causes   changes which can be stressful it may not be like  an overwhelming crisis but it can be stressful  
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change takes a lot of energy and work and i  encourage the people that i work with to recognize   that they’re going to need at least 15 minutes in  the morning 15 minutes of the evening and about   30 sometimes 60 minutes some other time during  the day so when they get up at lunch time and  
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before they go to bed possibly that’s not a huge  time commitment but people who are depressed have   very little energy so this still feels like a  lot we talk about what things can you eliminate   or simplify to free up time and energy for  this change and that may mean things like  
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preparing meals ahead of time or getting  pre-prepared meals for a little while   so you don’t have the dishes and you  don’t have the prep time and all that   stuff so you have more time you can  focus on working your recovery plan  
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how can you alter your environment to stay  motivated and remind you to use your new skills   for change there are a lot of new behaviors  and habits that i ask people to do and those   behaviors and habits can be programmed into your  your mobile device you can get an app that people  
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often use for medication and get push  notifications for things like meditation   then i ask them to think about who in in your  life is supportive and how can they help you and   how will you let them know about plans and what  you need from them don’t expect them to read  
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your mind and know that you need them to do extra  work around the house or help you watch the kids   or something else it’s important to articulate  to other people what they can do to help   it’s also important for the people to identify  what they can do to help themselves feel safe  
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in general feel safe when they’re triggered and  feel safe so they can work on their assignments   so they’re not afraid of becoming overwhelmed or  spiraling and then they’re asked to identify three   strategies they can use to cope when they begin  to spiral when people are experiencing depression  
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you don’t expect them to start treatment and never  have another spiraling episode and i believe it’s   important to create this safety support plan ahead  of time to help people feel empowered so they have   tools at their disposal that can help them endure  what’s going on it’s not going to necessarily make  
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them feel wonderful but it helps them endure it  so they feel safe they don’t feel like they’re   going to be completely overwhelmed the next thing  we do is talk about which two or three symptoms do   you want to focus on changing first because when  you make positive changes in any area of your life  
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it often makes reciprocal positive changes in  other areas and you can really only effectively   focus on two or three things at a time we will  talk about how we’re going to measure that whether   we’re going to measure the frequency how often  each occurs how long particular episodes last or  
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the intensity or quality of each again on one  of those like likert scales and each time the   behavior or or symptom occurs the person  is also going to know what triggered it   what helped stop it if anything and what did  not help so we continue to get information about  
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what is helping what doesn’t work what  triggers it so we can address those in session another thing i ask them to do  is a feelings awareness worksheet   now this is something they’re going to do  between sessions in order to start identifying  
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early warning signs of distress so they may be  able to take action sooner than waiting until   it’s a big crisis you know waiting till  it hits them from quote out of the blue   i ask people to identify what particular feelings  look like for them and what triggers that feeling  
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what thoughts what activities what people  and even what sensations like what sounds   my the ceiling fan over my bed makes an awful  humming sound and it annoys the crap out of me   and that can trigger my irritation so i know that  that’s a sound that will trigger irritability  
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in me and i encourage them to look  at and identify what anger anxiety   depression and happiness look like for  them and what triggers those emotions another thing they’re going to start doing  beginning tomorrow you know beginning the  
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day after this session is morning and evening  mindfulness and this is the 15 minutes in the   morning and 15 minutes in the evening in the  morning they’re asked to inhale for a count of   four envisioning energy and light filling their  body hold it for a count of four and feel that  
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energy spread and then exhale for a count of  four and envision fatigue darkness and brain fog   leaving their body on their breath you know they  can even envision their breath coming out a color   that represents fatigue repeat this four times  in the morning this deep breathing helps increase  
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oxygen and get people get people going  so to speak after they do this they will   do their mindfulness inventory and it seems long  on these slides but it really only takes about 10   minutes they’ll think how do i feel physically  what are my needs physically right now  
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what things might make me more vulnerable to  emotional distress today what physical things do   i have going on that might make me cranky or more  prone to be irritable and how can i cope with them   was it easier hard to fall  asleep how well did i sleep  
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how many hours did i sleep do i feel rested if i  woke up a lot why what will i do beginning today   to address anything that is waking me up  in the night if i did not sleep well how   does that impact my energy concentration  productivity mood and patience with others  
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affectively or emotionally and cognitively or  mentally how do i feel am i happy and clear-headed   or depressed and foggy-headed or something in  between what are my needs what might make me more   vulnerable to distress today if you wake up in the  morning and you’re just in a you know awful mood  
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you know that you know that you’re already kind of  at your precipice and it’s not going to take much   to trigger irritability so what can you do to cope  during your day so when life happens it doesn’t   bring on extra distress and you don’t spiral  environmentally what are three positive things  
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in my environment right now what things might come  into my environment today that cause me distress   and how can i best deal with them planning ahead  for any obstacles that you might have encounter   relationally how do i feel about myself what  relationships do i have that enhance my life  
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and this can include your pets what can  i do to nurture them what relationships   might trigger or make me more vulnerable to  distress today and how can i best cope with them   so if you know you’ve got to interact with  a person at work that typically gets on  
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your very last nerve how can you best cope  with this so it doesn’t cause extra distress   in the evening you’re going to do deep breathing  again but this time inhale for a count of four   envisioning cool blue entering  your body and helping you relax  
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hold for a count of four and feel that soothing  feeling spread then exhale for a count of four   envisioning stress darkness and irritability  leaving your body on your breath if you’ve   got kids in the house this can be a fun activity  to do with them and everybody gets bubble stuff  
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and you try try to see who  can blow the biggest bubble   in order to blow a single big bubble you have  to exhale a lot of breath very very slowly in the evening the questions are a little bit  different again physically how do i feel and  
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what are my needs what things made me more  vulnerable to distress today so you’re doing   a look back how well did i cope with them is  there something i will do differently next time   affectively and cognitively how do i feel you  know emotionally and mentally what are my needs  
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what would make me happy right now how well did  i cope with my feelings today how good was my   concentration and is there something different  i will do tomorrow to improve the moment environmentally what are three positive  things in my environment right now  
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what things came into my environment today that  caused me distress how well did i cope with them   is there something different i will do next time  and finally relationally what are three things   i did well today this plays on your relationship  with self or your self-esteem what relationships  
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do i have that enhance my life remember those  pets again and what can i do to nurture them i also ask people to get a physical because  there are a lot of physiological things   like low testosterone estrogen imbalances  hypothyroid anemia low vitamin d you know there  
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are a lot of things that have relatively simple  fixes that can contribute to depressive symptoms   and no amount of talk therapy is going to address  those things i ask people to schedule their   physical as soon as possible so that we will have  the results including the blood work back by week  
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six i encourage them to make sure that they get  their blood pressure and their oxygen saturation   evaluated vitamin d and b12 levels liver  and kidney functioning their sex hormones   gonadal hormones and thyroid hormones so like  testosterone estrogen and thyroid hormones  
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assess for anemia and if there might be a chance  that they have an undiagnosed autoimmune disorder   to also ask the doctor if it would be  appropriate to look for those autoimmune markers finally i ask people to think about their  housing and their finances when you don’t  
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feel like you’ve got house safe stable housing it  adds stress it adds distress which makes it harder   to recover and con contributes to feeling helpless  and hopeless i encourage people over the next 12   weeks to start thinking about what they need to  do in order to make sure that they feel as safe  
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as possible in their own four walls so they can  relax and what do they need to do if anything to   ensure the stability of their housing so they know  that they’ve got a home i ask them to do the same   thing with their finances because we need to have  enough money to pay the rent to keep the lights on  
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to get medication to get food all those things  and without those things we are at much greater   risk of experiencing distress and depression  so i encourage people over the week to evaluate   their housing and their finances to identify  if there’s anything that needs to be addressed
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in this first session people have identified  their symptoms and the causes they’ve defined   the overall overall what recovery looks like for  them we’ve worked together in session to develop   a support and safety plan now throughout the week  they’re going to use worksheets to gather baseline  
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data on their two or three symptoms that they’re  going to start addressing they’re going to do the   feelings worksheet to identify what feelings look  like for them begin practicing morning and evening   mindfulness and bring those mindfulness worksheets  to session because we’ll process them in session  
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we’ll look for themes we’ll look for trends we’ll  look for triggers and we’ll look for improvement   as you start keeping these mindfulness journals  it will provide a whole lot of information   and then they’re going to schedule a physical  and assess their financial and housing stability  
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so that’s a lot to do in the first  week but when you really look at it   there is the feelings activity assessing  finances and housing and scheduling that physical   so none of those should take too terribly  long beginning practicing morning and evening  
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mindfulness so that’s your 15 minutes in  the morning and 15 minutes in the evening this show was produced by mr charles snipes and  presented by dr donnelly snipes you can learn   more about depression treatment boundaries and  mental health at doc snipes dot com slash youtube  

Hi everyone in today’s video we’re going to be  talking about ways of managing persistent and   pesky worries about health that people often  experience in health anxiety and I’ve talked   in previous videos about how much how we pay too  much attention to physical health symptoms and  
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how by focusing too much on those symptoms it  actually makes the symptoms feel more intense   kind of like a sneaky trap you know the tricky  part is that when those symptoms feel worse it’s   natural to start to worry even more about them  and this triggers even more anxiety and it becomes  
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this self-fulfilling cycle that keeps dragging the  person down into worse and worse health anxiety   the more anxious we become the  more we feel the need to focus   on our health symptoms because we’re  genuinely concerned about them which  
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just makes us feel even more anxious  and it becomes this frustrating spiral   so in today’s video we’re going to be talking  about some strategies that you can use to help   break you out of this health anxiety spiral  and gain some control over your health worries  
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now people who struggle with health anxiety often  find themselves meticulously examining their   bodies for any signs of illness which inevitably  leads to worry about these bodily Sensations   now being aware of bodily changes and potential  health issues is normal that everybody does it  
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to some extent however if you’re spending  excessive time fixating on your physical   symptoms or struggling to break free from the  thoughts about your health or potential illness   it can be helpful to direct your  attention away from those symptoms  
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too much into that I want you to think about what  you tend to focus on when you’re feeling anxious   about your health I often encourage my clients  to make a list of the particular Sensations or   areas of their body that tend to consume their  attention during these health anxiety episodes  
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and once you have this list of Sensations  or health worries this becomes the list   of symptoms or health thoughts that we  want to redirect our attention away from   but why is redirecting attention so important  why is it so critical well as I mentioned earlier  
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fixating on physical symptoms can intensify their  impact and fuel high levels of worry and anxiety   additionally when our attention is fixated on  these physical symptoms it prevents us from   engaging in everyday activities and fulfilling  other important tasks have you ever found it  
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challenging to concentrate on doing your household  chores a work project or simply being present with   your loved ones because your mind is constantly  wandering back to a specific area of your body   or particular Health concern that you’re  focused on this symptom focused attention  
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and health anxiety makes it really difficult  for us to focus on any other aspects of life   so by learning to retain your attention learning  to retain your attention is a critical initial   step in managing and addressing health anxiety  not only does it reduce the amount of focus on  
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the physical Sensations but it also frees up your  attention allowing you to more fully engage in   other activities and experiences that life has to  offer so how do we do this how can we shift our   Focus away from worrying about physical symptoms  and bring our attention back to the present moment  
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one way to approach it is by considering your  attention kind of like a muscle and just like   any muscle if we don’t exercise our attention  regularly it becomes weaker and less effective   so the key is to strengthen our attention and our  ability to focus by giving it a regular workout  
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and one way of doing this is to consciously  sustain your attention during everyday tasks   you see when we’re engaging in mundane  day-to-day activities like washing dishes   folding laundry or driving to pick up the kids  from soccer practice it’s natural for our minds  
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to often wander off we start thinking about  other things like work uh what the weather   is going to be like tomorrow the argument I  had with my wife all sorts of other things   we rarely take the time to fully focus on the  experience of our day-to-day tasks like washing  
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the dishes the activity of folding laundry or  the actual route we take to the soccer field   it’s during these types of activities that  our minds tend to drift we lose touch with the   present moment and we become disconnected from  what we’re actually doing and what’s actually  
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going on around us but the thing is these everyday  tasks present a wonderful opportunity to practice   strengthening our attention and the idea is to  gradually train yourself to sustain focus on   these ordinary activities for longer and longer  periods giving your attention a solid workout  
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so what I encourage my clients to do is to think  about those everyday mundane tasks those household   chores that you frequently engage in where your  mind tends to wander it could be anything from   doing the dishes taking a shower ironing gardening  cooking eating walking driving anything you do on  
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a day-to-day basis spend some time and write down  as many of these activities that you can think of   and once you have your list of potential  activities to practice building your attention   muscle the next step is to select one and  plan when and where you’ll intentionally  
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practice focusing your attention with that  task this intentional practice gradually   strengthens your ability to keep your attention  centered which enhances your overall focus and   a presence in the Here and Now so let’s take  the example of washing dishes to illustrate  
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this practice you make a conscious decision to  focus your attention while washing the dishes   initially people are usually quite good at  directing their attention to the task at hand   however after a minute or two their minds  often start wandering off to something else  
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and the Key Practice here is to notice when  your mind has wandered and to gently bring   your attention back to washing the dishes  so in a way the muscle that we’re working   on is more about the bringing the attention  back rather than solely keeping it focused  
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and to assist with bringing your attention back to  the present moment I encourage you to engage your   senses and to be mindful of the sensory experience  you’re having while washing the dishes or whatever   the task is so let’s think about the five  senses the touch science sound smell and taste  
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first pay attention to the sense of touch what  does it actually feel like to wash the dishes   take note of the texture and the temperature  of the water and The Sensation of the soap in   your hands notice which parts of your body  are in contact with the dishwashing process  
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next consider the sense of sight what catches  your eye as you’re washing the dishes observe the   interplay of light and shadows Contours and colors  that unfold before you while you’re washing your   spaghetti meal off the dishes moving on to sound  listen closely to the different sounds associated  
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with washing dishes pay attention to the sound of  water pouring into the sink and the sound of the   sponge scrubbing away the food particles take a  moment to explore the sense of smell notice any   distinct smells that arise do the smells change  as the dishwasher because the dish water becomes  
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dirtier what does the dish soap smell like see  if you can detect multiple scents or changing   scents as you do it and lastly consider taste  now you may not necessarily taste anything if   there’s nothing in your mouth but perhaps you’re  chewing gum while you’re doing the dishes what  
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do you know what do you notice about the act of  chewing gum so you see by bringing your attention   to these sensory aspects you’re anchoring  yourself in the present moment and you’re   cultivating a greater sense of the task at hand  which is washing the dishes it’s through this  
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deliberate practice of engaging your senses  that you strengthen your ability to redirect   your attention back to the present ultimately  enhancing your overall focus and mindfulness   now the nice thing about this type of attention  practice is that you can do it almost any time  
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because it typically involves things that we do  every day anyway so I encourage people to practice   attention on these mundane tasks at least two or  three times a day you’re not doing anything extra   by doing these exercises all you’re really doing  is paying attention to stuff that you do anyway  
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so it’s not like it’s going to take up any more  time in your day now you might be wondering okay   this makes sense I can use this approach to  maintain my focus on mundane tasks such as   folding laundry or mowing the lawn or doing dishes  but how does this help with my health anxiety  
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well the idea is when you notice yourself getting  preoccupied with a physical sensation or a worry   about a particular physical symptom what’s  happening with your attention in that situation   well your attention is focused on the  physical symptom or the physical sensation  
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and your worry and negative interpretation of  what that physical sensation actually means   so when you catch yourself focusing your attention  all these physical Sensations the idea is to work   on redirecting your attention to something else  bringing your attention back in the Here and Now  
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so for example if I notice that while I’m  cooking dinner I notice some numbness in my   fingers and start to worry about what does that  mean if I’ve practiced this mundane task focusing   what it can do is pull my attention away from the  worry about the numbness in my fingers and put my  
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attention more fully into what I’m doing while I’m  cooking dinner it interrupts that negative spiral   that happens in health anxiety where I focus on  the sensation I notice it more intensely it makes   me more anxious so I have to focus on it more by  removing the focus on the physical sensation I’m  
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interrupting this cycle and not getting so anxious  or so worked up by it in that moment and if you’re   interested in learning more ways of interrupting  these worry Spirals and health anxiety or worry   more generally I encourage you to check out this  video so that’s all for today’s video as always