Welcome to my blog
There is a lot of information around on the importance of looking after our health, like maintaining a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. This is all well and good if your aim is just to keep your body healthy. But what about your brain?
From chocolate to coffee and sleep, to sharper smarter thinking, join me for an article or three as I share insights, tips and ideas on what it takes to keep your brain operating at full speed, so you can wake up feeling refreshed, happier and healthier every day.
Welcome to my blog
There is a lot of information around on the importance of looking after our health, like maintaining a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. This is all well and good if your aim is just to keep your body healthy. But what about your brain?
From chocolate to coffee and sleep, to sharper smarter thinking, join me for an article or three as I share insights, tips and ideas on what it takes to keep your brain operating at full speed, so you can wake up feeling refreshed, happier and healthier every day.
Blah-de-Blah-de-Woof-Woof. Will someone please turn off all that noise!
I don’t know about you, but all this noise is driving me stir-crazy!
Which noise?
The incessant noise from the media.
While it’s important to remain informed about world and local events, the ‘news’ as it used to be called has increasingly become a channel for opinion and journalistic commentary. With so much anxiety and uncertainty around courtesy of the pandemic this relentless 24-hour merry-go-round of rehashed information has the potential to perpetuate conspiracy theories and accentuate the worst possible outcomes, which is unhelpful at best.
Enough of all this blah-de-blah-de-woof-woof!
It’s one thing to be appraised of our reality. It’s something else to become fearful and depressed as a consequence. Our mental wellbeing is being put to the test and those already vulnerable to anxiety and depression are the ones who will suffer the most.
Are you a worry wart? How to stem the rising tide of anxiety
When working as a GP some of my patients were those I called “the worried well.” Typically, they were well educated, health conscious folk concerned about some aspect of their health. Allaying their fears and concerns could take time but was always worth the investment to prevent unnecessary worry turning into something else.
But today there is a growing number in our society doing it tough; the worried unwell. One outcome of the pandemic has been the deluge of uncertainty and heightened stress. Some of my friends and clients have confessed to living with an undercurrent of constant tension that bubbles up to the surface in those times when their day or week didn’t go well, leaving them feeling like sh*t and wondering how long before any of us feel ‘normal’ again.
Even the most resilient are experiencing some days they wish they could forget.
How to Thrive in a Pandemic
If anxiety has become your middle name you may have found yourself lost in survival mode where every day, anxious thoughts about your health, your family, your financial security and the future loom large. Operating in this zone over a period of time creates an undercurrent of fear that never leaves, and it’s exhausting.
If you’re wondering where best to start, let’s start at the beginning by recognising how things are for you right now and how you would like them to be different and here are five steps to help you on your journey to fully thrive.
Are You Ready for The Road Ahead?
With no way back, there is only one way to move from where we are now. Forwards. Which might seem obvious, but have you had a moment or three recently when your mind drifted to thinking that you wish life would return to as it was before the pandemic?
Our most important lesson from the Covid-19 pandemic
Of all the things that living though a pandemic may have taught us, there is one that has the potential to reshape your life and it’s not handwashing.
We have learned how to protect ourselves from the risk of infection with good hygiene practices and physical distancing. We have learned that the goal posts of what to expect are constantly changing. We have learned how to manage our insecurity and uncertainty while fearing for our jobs, our children and our future.
The one thing that can help you successfully navigate the choppy waters ahead won’t be a stimulus package, it will be the strength of your relationships, those bonds of connection that provide us security, hope and optimism.
How Respect Makes Us Better Humans
We seek respect for ourselves in our own lives because it shows we’ve been acknowledged as a fellow human being, we’re valued, and it makes feel accepted for who we are.
But too often showing respect for others goes missing in action; overlooked because we were too busy to notice or hear the cheery ‘good morning’ from our colleague, too disengaged to really sense the intensity of the pain of a friend who shared how they had been racially abused on the bus on the way to work, too tired to care how our snappy and dismissive response to the effort of the most junior member of the team seeking to add their contribution to an important project was hurtful and unwarranted.
Building respect for ourselves, for our friends, family and colleagues demonstrates our humanity. It makes us better human beings.