Life Hacks for Mental Health and Resilience in Uncertain Times

Hey there Everybody. This is Dr. Donnelly Snipes and there is a lot going on out there right now. So I figured I would do a series on dealing with stress in uncertain times. Right now we have got a ton going on in politics. The stock market has just taken a complete dump lately. The coronavirus, we just don't know what to expect from it. And then there's also those looming things that we've been talking about for years, including the environment and community violence. Everywhere you look it seems like there is something stressful or chaotic going on. So how do we handle that so we can still be having happy and we don't let the stress tear us up inside and cause stress related illnesses? Well, there is no one way to handle it effectively. Each person is going to have their own strategies that work. But I'm going to give you several strategies that you might try. The first one is to take 10 minutes each day to focus on what is going well and the good news. Ten minutes, that's all I'm asking. At the end of the day, at the beginning of the day, whenever you want to. 10 minutes where you tell yourself, I'm not going to think about anything negative, I'm not going to get online where I might see something negative. I'm just going to think about what's going well in my life. You know, my kids are healthy, my car got me to work today, I've got a job. Whatever it is that is going well in your life, ponder on the things that are going well and how things are. You know, on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 being completely crappy in every aspect, 5 being completely awesome. And your dream life, where are you right now? Most likely you're probably somewhere around a three, hopefully maybe even a four. But when we focus on the news, when we watch the news every day, when we get on social media, we can forget the things that are going well in our life. Because when we are distressed, when we're angry, anxious, depressed, our mind, our brain is primed to notice the negative things and ignore the positive things. So that's one of those tricks that we need to do, is force our brain to also notice the good things. When you identify a problem such as politics or the stock market or whatever, identify something that's going well. You know, I don't like the fact that the stock market took a dump for the third day in a row and I know a lot of people are going to be really stressed about their retirement accounts and yada yada. Well, we can get stressed about that. But is that going to change the fact that the stock market took a dump? No, it's not. So, all right, I've identified a problem. Now let me focus on identifying something that is going well in my life to kind of counterbalance it little bit so I'm not stuck in that place where I'm feeling like everything is going badly. I'm forcing myself to recognize that some things are going well. Limit your exposure to the news, please. They say the same thing over and over and over again, so it can feel like it's never ending. Crisis and chaos. And the news, for whatever reason, has decided that what they're going to report on are always the worst things. The fires, the shootings, the car crashes, the coronavirus. Anything that is going to get you upset is what the news thinks they're going to report on. Next time you watch the news, and I encourage you to only do it for like 30 minutes a day if you have to do it every day. But count how many stories were positive, made you feel good, and count how many stories were negative and made you stressed out and think to yourself, is it really that imbalanced in the world? And then force yourself to get out and find positive things that are going on. Find people that are succeeding at what they try to do. Find people that are happy, find children that are happy. You know, find. Find things that counterbalance the negativity in the news. If you see a story about a shooting, okay, that was unpleasant, now let's look at the positive. There wasn't a shooting in your neighborhood. Again, you're looking at where you're safe, what things are going well in your little sliver of the world. You can't control the whole world. The next thing is to breathe. And I know that sounds weird, but when we get stressed, we tend to breathe shallowly and rapidly so we don't get full oxygenation. When you breathe in slow for four, hold for four, out for four, you actually trick your body or confirm to your body that there's no threat. When you slow your breathing, your heart rate will slow. Your. Your threat response system, also called the HPA axis, that will go into the slowing down and relaxation phase instead of staying ramped up. So breathe. It's important. Focus on what you can control. And we'll just go through a couple of these. In politics, you can't control what the politicians are saying right now. If politics are really important to you, you can get involved in campaigns. That's something you can control, but you can't control who people are going to vote for. You can't necessarily control the outcome of the election. I mean, there's just so much time between now and then. Getting all fired up about the possibility that something's going to happen isn't going to do you any good. If you get. If you are passionate about it, use that energy to get involved. The stock market, you can't control the fact that it took a dump. It took a dump, and that's just the way it is. What can you control about it? Well, you can sell now and take a bunch of losses, or you can realize that there's a lot about the stock market for the majority of us that we can't control, and we're just going to have to ride it out. So what else can I control? I can control my spending. I can control other aspects. So I make sure that I have the ability to ride it out until the stock market comes back up. The coronavirus I can't control if it comes into the U.S. you know, that's way beyond my ability. The president can't even control whether it comes into the U.S. you know, we just don't know enough about the virus. What can I control? I can control whether I wash my hands. I can control how many public places I go out to. There are a lot of things I can control to make sure that I and my family stay safe. The environment, community, violence, Same sort of thing we want to look at. What can we control? I can't personally stop global warming. I can recycle. I can reuse things that I are able to be reused. I can do as much as I can to reduce my carbon footprint. There's a lot of things that I can do in my little sliver of the world, But I can't change the world all by myself. And community violence. Yes, there may be a shooting. It's like every time I turn on the news here in Nashville, it seems like there's always a shooting somewhere. Okay, well, that's unfortunate. However, in my neighborhood, in my city, there isn't. What can I do to keep myself safe and keep my family safe? Because that's what's important to me, is keeping my little sliver of the world as positive and safe as possible. And that includes my community being aware of strange cars that are coming in and out of our neighborhood. And things. Those are things I can do. I can't have much of an effect on things that are happening 30 miles away. Another strategy is to act purposefully. And this may seem sort of common sense, but a lot of times when we get upset, we're not thinking about it, we're wanting to fight or flee, we're wanting to attack whatever that threat is. And that's not always the best strategy because sometimes we can't do anything about the threat. So getting upset about it and perseverating on it and just continuing to rant about it is just exhausting our energy. So instead, when something happens, we need to ask ourselves, what's important to me right now? Who in my life is important? What is important in my life? And is getting upset about whatever this is impacting, you know, a good way to use my energy to cherish those things that are important in my life? A lot of times the answer is no. Getting upset about the stock market, for example, that is not going to help me have a good relationship with my children. That is not going to help me be healthy. That is not going to help me succeed at work. That is going to distract me and that is going to drain my energy. And those are not things that I want to do. And worrying about something I have no control and is a pointless, futile exercise. It is, however, helpful to acknowledge your anxieties and frustrations. When you feel anxious, when you feel angry, notice it. That's your body saying there might be a problem. Say, okay, I feel anxious. It is what it is. Now, what can I do to improve the next moment? Is there some way I can address this issue? If not, what can I do with my energy instead? That is going to help me grow and that is going to benefit those things that are important to me. I hope these strategies gave you a couple of things to start thinking about. We are going to have two more videos in this segment, but ultimately, I want you to be able to figure out some ways that you can tolerate the distress that is bound to increase over the next few months.