Five Ways to Support Your Mindset When Stressed with Dr. Doni | How Humans Heal Podcast

The information provided in this podcast is educational and not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions. Dr. Donnie Wilson struggled for decades to solve her numerous health issues and heal her body. But with focused determination, she healed herself. And in doing so, she discovered the Dr. Donnie stress recovery Protocol. On this show, you're going to hear from doctors, nutritionists and Experts along with Dr. Donnie, who will give practical advice and wisdom to help heal your body. This is how humans heal.

I'm excited to be here with you and to talk about mindset and help you with what you know, with whatever stresses are happening for you in your life. Of course, right now is.

Pretty high stress for, I think, most people. It's 2020, so it's already super stressful, just with the pandemic and all the unknowns and everything going on. Plus, it's starting into the holiday season, which tends to be the most stressful time of the year for most people.

And so I can feel it. I can feel you guys being stressed out there, and I know.

It'S happening. And at the same time, in some ways, the way I look at it is it's really giving us more of a chance to understand stress and how it affects us and what we can do about it. Because before, when things were not quite as severely stressful, we could kind of ignore stress or dismiss it or get through it and then.

Move on or, you know what I mean? Like, it wasn't right in our face all the time. And so stress can be very sneaky because if we're not aware of it and we're not paying attention and realizing we need to do something about it, then it's still causing disruptions in our bodies, which we've talked about in other trainings. How stress affects us, it affects our digestion, our nervous system, our immune system, our hormones. So we know stress is associated with most every health issue out there. Plus, plus it's definitely associated with feeling anxious, disrupting your sleep, getting heart palpitations, and so on. So we know that stress affects our health, and yet most times we tend to take that for granted or kind of ignore it and just hope we can get through it. In some ways, when stress is at its highest, it at least also brings our attention to it and says, wait a minute, this. I got to do something about this. I got to find a way to master my stress. And what I'm going to talk about today is how mastering your mindset can help you master stress. Because mindset, you know, it's kind of a term you might use or hear. And there's different ways it's used. Different people use the term mindset in different ways. So I just want to start off by just thinking about what is mindset anyway. And the way I think about it is that mindset has to do with how you're thinking of yourself in relationship to what's going on around you. And sometimes when we're really stressed, we don't even have a chance to step back and think about that. Like, how am I perceiving myself in relationship to my environment and my stress? And once you can kind of step back and look at that, then you realize that you can actually make some choices. You can kind of decide how you want to approach it. In fact, we talked about this in my interview with Dr. Paul Anderson on the How Humans Heal podcasts this week. Which is the thing with stress is we have very little control about a lot of the different stresses and unknowns going on, right? That's the whole definition of an unknown, is that it's unknown, out of our control. We have no idea what's going to happen. But what we do have control over is how we're going to respond to the stress at hand, right? Like, we have the opportunity to choose how we're going to respond to the stress, and that's where we have some control. Although I really think that use of the term control, it can be deceiving, so be careful with that. But that's one concept here, is that, you know, one thing that we can do when we're under stress and have a lot of unknowns is we can stand back and think about, what is my mindset? How am I framing this? How am I perceiving my experience here and realizing that as humans, we. That is something we can look at and, sorry, there's something in my eye.

That is something we can look at and potentially choose differently. When in the research about mindset, they've looked at and kind of identified two angles on it. One is something called a more fixed mindset, and the other is what's called a growth mindset. So a fixed mindset is when we perceive like things are fixed, nothing can change. It's a little bit more of a negative or pessimistic we. And when you're in more of a fixed mindset, you're going to be more likely to.

Not accept a challenge or to feel overwhelmed or to feel stuck or feel like you're going to be comparing to others and feeling less than. So it can kind of bring you out of your empowered place. Because having a fixed mindset will make you feel afraid and it will make you feel stuck and make you feel like a victim to what's going on around you. So if you tend to notice that, and it happened to all of us, so there's no judgment here. I find myself in that place sometimes, too, where I'm realizing, oh, my gosh, I'm feeling afraid or I'm feeling like I'm out of control or I'm overwhelmed and I don't know what to do. And I feel.

Like things are stuck and never going to change. And that's more of a fixed mindset. Whereas a growth mindset is when we can feel empowered, we can be feeling like things can change, things can get better. I can learn, I can grow. Others can learn and grow. My body can change. If I change what I eat, it's going to change my health. If I get more sleep or do more of these things we're going to talk about today is going to improve my experience. These are all parts of growth mindset in that.

It'S when we feel more like we can do something about this situation and that it's going to make a difference and that we're not stuck, that we're always evolving and changing and that we can accept challenges as an opportunity to grow and change. So I hope that does that help you guys to kind of see the difference between, you know, in terms of mindset, when are we more in kind of a fixed, or maybe another term might be conditioned. Like when we feel conditioned that this is the way things are and it's never going to be any different, that's more fixed. And if we're in a more growth mindset, we're feeling like things, you know, things are not stuck, things can change. And I do have the power within me to create change. And so this can really make a difference when we're under stress. Because.

Of course, a lot of what we experience as stress is how we feel in that moment and how we perceive our ability to do something about it.

Let's talk about some of the ways you can.

Encourage yourself and promote more of a growth mindset. And these are also things you can do that end up helping you with stress because of that, because they give you a little bit more space to step back, space to look at your thoughts and your experience and notice and get into maybe like a problem solving mode where you can start to see what could shift to change your experience in that stress. So some of you maybe have been following me, maybe some of you read my books, like the Stress Remedy book where I talk about some of this.

And some of my recent social media posts and articles. So I'm so happy you're here because you already know a lot of why I love to talk about all of this. And I also welcome those of you who are new because I'm so excited that, that you're looking for this information and that I get the opportunity to share with you. So I feel grateful. Basically I'm saying thank you for being here. I'm grateful to have this opportunity. So the five ways I want to highlight today, the first is something called, well, meditation, but it's also sometimes called mindfulness. And.

I know that a lot of times these terms are used. So you probably have heard about mindfulness or meditation, but I'm not sure. I'm curious how many of you have actually tried it or practiced it on a regular basis. I just want to first mention a little bit about meditation and mindfulness and then I'm going to do a little bit of an example so you can get some. If it's your first time now, you can check it off the list. Okay, I've experienced it. Then I'll go on to the others with meditation. Meditation, a lot of times we think of a person in a seated position with their eyes closed. Sometimes meditation can be a long period of time, hours.

In different practices of meditation. But I also like to point out that meditation that doesn't have to be there's such a thing as moving meditation or there's forms of meditation when you're, you know, say, doing yoga, for example, and this is where it can cross over to being used more like mindfulness. And mindfulness just means that you are in the moment, being mindful of what's happening right here in the now. And so there's a lot of times that you might be even practicing meditation or mindfulness, you didn't even realize it. Like sometimes if you're doing the dishes or folding your laundry or going for a walk or you know, like anytime where you are just in the moment with whatever you're doing and your mind is not trying to solve multiple things at once, that's considered mindfulness. And so let's just take a minute. This is not going to be a long example, but I want to just give you a short example, like even a minute of meditation and mindfulness so that you can, you can get a sense of it. So because this is something that you can choose to do either every day, when you wake up, every night before you Go to sleep. Anytime that you feel overwhelmed, there's many times you can just choose to say, okay, let me just do this mindfulness or meditation activity to just help help me recenter and get my mindset back on track.

So you can start by closing your eyes, although you don't have to have your eyes closed. And.

Where I would start with meditation is to start to notice the sounds around you. Of course you hear my voice, but notice any other sounds in the room around you. So you might notice, say there's a fan blowing, or there might be. Sometimes there might be birds chirping, or you might hear a door closing or opening in the other room. So part of helping you to get in the moment is to just notice the sounds around you. And it's okay if there's a sound. If someone sneezes or you sneeze, that doesn't ruin it. Nothing can ruin the moment, really. It's a matter of noticing the sounds and having an acceptance for the sounds around you. And as you notice the sounds, realize that the sounds you hear are almost like thoughts in your mind. The thoughts that come to your mind come and go. Just like a sound could be the sound of a door closing or a sneeze. In the same way that a sound happens, a thought could happen. So start to notice your thoughts. And the key is to notice the thought and let it go, just like you would a sound. You could hear the thought and you let the thought go. So you don't have to do anything about it. You don't need to.

Have another thought or try to solve it or to judge it in any way. It's just noticing the thought and let the thought go. And in that way, you become more and more in the present moment with each sound, with each thought, and as you continue in that way to just notice the sounds and notice your thoughts, then you can become more aware of your breath. So notice as you breathe in and as you breathe out, and notice how it feels in your body as you breathe in, notice how your lungs are feeling.

And your diaphragm expands. And then notice how you breathe out. You don't have to breathe any particular way, but sometimes it's interesting as we bring our attention to our breath, all of a sudden you might notice breathing way more than you normally would notice your breathing. You might notice, oh, how does it feel when I take a breath? How does it feel when my breath is its fullest? And how does it feel as I exhale?

And so as you bring your attention to your breath.

You'Ll be able to continue breathing just calmly and smoothly and at the same time noticing those thoughts that might come and go.

And as you do that, you're becoming in a state of meditation and mindfulness.

You can continue in this way for as long as you like. And you can if you prefer. You can move, you can make movements if it's stretching. But what you're noticing is how your mind can settle in, in your body and in your mind in the moment of what's occurring in the here and now without a judgment and without a need to do anything.

So take a second here. I'll just be quiet as you take another few seconds to just notice how that feels in your body. It.

And as you're ready.

Sometimes it helps to kind of check in in the moment when as you slowly open your eyes and kind of see the space that you're in.

And notice how it feels to feel more centered in your body and in your thoughts.

Sometimes you can actually kind of really observe how things feel calmer. The nervous system calms, the cortisol levels correct.

Sometimes you can all of a sudden, sometimes I notice just something pops in my mind out of nowhere just because there's space for that to happen.

So that's an experience of meditation and mindfulness. And as you can see, it's something you could create anywhere, anytime. And a lot of times then when you come out of a mindfulness or meditation, it's a perfect time to practice some gratitude or intentions, which is another way to help you master your mindset. So this will be number two on the ways to master mindset, to take it as a chance to notice. If you say to yourself, what do I feel grateful for in this moment?

And just sit with it and think to yourself, and what comes to mind? Maybe you feel grateful for people in your life or your pets. Maybe you feel grateful for this opportunity to connect on this video. Maybe you feel grateful for just the sunshine outside. You know, it could be something very simple. And feel that feeling of gratitude, feel that thankfulness. And you may even want to say it out loud even if you're by yourself. That's okay. Say I feel grateful for. Or you can write it down. If you have a pen and paper, write down what you feel grateful for. You know, maybe one thing or five things.

Something a lot of people don't know is that too much stress can actually create an abundance of health problems like high blood pressure, high blood sugar, anxiety, migraines, insomnia, even fertility issues. This is because high stress puts your adrenal glands on overload. They release cortisol and adrenaline which controls your digestion, hormones, immune system, energy, focus and even your emotional response. So how can you beat stress when you don't know where to start? That's why we have a free 7 day stress reset program. It's designed to help support weight loss, digestive healing and hormone balancing. It includes support for integrating self care Daily tips come to you by email and video, Gluten free dairy free meal plans as well as grocery shopping lists, journal pages and more. This free program will help you beat stress and put you on the path to wholeness in your body. Get your plan now for free@drdonnie.com.

What the research has shown well, both for meditation and for gratefulness is that it really helps us with stress in multiple ways. It helps again with correcting cortisol levels with adrenaline levels, supporting your positive neurotransmitters like serotonin and can really make a huge difference in terms of your perception of your day and your life. So practicing gratitude can be very helpful again at any time of day. Some people like to think about what they're grateful for when they first wake up or before they go to bed or both. And you can also then it could transform into a prayer. If some of you practice prayer or any other kind of intentions out where you might then say I feel grateful for and I hope for or I would like to experience. So you can transition from a mindfulness exercise to a gratefulness to a prayer or intentions. And so this is a nice way to do it because you've already created a space for it and you kind of got your attention focused in this direction.

So let's see. So that's a second and potentially even a third way to help master your mindset.

I also find that it for some people could transition into journaling. So this would be a a third way of mastering mindset is to if some of you like to write or journal so you could again it's nice to go, you know, potentially in this order, although it doesn't have to be in this order. But you might find that now that you're in this place of awareness and aware of yourself, unaware of what you're grateful for and what your intentions are. Sometimes it helps to then journal because you, you may want to write down what are you noticing, what are the, what are the things you're grateful for? What are the things that you're wanting to create in your life and to write about that. Journaling is like, you know, being able to talk to yourself about yourself. So it's a. It's a. It's kind of a way to. Because otherwise it's all going on in our own mind, right? Like, until you get it onto paper, it's kind of all of these experiences and thoughts and feelings is all happening in here. And sometimes then just the activity of bringing it with a pen and a paper, you actually now are. It can feel like it's created in a real way in front of you. And so it can help with processing. This is what they find with journaling, is that I can really help with processing stresses and processing trauma and helping you to know yourself better. Because as you write sometimes, then you'll start to have realizations you weren't having before and to feel like you actually get to move the feelings and the thoughts along so that you can move forward in the process of the stress and the mindset. And so you might, you know, want to journal for a few minutes or for longer. Another form of that potentially would be artwork. For some of you who like to do art, you could then, you know, instead of just writing words, you might find you want to draw a picture or paint a picture. So you may want to.

Get some colors, get some colored pens, get some paints, get some paper, some canvas, so that when you are in that moment of wanting to, you know, get better perspective on your stresses and master your mindset, you may then want to do some artwork or some painting that can help you to just again, be present in some ways. Journaling and artwork are also ways of practicing mindfulness. Because when you're journaling and you're painting or doing any kind of artwork, you're again in the moment with the activity that you're doing. And that also, you know, has been shown to help with stress. So the other two ways of mastering mindset that I want to highlight, one, it has to do with.

Being with an animal. So if you have a pet, if you have a dog, a cat, a horse, any animals will do. But being with an animal definitely has studies showing that it's helpful in terms of, again, correcting cortisol levels, adrenaline levels, support of oxytocin, which is a hormone to help, you know, that's the one associated with bonding and love and connection. So when you can, you know, pet your cat or, you know, play with your dog. I mean, I know these might be activities that you maybe normally already choose, but I know for myself, sometimes if I'm really stressed and I'm racing around with a long to do list that's when I tend not to take time with the pets. And the pets usually remind us, I don't know about your pets, but mine will come up to me and start meowing or tapping on me and saying, hey, don't forget about your pet therapy time. Really, they're probably looking for their pets and attention, but it works as a reminder to us to say, you know what, I can take a couple minutes or half an hour and just sit with a pet and pet them and really feel that connection with them. Because that experience of connecting with your pets can really help you to master your mindset. I think part of it has to do with the way that when we connect with pets, it's also a way of connecting with nature, which is the fifth way of mastering mindset that I want to talk about today. Of course, animals are part of nature, as are plants and.

The water and the trees and the sky. And so amazingly, there's so many studies on how when we observe and connect with nature pretty much in any way, Even if you're just looking at pictures, nature, but especially if you can get to spend some time out in nature, just I think it's that our brains perceive the shapes and colors in nature as anti stress to help us correct for stress. So you'll notice a lot of times around me, I use colors from nature because.

And shapes from nature because I really do believe that in that science that says that.

Exposure to nature helps us recover from stress and master our mindset. So another way is that when we think about it from an electromagnetic perspective, in that nature.

Has electromagnetics. If you think about the earth and the rotation of the earth and the, you know, the moon cycle, the tides that occur.

In nature, right? We see all of these patterns and rhythms in nature, Even just day and night. When you think about it, our day and night is created by the rotation of the sun. And so we start to realize how much we as humans are going to be responding to to nature and what happens in our natural environment, including.

The earth and the tides and the electromagnetics of the earth, and we realize that our bodies.

Have all electricity going on. In biology and physiology, we look at the electromagnetics of human cells and human organs. So if we look at how, say, sodium.

Which is positive molecule, can move across the cells and into fluid, that motion of even our electrolytes, they're called electrolytes because they're electrical. How they move through our body from fluid to cells, and how that then produces all the functions in our bodies, including our heartbeat. So our heart is beating based on electrical signals. That's why people can get a pacemaker if their heart is not.

Pumping well. So when you start to think about it, our body is functioning from an electrical perspective all the time. And so of course we're going to be reacting to different electricity that we're exposed to. And in nature we're exposed to more negative ions which is going to be helping us to recenter and de stress.

And so that's one of the other reasons why being in nature is so helpful. Whereas being exposed to EMFs, which is electromagnetic fields like from the computer and the phone and the WI fi, that's giving us exposure to positive ions which are not positive in a good sense. It just means it's a little lopsided. If we're only exposed to EMFs around our computer and our power lines all day, we're going to get lopsided in our bodies. When we can go out in nature now we can get exposure to negative ions that's going to counterbalance and help to recenter our bodies, even on an electrical level. That's why spending time in nature is also helpful, whether that's that you go outside and take a couple deep breaths or maybe you do your meditation outside or. One of my favorites, because I live on the north shore of Long Island, I can go down to the beach and either take a walk on the beach or lay on the beach or actually go for a swim in the water. Right now it's well under 40 degrees and the water temperature, I don't even want to know it's cold. But what I do on a regular basis is I go down to the beach and take a dip in the cold water because that means I'm directly in contact with the water, which is part of nature. And it's going to help me to recenter not only that, but the studies, there's a lot of studies on cold exposure, short term cold exposure. Of course we don't want long term cold exposure, that would not be good. But short term cold exposure can be very helpful for our metabolism and our mitochondria and helping to reset oxidative stress. And so I think it's just a perfect example of how nature, however much you choose, you don't have to be doing a cold dip in the ocean. But even if you just get outside, or if you can't get outside, if you can just look at pictures of nature, it's going to make a difference in terms of your stress recovery and your mindset with getting through whatever stresses are happening for you. So.

There you go. So those are at least five ways to help you master your mindset. And what I invite you to do is as you practice these things, be curious. Because being curious is part of a growth mindset. Be curious about how your body responds, how you feel. How was that for you? What did you enjoy?

What helped you through the rest of your day? What do you want to integrate into your daily activities? Because it could be different for each person. The timing, the activities, how long you do it, how often. All of those things are up to you. So there's a lot of autonomy in this where you can. To me, you want to be able to choose what works best for you.

At the same time, knowing that there's a lot of things to choose from. And I don't want that to overwhelm you. I don't want you to. Sometimes we can get even overwhelmed by having too many good choices. So pick. Maybe just pick. If you feel overwhelmed, pick one thing and choose a small amount, one minute and then notice, how was that? Did I then have a little bit different perspective on my day and on the stresses around me? Then you can continue to learn and integrate from there and decide how you want to continue and communicate with others. That's another great way to master your mindset is to call a friend and communicate with the other people in your life and tell them, this is what I'm doing that's helping me because then they're going to be supportive of you choosing that and make sure that when you say, hey, I need my mindset time, they're going to be happy to support you with creating your mindset self care time.

And then hopefully they will choose it too, so that each of us can really have that opportunity to.

Practice these activities and learn for ourselves which activities are going to serve us best so that we can then show up in a way where we can be. The goal is we want to be responsive to stress. We can't expect that the stress is going to all go away because it's just not going to happen. It's not realistic. Stress is going to be there. But what we can do is we can take steps to help ourselves to show up in a responsive way, but not in a way that's going to have a negative effect on our health.

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