Mental Strength Self-Healing and Power of Imagination Conversation with Dr. Christine Silverstein

Welcome to the Living to 100 Club Podcast. Here's our host, Dr. Joseph Casciani.

Well, hello to everyone joining us today. You're listening to the Living to 100 Club Podcast, and I'm your host, Joe Casciani. I'm passionate about helping people embrace psychologically healthy aging staying positive, finding purpose, and making the most of all the years we're given, no matter what challenges come along. This podcast is part of a larger mission I call the Living to 100 Network, which brings together 3 powerful tools: 1, my podcasts and blogs; 2nd, A Better, Longer, and Happier card deck series; for senior living communities. And third, the Living to 100 Community, which is a place to connect, learn, and thrive together. To learn more, visit livingto100.club. For my podcasts, join the group forum at livingto100.community. And for the card decks, go to livingto100.solutions. Thanks for being part of the journey. Now let's dive into today's conversation. In today's program, I welcome Dr. Christine Silverstein, a registered nurse, hypnotherapist, peak performance coach, and noted historian, to discuss her unique blend of clinical experience, mind-body tools, and personal resilience. She is the author of Wrestling Through Adversity: empowering children, teens, and young adults to win in life. As seen through a historical lens, born during the turmoil of 2022, her book is a guide and personal memoir that contains case stories of actual clients and offers practical and accessible mental health tools she calls Mindful Toughness Skillsets. First, a little background. Dr. Christine Silverstein, peak performance coach, behavioral health registered nurse, and clinical hypnosis expert at the Summit Center for Ideal Performance, has assisted clients of all ages for 27 years to reach their best performances in health, athletics, academics, business, and performing arts. She specializes in working with children, teens, and young adults using mindful toughness skill sets such as self-hypnosis, mental rehearsal, positive self-talk, and feedback loop analysis. As a researcher, historian, and bestselling author, Christine has presented her works on hypno-coaching and history in the U.S. and globally to promote wellness and mental health. She is the author of her book Wrestling Through Adversity: Empowering Children, Teens, and Young Adults to Win in Life. Dr. Silverstein, I'm so glad to have you join us today on our program.

Thank you for inviting me.

Oh, you're most welcome. I'm looking forward to our conversation. Let's begin with, um, just your understanding of what was driving you behind writing through your book Wrestling Through Adversity. Um, what was going on for you and, and in your, your work?

Well, I had many challenges Starting up my business years earlier, but I knew when it even came to 9/11, the attack on 9/11, that we had many challenges in our country. And now I'm remembering, since we're just 2 days away from this celebration or the commemoration of 9/11, it brings back to mind what was going on then and what continues to go on. And what inspired me to write my book and also the content of my book was a story about a wrestler who was in the 9/11 attack. He was, he was worked for Merrill Lynch. He was a junior investment person, a young person working there to become, you know, a corporate leader. And unfortunately, he was in the World Trade Center the morning of the attack. He was in the gym when he just finished his exercise. So fortunately for him, he had his sneakers on so he could run out of the building. But, um, he taught me so much because I had read his biography before he died, subsequent to 9/11. And in his biography, it's called Wrestling for Life. He talked about his experience on that day. And he inspired me so much because he ran out of the building. He was in good shape because he was a wrestling coach and he was able to run through the smoke that burned his lungs like a wildfire. And he described what it was like. So he taught me from this book, reading this book, that you can sprint faster, you know, away from the towers and, and, and And we can live and we can show the people what to do to be courageous. So he really inspired me because at the firm he was, he was considered too nice, you know, to be in that position. He was, he was a wrestler. So he had, he had a figure like no neck and he didn't look like the other people who had gone to Harvard, you know, in his group. But, um, he was very good with the analytics and the thing that inspired me was that he always told the truth, you know, as he saw it. And, and I thought, well, I'm gonna write about him in the introduction to my book. This was in 2022.

Yeah.

Um, I was inspired from what I read, but also I wrote that introduction when I was on a, a vacation. In Egypt. I was on the Nile River when I wrote it. So, so that was a, a, a really wonderful background, um, to, to be thinking about mental health from the great Egyptian temples that I had been to. So starting with that, I, uh, that was inspired the content. But what was happening at that time, of course, we were still in, in the pandemic. COVID-19 was wreaking havoc in this country. Sure. And then That was the beginning also of the Ukraine war. And we had, you know, gun violence and all the things that are still happening today when I first started in 2022. And so as I looked at the TV and I looked at what was in the newspapers, we read about all these health issues. And of course, at that time, parents couldn't afford the price of gasoline and food. People were dying from COVID and we had many issues with the teenagers, especially the teenagers and children. And so as I looked at all these things, I thought to myself, wait a minute here, we're not doing anything to help these young people. Our young adults were dying of suicide, large amounts of college students. And I said, well, I've worked with this group for many years. At that point, I had worked over 25 years with, with the, um, this age group, and I knew what to do to help them.

Yeah.

So I, I just dug deep inside and I, I said, Christine, you have to, this is an obligation that you have. This is an urgency. And I started to, um, write about it. I wrote some several articles during the pandemic. To help nurses because they were in a horrible state, you know, with their jobs in the emergency rooms and, you know, taking care of patients and they were really distressed. So I decided that I was going to write this book and make a how-to list, not just a to-do list like our government was telling us, you know, when they're writing about teenagers, that teenagers should do this and they should do that and they should eat healthy food. And I'm thinking, what the heck? They're in the emergency room., you know, for days or months and, and there's no treatment for their mental distress.

Yeah.

So that's when I started out and I'm so glad I did take advantage of that opportunity back then because we still have issues today, of course. And some of the same issues, maybe even worse.

Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, of course a lot of issues then that influenced your decision to write the book and for one, the inspiration from that individual you met, the wrestler. So you, you put together, I think, a great collection of these techniques really to help us deal with a lot of our anxiety and tension and stress. You call them mental toughness skill sets. Can you describe just what the breathing easy technique is and how it works for young people?

Yes. Yes. And of course these techniques are— everybody can use them and to benefit, but I designed them to help them. So I work in the areas, as you mentioned, of athletics, academics, health, business, and performing arts. So these techniques are used specifically for that, but it can also help an adult when they're being— before they're being wheeled into the operating room. You know, to help them to heal from surgery. So breathing easy is the first exercise. As you mentioned, I work with self-hypnosis. I teach my clients that. So the very first step is I call breathing easy, and it's to help you to get in the zone to relax. And so you can focus and help yourself, as I said, even at times when you need to heal. So this exercise is the first thing you do. Is to just sit in a comfortable chair, right? And you put your feet flat on the floor and you also focus on a spot in front of you. It's called eye fixation. So the spot in front of you could be a doorknob, a picture. In my office, I use a happy face, which gives the message that you feel happy, you know, and often my clients smile when I show them the happy face. So at any rate, um, as you look at the happy face, um, you begin to take these deep breaths. Now, when I say deep breaths, what I mean by that is that you, you use abdominal breathing. So you're breathing, you're taking a deep breath, you're breathing into your lungs, and imagine there's a balloon in your abdomen and you're filling up that as well. So as you breathe in, you can feel your abdomen rise and fall. You know, if you place your hand on it. So, so that's, that's what I'm talking about here, abdominal breathing. And what you do is you take 3 deep breaths and you breathe in through your nose and you inhale into your lungs and your abdomen like a big balloon. And then you hold it for a couple of seconds and you breathe out through your mouth. And as you exhale, you say that word easy to yourself. And then you take the second deep breath and you inhale into the lungs, expanding your chest and abdomen again. And you hold it. You exhale through your mouth and you say easy to yourself. Now on the third deep breath, you breathe into your lungs, expand your chest and your abdomen like a big balloon. You hold it for a few seconds. You close your eyes. And you count backwards, 3, 2, 1. So now you're also getting into the zone, relaxed, and you can feel yourself, see yourself there in your imagination. Because now we're going to do the progressive muscle relaxation, which is important for everybody, but particularly for athletes and say a performing artist. Because you're relaxing the muscles and you're getting muscle ready to perform, which is important. It's not the same thing as relaxing, sitting in front of the TV. So, so now you're, you're feeling, you can even imagine that there's a warm light shining from above. In my office, I do have a light on the ceiling, but you can imagine that the light's going right through your skull into your brain. You can relax the skull, you know, and the muscles in the head, but you can actually In your mind's eye, go right into your brain and feel what's going on in there. Maybe you have a little headache or you have a little discomfort, or just to ask your brain, so how you doing today? You know, and it's, and you can, you can actually feel inside your skull. And then as you continue your breathing, you go down to the chin and jaw across the facial muscles and relax the neck. And of course, in the, in the larynx, that is the center of creativity. So you can spend a little time there. And also you can say all the words you always wanted to say, but never felt you could, right? Because that's the larynx and it's your voice. And then you can relax your right shoulder, your left shoulder, feeling like the weight of the world is lifted off your shoulders as I speak to you and relaxing the arms, the right arm, the left arm, all the way down to the fingertips. And you can even imagine, like, if you're a wrestler, if you want to improve your hand grasp, you can imagine that your fingers and your hands are very strong, just in your mind's eye. And that's good also for senior citizens as well, to have that strong hand grasp. And then as we come into the chest and you're breathing in, you imagine the oxygen's going into the cells, into the brain. And, and it's spreading this hemoglobin, which gives you energy. And you breathe, continue to breathe in and out. You get to the abdomen, relax those muscles. Maybe you have a little gas, a little stomachache. You can go inside your intestines in your mind's eye and just soothe it a little bit. And you have this gut feeling that you're a winner because that's the center of where your gut feelings come from, from the second brain.. And you can see yourself very happy, very— a winner, whatever you want in your mind's eye, very healthy, smiling. And then you just spend time on your back all the way down your spine from the upper portion to the lower portion. And I like to say to my clients, it's as if somebody is playing the piano keys, just bringing the fingers across the piano keys all the way down your spine. And you can see the muscles relaxing, but it's very strong. And that's really important for a wrestler that they have very strong backs, but very flexible backs for their, their bridge series. So as you get down to the thighs, the knees, the calves, the ankles, right to the tippy toes, your legs are relaxed. But you can imagine that you have these springs in your calf muscles that you just spring into action. Like when you get up out of a chair or you go for your takedown. Right? So, so it's using your imagination, but now you feel very relaxed. And all you do at that point, maybe after a couple of minutes, you're priming yourself to be relaxed in the moment. So you just, you say, 3, 2, 1, you open your eyes and you say that word, relax. Now, during this process also, I forgot to add that you can circle the fingers on your non-dominant hand like this, and that can help you bring yourself back to focus in your life. You know, out of focus, you're taking an exam, you're, you're, um, in the batter's box. You can circle the fingers on your hand like that. It will bring you right back into focus and even say to yourself, focus and score like that along with it to support it. So now you You're ready to go into your mental rehearsal. That's the second step. But this is very powerful. I use it at least twice a day in my life, um, just to relax, just to think. I'm writing a blog and I need, I need to be a little creative. So I just go into the zone there and I see myself. What will I use? What will I speak about? Like that. Or you can use that before surgery, before you go into surgery. Or I use this all the time when I go to the eye doctor and I use it when I go to the dentist like that. So you can be relaxed and at ease and you can heal faster. You can imagine yourself healing before you even get to the operating room.

You know, that's such a powerful technique. I can see that. And you, you include the I think the elements of visualization too, as you're going through different parts of the body.

Yes. As I said, and you can imagine this, you can imagine that, and you can, and like athletes that very often they have injuries, they're working with sore muscles and, you know, wrestlers have hip injuries, knee injuries, shoulder injuries, and they're very prone to that. So sometimes I've worked with them. When they had injuries, but the doctors permit them to still wrestle, but they need to get through the competitions. So I bring them to that space. Imagine there's little angels inside massaging the muscles, applying, applying some, some things that could decrease discomfort and also could empower you. So, and very often these athletes get better without any further treatment. So it really helps them.

So again, maybe especially targeted toward athletes and actors and performing artists. But as you say, they also apply to the general population. And in particular, I can see where this has a lot of value for the older adult population because Mindfulness and getting in touch with our bodies and reducing some of that tension and worry and fear.

And that's right. And just think, sometimes older people, more mature people, they play golf, they want to improve their golf game, their tennis game. And so they're just like younger athletes. They want to win. So it can be used for anything because these are portable skills. You can use them, I say to the young people, use them on the sports fields or on the wrestling mat. And then they bring them to the boardroom when they graduate from college because they're the same skills that are applicable for every place and everywhere. And once you learn them, they're as free as the air you breathe.

Yeah, I like that expression, uh, portable skills. That's great because we all always have them with us. I can see that. Yeah, so you touched on imagination and visualization, and how, how is that used? I mean, you're familiar with cognitive behavior therapy. We know it's a very effective therapeutic approach. Where do visualization and imagination fit into this building resilience in the whole CBT scheme?

Well, it's very important in in my mind, simply because I have a very imaginative mind and I was always getting in trouble as a child for daydreaming, for using my imagination when I was in school. So for instance, in geometry class, unfortunately, or fortunately, the window that I was sitting next to looked out onto the Atlantic Ocean. I was always like mesmerized by the ocean. And I got in trouble in geometry class all the time because of that. But the difference is, and they're both valuable tools that you can use, but cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT, in my opinion, is more geared for cognition, your thinking, the thinking part of your brain. And I have a little brain here, if you can see on the screen. So it's a little rubber brain. I got it at a stroke conference and it says time is brain because when you have a stroke, that's important. But anyway, you can, you can learn to exercise your brain. And the, the left side of the brain is what is used during, during CBT. You're, you're, you're the thinking side of your brain, the left side. And it's connected to the conscious mind, which is also the critical part of your brain. So I say that why, why not use the right side of your brain with your imagination and combine the two? And the other thing is cognitive behavioral therapy usually doesn't go back in time to your traumas when you have your traumas, and it just looks at the present and the future. But with hypnotherapy, I work with my clients to help them release the traumas from the past. And we all have them and they begin in childhood and they pop up whenever in your life. Um, they just drift up like driftwood up to the conscious, um, level. And we have to deal with them and we may not even understand what is happening or why it's happening.

Mm-hmm.

But it's obviously something that happened in the past. And that, of course, is a Freudian concept as well, you know, looking to your past and your childhood traumas. So, so I work with that and that's another feature when you introduce the right side of the brain that's connected to the subconscious mind. And there, there's no judgment at all. So, so what you think and what you feel and what you see That's what you get. So it could be negative or it could be positive. Now the conscious side or the left side of the brain is really your guide because the subconscious mind is irrational and it needs assistance and guidance. So the left side of the brain is useful for the positive self-talk. So I do use both techniques from both fields. And of course, if you combine them, CBT, and it's been proven in research and use hypnosis along with it. It's much more powerful and effective.

Wow.

So that's how I, that's how I work with it. And how I do that with the, I do it with imagery and the 5 ways to access the subconscious mind using imagery in form of visualization, metaphors, stories, sounds, and symbols. The sounds can be music. It can be icicles melting. I've used many things for sounds. And so That's the language of the dreams. So that's what I use in addition to helping people make their goals, their plans of action using the left side of the brain. But when you're in a sport, you have no time to be thinking, what should I do next? You know, when you're in the batter's box or when you're playing a piano recital. So you have to be right in the present moment and release it from the subconscious mind where all these skills are stored. So there's no time for hesitation. There's no time for doubting. And you have to act just in the present moment. And that's how powerful this is.

Sure. Sure.

And very easy.

Well, that's where thinking gets in the way often. I see that thinking gets in the way. So I can see one side of the brain is complementing the other in this approach you're using.

Yes. See, people think that there are two separate brains.

You're using the right side. To bring in the imagery.

That's right.

And they can complement one another.

And people think that there's two separate brains, two separate minds, the conscious and the subconscious, but they're one mind and they work in harmony together. Yeah.

Are there some myths around hypnotherapy? I mean, people kind of harbor some false beliefs about it as an approach.

Yes. You know, just mentioning that word, right? So, and I do teach self-hypnosis. So all hypnosis is self-hypnosis in my opinion. But I had many challenges when I first started my work as I was a homemaker and I saw that my children, they needed some guidance. I looked, I went to a psychiatrist, a psychologist to help my son.

Mm-hmm.

And, and the psych— psychologist said, there's nothing wrong with your son. You need, you need to come here, you know? And then I decided, well, maybe I better set my own program up. Mm-hmm. I had experience with hypnosis and also meditation because I had 4 miscarriages. And during that time, I didn't know what to do to help myself. I, I, so I, I learned what to do and then I studied hypnotism and I helped my children when they were teenagers and they were involved in sports and piano recitals and things like that. And then I branched out to others. And, but when I started my office, I decided, um, I bought, I bought this recliner on the way home from bringing my daughters to gymnastics. And I set up my office in my home that night, you know, and I bought it from a North Carolina furniture truck that was in a vacant gas station. And I put it in my, in my house and I set up office there. But then I wanted to get it, rent an office in my hometown. In New Jersey, and I, I, I found a real estate agent. I found an office and I put down a down payment for this office. Uh, I thought it would be great to start out that way, but I had to go through the town board and the town board consisted of all men. And when I went to this meeting, um, I needed to get my certificate of occupancy. And so that this man, they were in horseshoe shape. Setup, and I was at the end, of course, and they were asking me questions. So I told them what I planned on doing, that I was going to set up business as a peak performance coach. So this one man, he was sitting on the left side and I'll never forget it. So he, so he was kind of smug and he said, so, so, you know, um, are you a tea leaf reader? And I was kind of shocked. He said, well, we threw one of those out of town recently along with the psychic. So he, I, I was thinking, well, how did he come to, how did he ask me that question? But fortunately, this MD was sitting on the board and said, haven't you heard of peak performance coaches helping Olympians? That's what she's doing. You know? And then the man shut up, thank goodness. And I didn't lose my money for the down payment, you know, because they wouldn't let me have my office. So that was the beginning. And then I advertised initially, um, saying that change can be easy. In the local newspaper and I get a call from the Better Business Bureau and the man said, you're a charlatan. How can change be easy? You know? So I said, uh-oh, you know, and then it went on, you know, for some time. Even when I went to a Catholic conference on fertility enhancement coaching, I approached this Catholic physician and he told me that my work was voodoo. And that's kind of surprised me because as a Catholic, I know that Pope Pius XII in the 1950s, he, he sanctioned the use of hypnosis for childbirth. And this gynecologist, he should have known that, right? Mm-hmm. Because he probably used hypnosis and he didn't even know he was using it. So those are the kinds of things. And also some of my clients, um, were fearful that that I would take away their purses and things like that initially. But I've overcome that, although it still exists. It still exists, and it's the result of the movie, you know, theater, movies in the theaters. Mm-hmm. Like Svengali, which is an older movie. Yeah. The Manchurian Candidate. So that people think that I'm go— I'm going to make them do things that they don't wanna do.

Sure.

And then I'm gonna force them to do it. And that's not the truth because as I said, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.

Self-hypnosis. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now you talked about, um, your own personal journey and how you used visualization to manage your vision loss or difficulty with seeing. Can you share that a little bit?

Yes. When I was 12 years old, I had eye surgery and it was very traumatic for me. I was in the 8th grade and I went to the eye doctor and The doctor said she has to have this lazy eye corrected now before it's too late. And I remember going home and my mother telling my father, uh, because we didn't have much money, right? So they were having this discussion. I was listening about how we can't afford it. We have to go to the bank to get a loan, you know, for Christine. And so I felt very responsible to make this work, right? My parents were getting a loan. In the bank. So I remember going to the hospital. My mother took me carrying the suitcase, right? It was— the hospital was in my hometown and we stopped off to get an ice cream sundae on the way. Remember that? When I got there, I was in a pediatric unit and I was preteen, just developing, you know, physically. And, and there were no young, young people like me there. Very small young children. And my family, my parents could visit, but not my siblings or my friends because they had restrictions. So I was there alone and really scared about the next day when I was going to have the surgery. So I remember the morning and they, the nurses came in and these little kids were looking into my room through the doorway, the doorway, and they were giving me like rectal anesthesia. Right in front of the kids and, and they were kind of giggling.

Yeah.

And I felt embarrassed. And so that was not the worst of it though, because I got to the operating room and they wanted to give me ether and it, oh, it was just the most horrible smell and they had to hold me down, you know, just to give it to me. And then after the surgery, this hospital had no recovery room, so I ended up right in the pediatric unit, and I was in like a crib. I perceived it to be a crib, but of course I had both eyes covered even though one eye had the operation. And, and they, they didn't give me any call bell and I was just there by myself and I was screaming out to try to go to the bathroom, but then I realized the side rail was up. So I vomited in the bed.

Mm-hmm.

And they just left me there like that. And also, um, they, I remember they gave me this horrible soup. I had, I couldn't feed myself because I couldn't see. And, and I had this horrible pea soup that I never had pea soup since because it was disgusting. So, so anyway, I went home and my sister told me my eye looked like I was a, I had a monster's eye. It was all bloody. And I saw a stitch in my eye and I asked my mom, Well, what will happen with that? And she said, oh, that will just dissolve. But that didn't happen. When I went to the eye doctor, he took this big tweezer, put it in my eye, and he was gonna take the stitch out. So they had to hold me down for that as well. So I got through that experience. My vision did improve by the eye chart, right? And I, I got some exercises and physiologically I healed, but emotionally I did not heal.

Sure.

And psychologically traumatic.

Yeah.

And so, so every time I would go to the eye doctor from then on, I would be petrified, you know, just going to the eye doctor. What will my vision be? And this one time as an adult, actually it happened during COVID I hadn't been to the eye doctor because of COVID and then I decided I need to go and get my eyes checked. And so It was a busy day. My eyes were really dry. I drove there at the last minute because I didn't like to go to the eye doctor and I didn't get a chance to do my breathing easy before this session. And so I walked into the exam room and I see the chart there. I'm supposed to be reading the eye chart. I couldn't see E. I mean, I knew it was there, right? But I couldn't see it. It looked like shards of glass were coming out of it. So, so the doctor said, oh, well, this is a big change and you might have macular degeneration and you might have, oh, cataracts and all this stuff. So he really petrified me because, and this is a family doctor that I knew for years and he's helped me so many times. So he said, I'll have to tell the motor vehicle bureau that, that Your vision is bad and I'm gonna take your license away. So that wasn't scary enough, right? And I thought, oh my goodness. I, and then I had to drive home after that. So, but by the time I got home, I realized, I calmed myself down and I realized that I love my eyes and I have good vision, right? And I have to honor that. I had had laser surgery in my eyes because I had the potential to have narrow angle glaucoma. So the doctor gave me what's called iridotomies in my eyes, making little holes for the drainage possibility. And, but I knew in my left eye that the, um, ophthalmologist said she drilled a hole that was heart-shaped. The next day she noticed it. She said, I don't know how I did that. If I tried to draw a heart in your eye, I wouldn't be able to do it. The other eye just had a circle. So I remembered I have love in my eyes for myself.

Mm-hmm.

And I practiced eye exercises.

Mm-hmm.

And I also did my meditation, my breathing easy, and I did my mental rehearsal for my return visit 2 weeks later. Yeah. When I got there, the tests were fine. I didn't need surgery and my vision improved.

Wow.

And so that's how I worked through and used visualization and my, my techniques.

Yeah.

On myself. Which could have been disastrous. You know, I was terrified that my license would be taken away.

That's a great story. Physician, heal thyself, right?

Yes.

Yeah. So let me ask you, getting back to, you know, helping older adults, and, you know, a lot of people see aging as a time of decline and, you know, gradually pulling back. How do we shift that, that whole vision about, you aging to a time of growth and reinvention? How can you, how can you help people see that it's not decline, it's really a time of growth and improving our opportunities? Yes.

Well, you know, I think that's true every decade or so in our lives. When you think about it, when you're 10, you're still a child, then you're a teenager, and then you grow to young adulthood. So that goes all the way through life in my opinion. And I can say how I reinvented myself as I got older so many times. And one of the times I just described when I decided I was a homemaker and my, and my children needed help. And, and I knew they were champions. Like my son was a wrestler, my daughter was a gymnast, and they, they ran track, they played piano. And I wanted that to them to achieve success and feel good about themselves, but I wanted them to learn for themselves what to do. So I decided as a homemaker, I'm opening up this office. And I told you all the things that happened to me, you know, the, and the prejudice. And also I gave this presentation at a wrestling conference, a workshop. And I got there and they're saying to all the wrestling coaches are saying, what are you doing here? Are you a psychologist? I said, no, I'm a nurse. And they said, oh, we're not injured. Right. And they didn't believe in this hypnosis. But fortunately there was an Olympic champion who was co-presenting with me and he convinced these wrestling coaches that he used the same techniques. True. They started to listen to me.

True.

But usually there was all this adversity. And I had to work through it. But what happened to me, um, so I had to reinvent myself, was I had— I drank ginseng tea to get energy one day before I picked my kids up from school, and I had a severe allergic reaction within minutes. My whole back was like one big hive. So I went to the emergency room, you know, the storefront emergency room, and they gave me Benadryl and they gave me adrenaline. And they told me, okay, this will help you. And it just so happens that right across the street from this clinic was my dance school. And I was preparing for a dance recital myself. Right? So I went into this dance school. It was called In the Spotlight. And I didn't actually dance. That night, but I sat on a chair and when I stood up from the chair, I collapsed into anaphylactic shock right there on the floor. And, and so I had this near-death experience, uh, where I saw this light and the angels were there and they were, they were telling me, you can go through that door over there. And I knew that meant I would die. And so I said, well, what about my children? What about, you you know, my husband taking care of the children. And so I, my dance instructor literally revived me on the dance floor. And when I opened my eyes, I saw the little ballerinas at the dance school looking down at me, you know, with their leotards on. And I knew I had made the right decision. So I reinvented myself and no matter what, I was gonna continue my work. So that was one reinvention. But also I had others in my life where I, like, I, my husband had his doctorate for 25 years and I decided one day that, um, I was going to, um, go to get my doctoral degree at Columbia University. And, and it came, it came in a dream where, where I was going to get my doctorate. It came actually at the dental office when my teeth were being drilled. I was gonna be graduating from Columbia University. The doctor, the dentist thought I was crazy when I said, everything's fine, doctor. I just graduated from Columbia University. He said, no, what about your teeth, Christine? But anyway, I, I had that experience. I applied to the school and it, it happened in a very unusual way. I had this inspiration when I was painting a mural on my bathroom wall, a seascape, and I said, well, why don't you apply to that school? And I knew that school was Columbia University. So I reinvented myself there. The people there, sometimes they called me crazy. People said, why are you going back to school when you're so old? I didn't think I was that old. I was like just 50 years old.

Yeah. Yeah.

And here, and here I was. Um, people tell me you're wasting your time. You should give that money to your children. I had 3 kids in college at the time, you know. And so, so people tried to dissuade me. So I had to reinvent myself there. They told me I was crazy. Crazy. Because why? I was too positive. Get that, right? They said, where did she come from? I said, New Jersey. I just slipped right across the river. And so I got through that and I knew I had to work globally. So I started presenting all over the world. Um, and, and therefore I earned, um, myself an award. I was init— I was inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame at Columbia University as a result of that. So that's how I reinvented myself a second time. So every period of your life, you can reinvent yourself. You can become a painter. You can become, you know, a golf pro. You can, you can do it anytime in your life. So it's not just for young people.

Yeah, the phrase I like is that we're not defined by who we were yesterday. We can redefine ourselves every day and open new doors. And that's what, to me, successful aging is all about. Well, thanks for sharing that story. Just one last question. If our listeners could walk away with one new skill, maybe a mental health skill they could use, what would it be? What skill would you want them to walk away with?

Well, I have a story that goes along with this, and I'm going to say mental recall is very positive. And that's based on a study that I read about. Maybe you've heard this in your education too. It was a study done by Ellen Langer, and I think around 1979, 1981. And this is what she did. She, she set up her research venue. In an old monastery, and she decorated it with all these vintage things like black and white television, Perry Como, the radio, um, vintage pictures. And she invited, I think it was 7 or 9 men who were in their 70s to come to this venue and experience 5 days of this being back in time. From their very arrival, they were treated as younger people. So if they were bent over, they, they had, they had exams and tests to show, you know, where they were before the exam. So, and they were able, some of them weren't able to walk the stairs with their suitcase. So they told them, you have to walk up the stairs, even if it's one shirt at a time, you have to get your suitcase up there. And so they were in this environment for 5 days. Talking about the, the, the people who were famous in sports at that time and talking about—

youthful environment. Youthful environment. Yeah.

Right. And so the results of that, after 5 days when they retested them, they had more dexterity, they had better eyesight, would you believe? Right. And they had, um, uh, they were more supple, they sat up straighter.

Mm-hmm.

And all of this resulted just because they put themselves in, in that mind's eye. And they believed and thought and felt that they were younger, like 22 years younger. And this changed it. So I would say what we need to talk about here is a technique that's one of the mindful toughness techniques, and that is mental recall. And I'll tell you how to use that. So, and you can use this in this situation, imagining that you—

We only have a minute left or so.

Yes. Okay. I'd say you can imagine. Going back in time, you pick an event when you were younger and you were proud and you won an award. You were an athlete. You're doing something when you were younger that you're very proud of. You graduated from college and you can see yourself going back in that time, feeling yourself there, hearing yourself there, getting the award. And, and as if you're right back there, and then you can use that technique and attach a power word to it. So right now in the present moment, when you have, say your power word that you give is college graduate. So every time you say the word college graduate, you're right back in that space when you're performing your key goal. And that's called mental recall. It's very powerful. I use it all the time with athletes.

Yeah. Yeah. So I agree 100%. Seeing ourselves as younger. Than our actual cognitive age is very powerful. Very powerful. We act younger, we do better on cognitive tests, we take more preventive measures for our health. A lot of positives as if we were 20 years younger. Yeah.

Yes. Well, thanks so much. It's very powerful and it's instantaneous. You can use this, practice it, and that becomes you. And it's so amazing to me. I've seen athletes win championships using that technique.

Yeah, that's a great strategy. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Well, it looks like we're out of time, but before we wrap up, I just wanna remind my listeners again to visit my website for my blogs and podcasts. That's livingto100.club. Visit my community for connection and experiences that livingto100.community. And if you're part of a senior living setting, don't miss my Better, Longer, and Happier Card Deck series. That's at livingto100.solutions. Christine, thanks so much for joining us today. For any of our listeners who might want to contact you, how can they do that?

I just want to say, uh, Joe, that, that all these techniques are in my book in Chapter 5.

Okay.

And, and you can read them or you can listen to them on audio if you like.

Okay. And the book again is Wrestling Through Adversity. Yeah. What's your website? What's your website?

My website is idealperformance.net and my book website is drchristinesilverstein.com.

Say that again. Tell it a second.

Dr. Dr. Christine Silverstein.com. But my book website, that's very informative. As well.

Okay, well, thanks so much for being a guest on our program. We learned a lot. I know our listeners will get a lot of information. And again, check out Christine's book, Wrestling Through Adversity. Christine, keep up the good work. Thanks so much. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome.

And have some fun with these techniques.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's good to keep a smile on our face, right? Yeah. Yes. Well, thanks to to everyone for tuning in. Hope to see you next time.

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