change your thoughts

Change your thoughts and change your mind

Never underestimate the power of your thoughts. Research has shown that we have between 20,000 and 60,000 thoughts per day and that 80% of them are negative! Those prone to worry have created looping narratives and thought mantras that increase the thought count and can create a background hum of anxiety.

Negative thought streams can turn on our limbic system and with the additional flood of cortisol and adrenaline evoke feelings of stress anger, fear and worry. When a triggering event occurs, a cascade of thoughts, feelings, and negative emotions can unravel. We all experience this and sometimes these feelings are debilitating and protracted. Left unchecked, this can lead to a lengthy bout of self-recrimination and rumination - which I call 3- day storms. When triggered, I could go through several days on autopilot waiting for the storm to stop in my head.

What can we do?

First, learn to pause and witness the ‘triggering event’ in real time before the negative self- talk starts. This takes practice, but a 10-second pause will allow you to choose a different narrative. Think of how you would speak to a coworker in a similar situation. Can you ever recall being that nice to yourself?

There is truth in ‘what you think you become,' whether at work or home be mindful of your negative and self-judgmental thoughts, interrupt them, and create new positive and empowering ones. You will begin to notice how ‘you’ speak to yourself and that your ‘self’ has an opinion about everything. Mostly negative.

The more you learn to observe your negative thoughts and interrupt them, the better you can choose to remain calm when the inevitable storms of life show up.

Keep up your great work.

I really screwed that up.		I did the best I could.
Why does this keep happening to me?		What lesson do I need to learn to prevent this from happening again?
Why do I keep getting stuck with the derm cases?		I guess the staff know that I am confident with any derm case that walks through the door.
I’m sure that client is annoyed with me.		I wonder if that client is going through a rough time.
My incision never looks like Dr. Smith’s – I will never be as good as she is.	VS	I am going to scrub in next surgery with Dr. Smith and pick up some new habits, after all, she has been practicing longer than I have.
I can’t possibly see another patient today. I am already over-booked and exhausted. Can’t they tell that I am feeling this way?		I am going to tell the office manager that I need some help with my cases today and see if she can reschedule some appointments for tomorrow. I need to speak up when I get feeling this way.