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Brain Hacks · The Single Doc Mom Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Single Doc Mom Podcast, where we explore mindset strategies to help you stop enduring and start enjoying life.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Amanda Queen.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm an adult endocrinologist, certified life coach, and your host.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast is completely separate from my medical practice.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: It is for sharing my personal experiences as a single doc mom.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: And though I am a doctor, I am not your doctor.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: This is not a substitute for professional care, diagnosis, or treatment.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you have questions about your health or health of your child, please see your own healthcare professional.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, beautiful ladies.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I hope you've had another great week.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I am excited that you're all back.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: If this is your first time, this is episode or podcast number five for us.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we are getting started.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And today we are going to talk about brain hacks.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned it last week at the end, but I wanted to bring this up because coaching and mind work and thought work isn't something that we want to sometimes bypass.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: We want to do the work of it.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: We want to, it's a process.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a lot of shortcuts.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: However, there are some little brain hacks that we can do.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not that we're trying to replace one thought with a better thought or change the way that we're thinking overnight, but we're just trying to manage it a little bit better and manage the way we talk to ourselves in a more useful fashion.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a quote that I had heard years ago that attributed to a triathlete.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like indescribable how they managed some of these like crazy feats they were doing.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: So one of them that this person did, he did um six double Iron Man triathlons, including some of these events into his 50s, which for those of you that don't do any triathlons, double Iron Man would be a 4.8 mile swim, 224 mile bike, and a 52.4 mile run after all of that.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And what I later came when I was like fact-checking this, it turns out that the triathlete was a Dr.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: James P.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Gills, an ophthalmologist, endurance athlete, and former owner of the organization behind the Iron Man races.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the actual quote is when he was being interviewed on like, how do you do all this and how have you continued to do this in your 40s and even into your 50s?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the quote is, I've learned to talk to myself instead of listen to myself, end quote.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And he explained that when he merely listened to his thoughts during a race, he heard, I'm too tired, I'm too old, I'm too weak, I should give up.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: But when he deliberately talked to himself, he could replace those automatic thoughts with encouragement, truth.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: And for him, it sounds like he was a man of faith that he also would do scripture.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: So he would turn the negative self-talk into purposeful positive self-talk to overcome the fear, doubt, negativity, and all of the physical discomfort that good Lord he had to be feeling.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um I love this.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: I love thinking that, you know, when I taught, I talk to myself more than I listen to myself as a way to break through some hard things.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And it's something that I actually try to talk to my kids about too.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think I might be talking more than they're listening, but that's okay.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: When you hear yourself say, and I think how we talk to ourselves does matter, and I think we don't realize how much it matters.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So some of the things I talk to my patients about all the time, and I talk to try to talk to myself about as well and hear it and change it when I do it.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but when you hear yourself say the words, I need to, I have to, I should.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: For most of us, those things sound like like it feels like all, like it's like a heavy weight on us, which just feels like one more thing on the to-do list.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And our brain will keep spinning on that.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it just become, it stays one more thing on the to-do list because it's like a thought block there.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like we can't, it's hard to get past that feeling.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: But what I've noticed is that when I change that, when I hear myself say, I need to, I have to, I should, which by the way, nobody likes to be shoot upon.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So when you hear that word, like usually think, like, what can I change it to?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: It should make your sphincter tighten.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: But when I hear those words, or if I hear, like if I hear them in myself, or if I'm hearing a patient say, you know, I really need to get back to exercise, or I really need to stop eating sugar, I'll try to stop them and say and give them this whole explanation and say, you know, when you hear yourself say those things, change it to, I want to, I will, I'm going to.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're going to be way more likely to get it done.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: The I will, the I want to, the I'm going to, that sounds just lighter.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: It feels lighter.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: It feels more determined, not so overwhelming.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it opens our brain to possibilities rather than just seeing like overwhelm and stress.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting to me because I will have like just in the short visit that I'm with patients, I will hear someone say how they know they need to exercise, but they can't because, and then they'll list all of these reasons.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll say, you know, whenever you hear that, you know, I go through the thing.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it'll be interesting because there's sometimes, not every, but sometimes I've had patients within the next five or 10 minutes or before the visits over, say, you know, I I could probably go walk at lunch.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I could probably get there earlier, I could probably walk the stairs, I could probably do this.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like their brain's already on the task, but it's not going to be on the task when it's just one more thing on the to-do list and it feels overwhelming and one more thing like that I'm not doing well and judging myself for, which is where a lot of those things come from.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: The, and then we'll also say, like, we may not want to exercise, but if we want the end result of exercise, then think about that.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I want to be strong, I want to be healthy.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing with taxes.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't really want to do my taxes.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: However, I do want to stay out of jail and want to avoid paying fines.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I want to pay taxes.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So instead of saying the I need to pay taxes, I need to make that appointment with my accountant, I'm probably gonna get that job done faster and better and easier if I change it to I'm going to, I want to, or I will.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the first one.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: The second one is what I call flipping the coin.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, the way this pertains to my life, hmm, on a almost daily basis, I'm sad to say, is my in-basket at work.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm as an endocrinologist, there are just so many labs.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And now there's lots of my charts, there's lots of other things, but there's just a lot of labs.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And as much as I try to have people, we all try to have people get labs done before visits, sometimes it just doesn't happen.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it may happen in between visits, and or there's labs that were done by someone else that I need to address because now their thyroid's off or something else is abnormal.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a lot of in-basket things.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So often, like what replays in my mind more than anything I say, but like the thing I keep hearing or thinking is I hate being behind.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: I hate having to get caught up on my in basket.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do this.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I hate my in basket.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: All of the things related to that, like the I want, I don't want to, I hate all of like, yes, um, the icky feelings that ensue.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I were to put that into a model, the circumstance line would be there's a hundred labs in my in-basket to review.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: The thought would be, I hate being behind, or I'm a bad doctor, or I can never stay caught up, or I don't know, any combination therein.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then my feeling is overwhelm, stress, sometimes disappointment, sometimes shame, depending on how far I'm behind.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then I will ruminate on the thought of I'm a bad doctor and um I'm not taking good care of people, and I can never do this.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: I ruminate on all of those things.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: I typically avoid, I don't get it done.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: I might scroll on my phone or do clean something else to avoid getting that part done.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the result is I just still stay behind and I never get caught up.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: But if I can flip the coin and change it to like, what's the opposite that I love?
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I love having a clean in basket, I love being caught up.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if I can stop myself or catch myself when I'm in that negative loop and change it to, okay, yeah, I hate being behind.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I love being caught up.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So the circumstance is the same.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: I still have a hundred labs in my in basket.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: But instead of thinking, I'm gonna be, I hate doing this and going down a not so useful pathway, it helps me more to realize and to think I love being caught up.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Being caught up is a gift to my future self.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: I feel so much better when I'm caught up.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: All of those things, and then I can then feel determined, motivated, and I just get the job done, even if it's B minus work, and I just I'm able to focus and concentrate in my actions way better than I would have been otherwise.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't tend to scroll as much, I don't tend to do other things in avoidance of the in basket, and I get it done.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's the way that I think I probably use it the most.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: But in general, anytime you're thinking, I hate doing this, I don't want to do this, some version therein, there is probably the opposite that you do love doing or that you do want to do.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like for exercise, as an endocrinologist, I'm always talking to people about diet and exercise.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Some people will say, like, I just hate to exercise, I don't like to exercise.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: For those people, one of the things that I'm talking to them about is, yeah, you you might not want to exercise or might not like exercising, but do you want to be strong?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to run and play and keep up with your kids?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because if those are true, then like think those thoughts when it comes to exercise, not the I hate to exercise, I don't like exercising, I don't want to do lifting, I'm not good at lifting.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: If we can think I like being strong, then we're gonna feel more motivated.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: We are gonna do some of the lifting, we're gonna put it on our calendar, even if it just means doing lunges while we're brushing our teeth or push-ups against the wall or the countertop while we're waiting for a pot to boil.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's just ways that we can figure that out and get it done in our daily life.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that we're trying to change our thoughts into something that we don't feel or that we can't feel and trying to deny something else, but it's we have a coin.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And do we want to look at the head the side or the tail side?
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because both of them are true, but one of them is more useful to us.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we can I can get ready in the dark and not turn on the lights, but it's gonna take me longer.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be annoyed.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm probably gonna have mismatch socks.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna make a mess in the process.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: But if I flip the switch, turn on the lights, I'm able to get things done way faster, way better, and way easier.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that's kind of where we are with this one.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: I hope this has been helpful for you guys.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: There are other brain hacks that I can bring up later, but I just wanted to give you this one as a kind of a quick thing that can be helpful, tool to be helpful for you guys.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you like this podcast, please follow and leave us a five star review so that others may find us.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, though you may be single, you are not alone.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you next week.