I am so excited about my new television addiction, mostly because it doesn't include the words "Housewives" or "Rehab" in it. No, this addiction is of the healthier kind, the, dare I say, more intellectual kind.
I came across the UCTV station a few months ago. They air programs coming from the University of California system. One show in particular caught my eye: Mini Medical School hosted by UCSF. Each time I've watched it, I've had to grab pen and paper to take notes. The doctors are so informative, so progressive, so damn interesting.
The other night was no exception. Dr. Martin L. Rossman conducted a lecture titled, "Worrying Well: How Your Brain Can Turn Anxiety and Stress into Calmness and Confidence." He spoke a lot about the brain, the different systems within the brain, the effect stress has on the brain (and whole body, for that matter). He spoke of good worry versus bad worry (I can relate to both, as I'm sure most of you can).
One of my favorite parts of this lecture was when he used skiing as an analogy for positive thinking. He said when you ski a challenging hill, you "focus on where you want to go, not where you don't want to go," and the same is true for worry/anxiety/crisis. If you focus your thoughts on where you want the situation to go rather than getting stuck in circular, destructive, OCD, negative thinking, you are going to rid yourself of a lot of stress. My second favorite part was when he took the audience through a guided imagery. I closed my eyes, focused on what he suggested, listened to his calm voice...and when I opened my eyes the show was long over and it was almost midnight. Okay, maybe I was just tired, but this Dr. Rossman is on to something.
Click here to watch for yourself!
1 comment:
i love the ski analogy. i took a lesson in december and the instuctor said to me "don't look where you don't want to go just where you want to go" i should paste that to the back of my hand!
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