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By Amy Dee
Just like you, the coronavirus has created changes and challenges for my family. All my spring and summer speaking engagements were either rescheduled, or became virtual events. In addition, Mom’s senior living apartment complex remains closed to visitors. Meanwhile, we’ve not gone to a movie or eaten out for months because, like you, we are stuck at home. The good news is that reframing is an excellent tool for building the foundation for a happier life. Reframing works because it requires you to look for positives in a situation. Negative to Positive. A Reframing Metaphor: The camera and director There are always many ways to view a situation. For an example, let’s say your Uncle Bob is videotaping your family’s Thanksgiving dinner. Uncle Bob can focus his camera lens on the massive pile of dirty cooking pans by the sink or focus on the family laughing together while enjoying their food. When you shift your perspective you change your perception. Robinson Crusoe Reframing to go from negative to positive There are many reframing techniques. This method is named after the principal character, Robinson Crusoe, in Daniel Defoe’s book Robinson Crusoe published in 1719. After a shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe ends up alone on a remote tropical island. In order to survive he has to make the best of an unpleasant situation. This method requires that you to look at the other side of the coin. As a result, you can gently change a negative situation to something more positive. What follows is an example from Steve Klein’s book, The Science of Happiness. You start by creating a simple template with two columns, the minus column, and the plus column. If Crusoe used this technique it might look something like this: Minus Plus I am stuck with no chance of rescue, but I am alive while others died. There is nothing to eat, but in this tropical jungle, I can forage for food. I have no clothes to wear but, in this tropical climate, I won’t need many clothes. Most importantly, notice that the minus column starts with ‘but’. This is intentional. The word ‘but’ decreases the power of the minus portion of the sentence. The but helps you move from your glass being half empty to being half full. Studies show this reframing technique successfully helps people move from negative to positive The American National Institute of Mental Health used a CBT method similar to the Robinson Crusoe method on several hundred people diagnosed with moderate-to-severe depression. Their study revealed that this technique cured 60% of the participants’ depression. To sum up, you can’t choose everything that happens in your life, but you can choose how you respond. So, next time a challenging situation appears consider using Robinson Crusoe reframing to minimize the negative and find the positive. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success!
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By Marilyn Tam
Life as we knew it pre-Covid-19 is no more. The changes and disruptions have wrecked many people’s mental and emotional stability along with their finances and careers. There are steps you can take manage your stress, anxiety, emotional and physical balance to give you the grounding to move forward gracefully. A longtime friend of mine is in the eye of the storm. She is the community outreach nurse manager in the area’s largest hospital group, dealing daily with general hospital issues, constant adjustments due to the fluctuating caseloads of Covid-19 patients and the increasing demands from the community at large. One of her siblings died suddenly and another one was misdiagnosed with the Virus. In addition, her husband had a freak accident which resulted in second and third degree burns to over 10% of his body. Then she fell ill with a severe sore throat which triggered Virus alarms; fortunately, she recovered with a clean bill of health. All this happened in the last three months. To say that she is under stress would be an understatement. How does she handle such an intense and potentially draining time? Having shared and supported her through this and many other challenging times, I like to share with you the tools we used to alleviate the tension, anxiety and regain some stability amidst apparent chaos. It’s easy to lose perspective when you are personally involved in a crisis and forget some of the fundamental steps to managing the situation. 1. Pause. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Take another deep breath. Inhabit your total body instead of just your mind. Your instinctive reaction to crisis is to fight or flight. Since you are generally dealing with something less than instant loss of life, hold on, gather your thoughts and regain balance before you jump into action. 2. Do something physical. Physical action will give your an outlet for stress, anxiety and depression — Mayo Clinic guidelines recommends physical movement to reduce stress, improve mental and emotional wellbeing, sleep, boost feel good endorphins and to reduce pain. Walk, jog, hike, exercise, dance, swim, cycle, do yoga, aerobics, etc. Release internal tension by doing physical activities that stretch the tightness in you. 3. Spend time in nature. Whether it’s a garden, park, mountains, ocean, lake or river, nature heals. The European Centre for Environment & Human Health at the University of Exeter did a study with 20,000 people that showed just spending two hours a week or more in nature provide physical, mental and emotional benefits for everyone. You can even spend a few shorter sessions in nature to come up with the total time needed to receive noticeable improvement in your physical health and cognitive functions. The natural world is restorative and most likely you will find that you will be looking forward to more time there. 4. Meditate. Calming the mind reduces anxiety and has lasting positive effects on your physical, mental and emotional states. John Hopkins University’s systemic review and meta-analysis of 47 randomized clinical trials with controls for placebo effects showed that mindful meditation can alleviate anxiety, depression and pain. Nowadays it is easy to be overstretched to the point you are depleted physically, mentally and emotionally. Meditation allows your mind to realign and heal, and that creates profound benefits for all aspects of your health. 5. Eat healthier. Nourish your body with nutritious food to supply you with the nutrients to keep your metabolic processes, immune system, nervous system, hormonal and cardiovascular systems functioning well to deal with stress. Harvard Medical School’s publication uses the analogy of treating your body as the fine-tuned machine that it is by fueling it with healthy foods. Eat fresh food, as close to the source as possible, plant-based food, unrefined foods and minimize or eliminate sugars and processed foods from your diet. That pint of ice cream may taste good while you are eating it, but the sugar high and subsequent crash is going to make you feel much worse for a longer time. 6. Team up. Cultivate friends and buddies to exercise with, meditate, and to develop healthy eating habits in tandem. Doing things together, even if virtual, will help establish the habits which will support your and their wellbeing. The social connections will also strengthen your social and emotional comfort. 7. Assess where you are. When there are many events and demands happening simultaneously, the tendency is to focus on the most glaring one(s) without considering the relative importance of each. List all the issues, emotions and physical symptoms you are dealing with. Write them down on a sheet of paper. Your hand to mind connection in writing will reveal what is bothering you more than typing on your computer or phone. Review your list and prioritize them for the impact they have on your life. 8. Review your list of priorities and acknowledge your response. Looking at the list may raise anxiety in you. Pause again. Breathe deeply and allow your feelings to come to the surface. What are they? Fear? Sadness? Frustration? Pain? Whatever they are, acknowledge them. It is natural to feel them. Give yourself time to process your emotions. 9. Seek professional help. If you are still feeling overwhelmed after using the above tools to manage the emotions that come up, consider seeking professional assistance — the spiritual counsellor from your belief system, trained support groups, therapist, counsellor, or other trained professionals. Sometimes stress can be too much for one to handle and it is wise to consult with others to help manage the issues. 10. Explore and itemize possible action steps. Now that you have released some inner stress, you have more creativity and fresh eyes to analyze and develop solutions. Review and see if some of your concerns fall into the same category. Can you work on those together? Are some of the issues caused by others on the list? Are there outside sources where you can get additional support? Scrutinize your list with these questions in mind and you may find solutions that resolve several matters concurrently. Itemize the potential ways to improve the issues; list the fanciful ideas as well as the practical ones. Your imagination may lead you to a creative resolution, if nothing else they may make you smile! 11. Decide on strategy and tactics. Look at your list and choose the ones and the ways you are prepared to work on now. You may wish to start with smaller item(s) first because you may not feel ready to handle more significant ones. Move at the pace you are comfortable. Checking things off the list will relieve some stress and help you gear up for the next ones. 12. Dive in. Getting started is sometimes the hardest part. Like being on the edge of a swimming dock or pool, the anticipation of the cold water is much worse than your experience when you finally jump in. Start on the project you’ve identified as the one you wish to work on. Take the first step and soon you’ll be feeling better as you make progress on your list! 13. Celebrate the small wins. Rejoice in your progress. One step at a time is now things get done. Give yourself the credit for tackling your issues. You’ve started and that in itself is a win. Go forth, and be happy! Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Josh Linkner
As consumers, we’re besieged with puffery. Brands shout at us, boasting they have New York’s #1 pizza, the world’s best coffee, America’s favorite car, or the best blue jeans in the universe. But these hollow claims fall flat with our exceptionally well-developed BS detectors. In sharp contrast, one creative restaurateur took the opposite approach. The owner of Aunt Dai’s Chinese Restaurant in Montreal prefers a more brutally honest approach. Listed next to each item on the menu are ‘owner’s comments’, serving up transparency that will make you chuckle. Here are some of my favorites: Sweet and Spicy Pork Strips: “I am not a huge fan of our version of this dish, to be honest.” Orange Beef: “Comparing to our General Tao Chicken, this one is not that good.” Black Pepper Chicken: “Don’t let the name fool you, this one is NOT authentic Chinese food. True story, one customer got really mad because it’s not so Chinese.” Beef and Potato Stew: “Because of this dish, I gained at least five pounds.” The honest comments are disarming, genuine, and unexpected. Instead of over-promising with exaggerated claims, this forthright entrepreneur shares the truth about his dishes. He explains that one dish “is really too dry”, while another is “totally not recommended for takeout or delivery, since it gets soggy.” With an estimated 65,000 Chinese restaurants in North America, here we are marveling at the one who stands out by doing the opposite. In nearly every industry — from oil change shops to landscape designers to beauty salons — competitors are nearly indistinguishable from each other. While blending in with the flock can be helpful for animals in the wild, the herd mentality can be deadly in business. Aunt Dai’s menu tells you without hesitation that one chicken dish is worse than another, or that despite the shrimp dish’s popularity, the owner just isn’t 100% satisfied with the flavor. But think how eager you’ll be to order the items that they proudly recommend. The creative menu serves as both a competitive differentiator and also a mechanism to build customer trust and loyalty. In our own businesses, let’s push the creative boundaries. Let’s reject conventional wisdom in favor of fresh approaches to delighting customers. Let’s challenge ourselves to bust the traditions instead of complying with them in order to generate mouthwatering results. According to the menu, when you order the Sichuan Spicy Pot, “You may experience numbness of your lips from the Sichuan peppercorn.” Similarly, you may experience a tingling of satisfaction when you outpunch your competition by pursuing unorthodox approaches. Planning your next event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to schedule your ideal speaker and make your event a success! By Andrew Busch
Why Elon Musk is Like a Greek God Let’s state this right at the start: the goal of the Biden administration, Congress and the Fed is to make the economy white hot. Not trend growth, not strong growth, but 8-10% GDP growth. Let that sink in for a minute. The U.S. economy will recoup the lost economic growth from 2020 in 2021. Remember in June of last year, the Congressional Budget Office estimated it would take 10 years to recoup this lost economic output or output gap. They are everything we’ve come to expect from a government economic research group. The truly shocking development has been the rapid wall of money created by the White House, Congress and the Federal Reserve. This is unusual and extraordinary. Due to the massive amount of stimulus from CARES 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0, we now have over $10 trillion dollars working its way through our economy. This is on top of the monetary stimulus the Federal Reserve continues to pump through the veins of the U.S. economy. The Fed’s stimulus included $3+ trillion of new assets and cutting short-term rates to zero with a pledge to not raise the rates in our lifetimes. OK, that last of that is not true. But the comments recently feel that way as Fed officials go out of their way to reassure markets they will not react to a short-term increase in inflation. The U.S. economy has roared back and as stated above, the markets/analysts/economists are expecting a complete GDP recovery by the end of this year. This is not the complete story. There are still 10 million workers who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. This is the focus of our government right now and the driving reason for the push to enact a $1.9 trillion stimulus package. While ex-President Trump is being tried in the Senate this week, it’s fair to say that Democrats are emulating him on the economy. It was under Trump and a unified Republican Congress that the TCJA (Tax Cuts and Jobs Act) was enacted, leading to above trend economic growth and drawing in workers to drive down the unemployment rate to historical lows for blacks and minorities. Paraphrasing the Raiders’ Al Davis deficits be damned, just stimulate, baby. This gets us to where we are today: the $1.9 trillion stimulus package. This is raising economists 2021 Q2 GDP forecasts from 4% to as high at 10%. The Fed is onboard and will continue to buy as much debt as necessary to not only stimulate the economy, but also to ensure the bond market doesn’t become overly volatile. The Fed is not concerned about inflation. The Jay Powell Fed believes it has learned it can run the unemployment rate down to 3.5% without creating wage inflation. All the major government economic decision makers are aligned to create policy to drive down unemployment. For the markets, it translates into the biggest risk-on party in our lifetimes. Go ahead, try to think of another time where monetary and fiscal stimulus were in completely and utterly aligned for generating rapid, over-the-top growth? Tesla and BTC percentage returns over 5 years Can you think of another time where a car company (Tesla), who’s stock price is running at 100x EPS, decides to use almost a full year’s revenue to make a bet on 1 financial product? Or when retail investors have dramatically dominated trading volumes as these rose from 10% of trading in 2019 to 25% today? Keep in mind, the party won’t stop after CARES 4.0 gets passed. President Biden and fellow Democrats have another budget for 2022 they can utilise under reconciliation (50 votes only needed in the Senate) to bring about more stimulus. Infrastructure, housing and expansion of Obamacare are on the spending to-do list. What does this hold for the future economy? Rapidly rising risky asset prices, rapidly rising housing prices, and rapidly rising deficits. A more volatile bond market despite efforts from the Fed to contain the price movements. Guess what happens if the Biden administration is successful with the vaccine program? Economy, steroids, on. And Musk? Musk is simply the Hermes for the Stimulus Gods. Planning your virtual event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to book your healthcare speaker! By Kenneth Kaufman
After several years of research and development, the automated teller machine made its first appearance in 1967 at a branch of London’s Barclay’s Bank. Two years later, the first U.S. ATM was installed at a branch of the Chemical Bank on Long Island. However, ATMs remained a minimally used curiosity until one bank took a risk and external forces took control. In 1977, Citibank made a big bet on ATMs. (Do any of you New Yorkers remember the slogan, “The Citi that never sleeps”?) Then in January of 1978, New York City was hit with a snowstorm that closed bank branches for days, leading to a double-digit increase in ATM use. After that, other banks hurried to invest in the new technology. Over the next several decades, ATMs proliferated, climbing to a peak of 2 million worldwide. Despite the popularity of ATMs, remote banking would have fallen far short of its potential if progress had stopped there. Today’s smartphone-enabled banking capabilities—budgeting, fraud protection, loan application, funds transfer, and on and on—leave ATMs in the dust when it comes to access, convenience, and tools. In March 2020, healthcare was in roughly the same place with telehealth as banks were in 1977 with ATMs. After years of research and development, telehealth was on the radar of most healthcare provider organizations, but relatively few had extensively deployed the technology. In 2019, Kaufman Hall’s State of Consumerism report found that only 20% of organizations had widely available video visits. Then came COVID-19, and with it a 154% increase in telehealth use at the peak of the pandemic’s first wave. Organizations routinely reported accelerating their telehealth plans by years in order to accommodate the demand from patients not able to see providers in person. However, as with ATMs and banking, telehealth will be a failure if it goes no further than today’s video visits and other routine features. Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, DPhil, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and renowned virologist and cancer researcher, made this point forcefully in a presentation at Kaufman Hall’s Healthcare Leadership Conference last month. Mukherjee noted, first, that too often video visits are isolated encounters rather than part of a care plan with measurable goals and steps. Worse still, Mukherjee said, is when a video visit concludes simply by scheduling an in-person visit, essentially making the health system bear the cost of two visits instead of one. But, Mukherjee said, the true failure would be if telehealth does not take advantage of the clinical and cost breakthroughs possible through increasingly advanced technology leading to a fully integrated digital health platform. COVID has been to telehealth what the 1978 New York City blizzard was to ATMs. For banking, ATMs were just a first step in greater efficiency, convenience, and use of technology. The responsibility of healthcare providers now is to keep telehealth momentum going. That means continuing to promote telehealth to consumers and clinicians. It means improving the execution and efficiency of current practices. It means advocating for fair payment for telehealth services. And most of all, it means developing, investing in, partnering for, and promulgating sophisticated new digital technology that can bring about major advances in outcomes, convenience, and affordability. COVID has had a devastating impact on the U.S. healthcare system, and we don’t yet know the intensity or duration of that impact. One positive glimmer that has come from COVID is the rapid adoption of telehealth. It is up to healthcare provider organizations to turn that glimmer into the bright light of progress. To fail in that effort would be to add yet another blow to the long list that COVID has delivered. Planning your virtual event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to book your healthcare speaker! By LeAnn Thieman. This was originally published on LeAnn's blog.
Exercise, even a little, can lengthen your life. Norwegian researchers also found that too much sitting was associated with a higher risk of early death. The study analyzed data from eight studies that included more than 36,000 adults, aged 40 and older, who were followed for an average of almost six years. During follow-up, nearly 6% of the participants died. After adjusting for other factors, the researchers concluded that any amount of physical activity, regardless of intensity, was associated with a significantly lower risk of early death. Death rates fell sharply as total activity increased to an amount that was similar to average activity levels in U.S. men and about 10% to 15% lower than activity levels in Scandinavian men and women. A similarly steep decline in death rates was associated with increasing amounts of light physical activity up to about 300 minutes (5 hours) a day, and moderate-intensity physical activity of about 24 minutes per day. The largest difference in early death risk, about 60% to 70%, was between the least and most physically active, with about five times more deaths among inactive people than among those who were most active. The researchers also found that spending 9.5 hours or more each day sitting was associated with a statistically significant increased risk of early death. Examples of light-intensity activity include slow walking or household tasks, such as cooking or washing dishes. Moderate activity includes brisk walking, vacuuming or mowing the lawn, while vigorous activity includes jogging, carrying heavy loads or digging. Guidelines recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity each week. These findings provide important information for public health recommendations and suggest that the message might simply be “sit less and move more, and more often.” To learn about healthy habits and how they can increase your overall health, contact SelfCare for HealthCare™. Planning your virtual event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to book your healthcare speaker! By Donna Cardillo
I recently presented to a group of women and spoke about how important it is not to lose oneself in caregiving (whether a parent or taking care of an ill, elderly or disabled loved one) and that it is vital to maintain something for/of themselves. Afterward, a woman came up to me and shared that ever since she was a kid she wanted to learn to play the drums. Her mother told her she could not but that she could take piano lessons. She did that for a while but didn’t like it. Again, she asked for drum lessons and her mother said no but that she could take guitar lessons. She didn’t want to do that so she never took music lessons again. When her husband died several years ago after a protracted illness, and at the age of 63, she signed up for drum lessons. When she showed up for the lessons, the teacher assumed she was the mother of the student. She loves playing the drums and is finally doing something she has wanted to do since she was a child. It’s never too late to follow your heart and your dreams and do the things you want to do. What part of your life has been on hold and needs nurturing? Looking for your next healthcare speaker? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to make your healthcare event a success! By John O'Leary. This was originally posted on JohnOLearyInspires.com. When John O'Leary was 9 years old, he suffered burns over 100% of his body and was expected to die. He is now an inspirational speaker and bestselling author, teaching more than 50,000 people around the world each year how to live inspired. John's first book, ON FIRE: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life was published March 15, 2016. John is a contributing writer for Huff Post and Parade.com. John is a proud husband and father of four and resides in St. Louis, MO. Order John’s book today anywhere books are sold.
Heart-ache from isolation and not belonging. Intense grief in the wake of loved ones dying due to accidents, illness and suicide. Great tension from financial insecurity. Destruction of our family home to fire. Twice. Total loss of physical health. Absolute lack of confidence, extreme self-doubt, uncertainty about the future. Daily physical pain. This is a partial list of struggles I’ve endured at different phases in my life. Partial! None of us ever seek struggle, yet the truth is it will appear along our journey. It will be incredibly painful and is certain to derail you from where you thought you were going. And yet. Adversity can serve as a great teacher.It can serve as a great teacher, offer insight, and propel you forward in a direction you never fathomed possible. So, next time you are going through challenge (and for many of us, that is today), remember to look out for these 5 surprising gifts gifts gained through adversity:
My friends, adversity is like a strong wind. It will most certainly tear away from us everything that can be torn. Yet, it will also leave the things that matter most… reminding us who we really are. Planning your virtual event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to book your healthcare speaker! By Courtney Clark
You want to be happy. You want to be less stressed. You want the good times to outweight the bad. So why is it so hard to be happy, even when you want it? For many of us, we’re going about happiness the wrong way. Thanks to our culture, the media, and just plain misunderstanding, we’re looking for happiness in all the wrong places. (And I want to be clear, here: if you struggle with mental health challenges like depression and anxiety, it’s not your fault. You aren’t depressed because you’re looking for happiness incorrectly. For you, it’s hard to be happy because of the chemicals in your brain, not because of your behavior. Keep reading if you want to, or bookmark this for later, but know I’m not talking to you). But for most of us, a better path to happiness is possible. It just requires a few behavior shifts. The Bad Stuff Really Does Outweigh the Good Your brain isn’t your best friend when it comes to happiness. Your brain is wired to be much more sensitive to bad news and threats than it is to good things. That makes sense when you think about your caveman ancestors, who needed to be ready to run if they caught even the smallest glimpse of a predator. It’s called negativity bias, and it’s a system that evolved to keep you safe from threats. But in today’s world, you don’t need to run from predators quite so often, yet your brain still pays more attention to negative experiences versus positive ones. Scientists say it takes 5 positive experiences to outweigh 1 negative experience. But the real key isn’t to just have 5 positive experiences, you have to notice that you’re having them! So as you go about your day, take note of the good things that happen. Did someone let you merge on the highway instead of being a jerk? Did your colleague praise your work? Did your kid say “I love you” without being prompted? If you force yourself to pay attention to the good stuff, too, you’ll find it easier to outbalance the bad stuff 5 to 1. The Happy Social Media Effect Social media has its good points. It can help us feel more connected to our networks, which is a strategy that can build happiness. But many people feel more dis-connected when they spend time on social media. The online world allows us to glimpse all the fun, happy times other people are having, and we naturally compare our own lives to what we see on the screen. I love the Anne Lamott quote “Never compare your insides to somebody else’s outsides.” But that’s exactly what we do on social media! We see the bright shiny image that the person on the other side wants us to see, and that’s all. And then we compare that to our own internal worries, doubts, and struggles, and we come up short in comparison. But the person posting on social media has worries, doubts, and struggles, too! They just aren’t posting those moments. If you need to take a social media break, do it. Or at least hide the people who make you feel less-than. Make social media work for you, not the other way around. You Can’t Chase Happiness If you want to be happy, it makes sense that pursuing happiness should be a priority. But that’s the exact wrong way to go about it. In fact, research suggests that pursuing happiness can lead to decreased happiness. Especially in the US, our cultural expectations for pursuing happiness can lead us down the wrong paths, like expecting a big work promotion to make us satisfied. Instead of chasing happiness, it’s more important to chase “meaning.” Meaning is the idea that we know our purpose and are fulfilling our purpose. Meaning isn’t as in-the-moment joyful as happiness might be, but meaning provides the long-term satisfaction and contentment that lasts. To start chasing meaning instead of happiness, think about the moments when you feel like you come alive. Think about serving the greater good. Think about what drives you to keep going. When you tie all those concepts together, you’ll be on the road to finding your meaning. And meaning makes your heart glow for a lifetime, while happiness can be fleeting. It’s not easy to be happy. But it IS possible, if you pay attention to the things that truly matter. Planning your virtual event? Get in touch with us at the Capitol City Speakers Bureau today to book your healthcare speaker! |
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