Photo credit: I took this photo in New Orleans, Louisiana. I chose it to represent today’s podcast because the musician and the vibrant colours evoke a lot of emotion — for me, at any rate.
Welcome to my podcast, Healing with Dr Helena, where I challenge the limiting way we currently view disease, and offer a new paradigm for vibrant health and true healing. If modern medicine isn’t providing you with enough answers, and you want to come alive and thrive, rather than merely survive, this podcast is for you.
It’s also for people who want to boost their brain to perform at their peak, avoid Alzheimer’s and other dementias, and live longer, stronger, healthier and happier.
Each episode comprises four parts:
- A Brain Booster
- A Health Headline
- An Exploration of What’s Missing from Modern Medicine
- A Whether Report where I answer your whether questions eg ‘I’d like to know whether you can really die of a broken heart?’
So here’s a glimpse of episode 8.
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Today’s Brain Booster is: Train your brain to reframe.
Have you ever put your foot in it and unintentionally offended someone? Or received notification that your job interview was unsuccessful?
Before you know it, your mood has plummeted. Even though physically nothing has happened to you, your heart rate and blood pressure rise, your muscles tighten, and you start replaying the event in your mind.
Why couldn’t I just have kept my mouth shut? Now that person’s going to hate me.
I’m hopeless at interviews. I’m never going to get a job.
But all of that is just my interpretation. The person I unintentionally offended might have forgotten about the incident, or not been as offended as I thought. And the job might have had hundreds of applicants and I did well to get to the interview stage.
So it’s not the event that’s inherently mood-dampening; it’s what I’m telling myself about the event. It’s the meaning I attach to my experiences that determines their impact. And that’s where a powerful brain skill can come in and rescue the day: cognitive reframing — also sometimes called cognitive reappraisal. Tune into this week’s podcast to find out why cognitive reframing can improve both our physical and mental health.
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Today’s Health Headline is: Every symptom is a signal.
I first introduced the idea of every symptom being a signal in podcast episode 1, but we only scratched the surface. Today we’re going to explore the concept further because it’s an example of cognitive reframing. In fact, my entire approach to healing is grounded in four cognitive reframes:
- Disease is a doorway — not a defect.
- Symptoms are a signal — not a scourge.
- Cancer is a catalyst — not a catastrophe.
- Pain is a paradox — not a problem.
Instead of regarding disease as something that gets in the way of living a full life, reframe it as the very thing you need to guide you to a full life. Reframe disease as your body communicating to you that there’s some sort of conflict in your life that needs to be resolved, or at least acknowledged. This approach may take more time and energy than medications or surgery, but do you want the path of popping pills or the path to personal power?
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What’s missing from modern medicine is acknowledging that emotions impact our physical health, not just our mental health.
Modern medicine relegates emotions to the domain of mental health and psychologists. But emotions also have a HUGE impact on our physical health. Suppressing our emotions can make us sick, while learning to feel can heal.
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And today’s Whether Report answers a question I was asked at a recent presentation: ‘When it comes to the benefits of expressive writing, can you tell me whether typing on a computer is as effective as handwriting in a journal?’
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Click here to watch the episode on my YouTube channel, or listen to Healing with Dr Helena on your preferred podcast platform. I’ll publish a new episode every Monday, and you’ll receive an email notification that morning. Please subscribe to my podcast or YouTube channel so that you don’t miss an episode, and send your whether questions to: podcast@drhelenapopovic.com
If you’re happy for me to play your voice on my podcast, you can provide an audio file. Otherwise, you can type your question for me to read out.
I very much look forward to answering your questions, and exploring how we can all build a smarter brain, stronger body and deeply fulfilling life.
Please share this Health-e-Byte with anyone who might find my podcast useful or interesting.
