Welcome to The Own Your Health Podcast.
I'm Cyndi Lynne, and I can't wait to
help you step into your health power.
So today we're going to talk about this is episode
21, kind of excited, owning your health in the moment.
And this is part three of a four
part series, five part series on the environment -
and your environment as it relates to your health.
Now, this follows episodes on owning your health at
home and owning your health on the road.
And if you haven't already listened, go
ahead and listen to those now.
I'll put links to those shows in the show notes below.
So today's episode all about owning
your health in the moment.
Now, I like to think of the moment, the time
that we have just right now, where we are, what
we're doing, what we're experiencing to be a little microenvironment.
And it's a very crucial one because it informs,
it shapes your mood, it shapes your health.
Just a little moment to moment
as we move through the day.
And very often when we look at events, we look
at our calendar, we look at the appointments, but the
times in between often have an even bigger impact on
our health than the ones that we really focus on.
So I want to take a little
time to talk about that today.
So as we're sitting here, as you're listening to this,
wherever you may be, I want you to pause for
just a moment and think about what's going on in
your microenvironment, in your moment right now.
What kind of sound is there?
What's the sound level?
What's the light level?
What's the temperature?
How do you feel about the space that you're in?
Who's around you?
What's the mood of the space?
Are you somewhere light and happy?
Are you somewhere quiet and subdued?
Are you somewhere frantic?
Just be aware of what's going
on in your moment right now.
And all of these things change from moment to moment.
But bringing your awareness to them allows
you to do a couple of things.
You can either adjust yourself or sometimes
it's very possible to adjust the environment.
If it's an opportunity to adjust the
environment, absolutely, go ahead and do that.
So if you're in a space that's really noisy
or kind of dark and gloomy, it needs more
light, it needs less sound, it needs more space.
That speaks to your external environment.
And we talked more about that in the very first
part of this series on your home and the second
part on owning your health on the road.
So when you can change your external environment
to make it more pleasant to you? Absolutely
go ahead and do this.
But for this episode, when we talk about in
the moment, it's much more of a transient sort
of feeling, a transient sort of experience.
So let me give you an example.
Say a group of you and your friends get together,
you're doing some activity, you're out for lunch, you're working
on a project together, and everyone's having a really good
time, and you're talking and you're laughing.
All of a sudden, you just
don't feel good in the experience.
You sense that something has shifted.
And when you bring your awareness to what it
is, you realize that all of a sudden, first
one or two people, and now all of a
sudden, everyone in the group seems to be talking
about their ailments, their health problems, their doctoring.
And the conversation really becomes, and I bring this
example up because this has happened to me recently.
So a group of people, and they started talking
about, and the message, the wording quickly became this.
Oh, yeah.
Well, once you turn 50, there's going to
be medications and you have to start doctoring,
and that's just the way it is.
Now, those of you who know me and those
of you who know that I do a podcast
called Own Your Health, know that that's completely out
of alignment with what I believe. And do
I speak with people about their ailments? Absolutely.
I coach people all of the time.
I coach people who are newly diagnosed and helping
them navigate life with this particular, especially cancer.
My primary specialty is helping women,
executive women manage cancer diagnoses.
What does life look like after that?
And then after you're through the acute
stage, what does it look like?
So I have no objection whatsoever to
talking to people about their illness.
But it quickly became, instead of just sharing
a particular experience and looking for support or
looking for encouragement, it came to be this
commonly heard refrain about, oh, yeah, once you
get older, that's just it need to climb.
There's going to be pills.
There's going to be prescription.
Oh, how many pills are you on?
How many pills do you take?
This kind of conversation, and that's totally out
of alignment with me and with a lot
of the people that I know.
And in that situation, you can very quickly feel your energy
being brought down, or you can feel the frustration or you
can feel the argument in your head and you want to
just say, no, that's not how it has to be.
So in that micro environment, in that moment,
you, in terms of owning your health and
well being, have a couple of choices.
You can say just that.
Wait a minute, guys, when did we
start thinking of ourselves as getting old?
When did we start thinking it's normal
to be on a bunch of medications?
When did we start looking at just aging and
getting sick, rather than saying, okay, I have this
particular thing going on, this is what I'm doing
to address it, I'm going to move through it.
So just that change in mindset, right?
So you could bring that up, you could share your
point of view on that, and if it's a close
group of friends, you may be able to actually pull
them back into the microenvironment of laughter and enjoyment or
even serious conversation of whatever you were working on.
If that's not the case.
And I can tell you that some people thrive on that
sick role, some people like everything that comes with it.
Those obviously are not my clients, but I'm very
well aware of those people and I actually have
those people come forward and argue with me when
I talk about owning our health, owning our attitude
about the health managing things, absolutely.
But not becoming our illnesses.
And there's people who want that.
And like I said, they'll actually come at me and they'll
argue with me that, no, when you have an illness, it
takes over your whole life and you don't understand,
and all of these things. Blessings to them, and
I hope it all works out for them.
Those of us who are managing our environment in this
micro moment also have an opportunity to step away so
that we can recalibrate, we can take a breath, we
can think for ourselves, and it can be as simple
as saying, you know what, I'm going to step outside
and take phone call or I'm not having very much
fun in this conversation,
I'm going to go work over here.
Let me know when you're done talking all things sick.
You can do it in a light hearted way.
It doesn't have to be a judgmental way.
Owning your health, owning our health is choosing what we
consume and in the moment, because moments are so fleeting
and things can change so quickly, in the moment it's
very easy to consume something that we don't want.
And sometimes that moment passes and
we don't think anything about it.
But very often, like in the example that I
described, that moment can carry on and take on
a life of its own until it becomes not
a moment, but an afternoon or an evening.
So taking ownership of your health and saying, you know
what, I'm going to step away from this conversation,
this isn't nurturing to me,
this isn't helpful for me,
this isn't building who I want to be
and what I want for my health.
And I'll catch up with you in a little while.
I'll catch up with you on the next topic.
And don't be surprised if others
want to join you in that.
If others don't say, yeah,
let's talk about something else.
Let's change the subject.
Let's talk about something happier.
Now, it's not to say that you don't
give friends support or that you can't speak
to one another about health challenges.
Very often we learn from others,
especially if they're like minded.
The difference is, is it a constructive conversation or
is it just perpetuating this feeling of helplessness and
the exact opposite of owning your health?
You decide.
Once you're aware you have the control,
you can step away for a bit,
you can introduce a new topic, you
can tell a joke, again, light hearted,
but that's taking ownership of your health.
It's just that simple, moment to moment.
So another example.
Have you ever found yourself in just kind of
a bad mood and you're not really sure why?
I've had this happen.
I've been home alone.
There hasn't been anybody else who's been giving
me bad news or saying unpleasant things.
And you just kind of find yourself in a
heavy mood, a dark mood, a bad mood.
Once you become aware of that, and again, awareness
with all of this stuff is the key.
You can ask yourself, is this how I
want to feel in this moment?
Now, it might be.
You may be coming off of a tough
situation and you may just want to experience
bad feelings for a while, and that's okay.
We don't run away from our feelings.
We process them.
We experience them.
But occasionally a mood can kind of
come over you with no real reason.
And you don't really want to feel that way.
So, you can decide to do something else.
Now, the fastest way to change your
mood is to move your body.
And I'm not talking about doing a five mile
run, although that will definitely change your mood.
I'm talking about going for a walk,
changing your scenery, changing your perspective.
Even if you're in the middle of working, pick
up your computer, go to a different room. Look
out a different window. Walk out and get the
mail. Take the dogs for a quick walk. Breathe.
Move that energy physically within your body and it will
shift and move the mood energy in your body.
Now, this is a theme that we teach in
the movement portion of The Heal Your Life Circle.
And that's a big focus for the month, and we
look at the importance of all kind of movement.
But in terms of our environment, moment to
moment, brief movement can have a huge impact.
And so I welcome you to give that a try.
It's a literally shake it off kind of thing.
Just get up, move around, shake it off.
And this can happen if you have feelings that you're
not really sure why they came on or if you
get some bad news or some disappointing news and you
don't want to stay in that moment of feeling badly.
Get up, move around, literally shake it off.
It will make a huge difference in how
your moment to moment processing starts working.
All right, let me see here. I had a couple of notes
with a couple of more recommendations.
I want to make sure that I hit them all.
Yes.
Shifting your body, moving, breathing. Yes.
And the final one is that change in perspective.
So I said, pick up your computer,
go somewhere else, move. When you change,
and this is such an old saying, it
sounds cliche, but when you change the way
you look at something, that thing actually changes.
And even if you're dealing with bad news in the
moment, a problem in the moment, struggles in the moment,
and this doesn't have to be huge health struggles.
This is the frustration of having a document get
lost for the third time in your computer.
All of these things affect our health
and owning our health means that we look at these
moments, that we look at these stressors, we look at
these situations and say, what can I do about them?
How can I change it?
I don't want this.
I want something different.
How do I get that?
So changing your perspective can
make a huge difference.
Changing where you're looking, changing how you're searching,
changing, getting up, going to refill your water
bottle and coming back and looking at your
screen anew can make a huge difference.
So I hope that this episode has given you a little
bit of an insight to what moment to moment environment can
be and how much impact you can actually have on your
life overall by owning your health in these moments.
So thank you for joining me.
If you like what you're hearing, subscribe, rate it.
I love to hear your thoughts.
If you have any questions, absolutely, let me know.
I do answer them.
I answer my email myself.
So until next week, let's go out there and own it.
