044 - Positive Mental Attitude Through Covid Lockdown for VetMed Professionals

welcome to paws claws and w2t noses. Hi, I'm Julie south and you're listening to the veterinary sector podcast, celebrating all creatures great and small, and the fantabulous professionals who look after them all. Here we are at episode 44 and today. We're looking at mindset, how you can stay sane and positive when the world around you appears to be spinning out of control and other little covert crazy.

Now I like to think that I'm a reasonably good person. I've got good skills at focusing on the positive. Although I haven't always been this way and every now and again, I find myself hitting down a very slippery slope of a downward spiral that seems to take quite a hell of a lot of energy to get back out of it.

I have a few strategies that I've developed over the years to help me stay living in the light things that I know I need to do when I find myself in the shadows and, or starting on that downward spiral. And I'll share those with you at the end. This past week, while we've been stuck and alert level four here in  gods zone, New Zealand, I've noticed an upswing and the type of emails and phone calls that I've been receiving.

And it appears that they, you know, this is life. According to Julie, it appears that the underlying tension that vets and nurses have in their lives appears great. And understand re everybody's more stressed, little things. Those seem to get, get to them more and they've had enough. So they're ringing me because they want a change.

One of the standard questions that Isabel and I always ask is why are you looking to change jobs? And surprisingly, many of the people who call us actually enjoy their jobs. They love. Working where they're working, but what they're feeling is fit up under or not appreciated overworked, tired and exhausted.

So we talk and we talk and we talk and I'm here just to listen. That's fine. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about their physical state, but I can help them with the mental one. I prefer to see the best in people. I like to think that everyone is doing the best with what they have and where they are.

This means even managers who don't say thank you nearly often enough. I believe that people are inherently good people, not bad people. I'd rather lift someone up, then knock them down. And these other fundamentals that this is the view of how I see other people in the world let's take feeling appreciated.

For example, I believe that people would have given the choice, swing to the side of wanting the people in their lives to feel appreciated rather than taken for granted. Do you know, for example, how the people that you work or live with know that you appreciate them, unless you asked someone outright.

How would you like me to show you that I appreciate you and they know themselves well enough. Most of us will show others how we, that we appreciate them the way we want to be appreciated ourselves, which may be different to how the other person feels like or wants to be appreciated, knows they're being appreciated.

And during lockdown last year, Way back then 18 months ago, I uploaded a questionnaire on to VIT staff's website to help employers and employees discover how people like to be appreciated at work. It's a free questionnaire. You don't have to provide your email or anything like that, and only takes about five minutes to complete, and it helps you discover how you like to be appreciated at work.

I recommend that all teams complete it, especially now, and that everyone that means then that everyone can talk the language of appreciation that each individual understands. I'll put the direct link to them. Episode on the episode page at paws claws with noses dot F M. Remember we're at episode 44, go to vet staff.co.nz, and search along the menu for job seekers.

Scroll down to language of appreciation at work question. 

And all vet told my father when he was a student in Glasgow. He said, if you want to be a success in veterinary practice, just keep the bowels open and just arrested. God. Nutrition is not an opinion. It's a science. They called me that weird herbal needle.

That, and I, I just remember thinking. Well, I'm still gonna do it cause I know it works and I've got the research to back it from reminiscences of the real James Harriet son to P nutrition, to acupuncture the big podcast, discusses current animal health issues from around the world on veterinarian, Brian greeter from New Zealand, just search for the fit podcast.

Wherever you get your podcasts from

paws, claws and wet noses is sponsored by vet staff. If you've never heard of it, staff it's new, Zealand's only full service recruitment agency. 100% dedicated to the veterinary sector and Fitz staff has been around since 2015 and works nationwide from Kate, rehang it to the bluff and everywhere in between as well as helping Kiwis fit staff.

Also hubs overseas, qualified veterinarians find work and art here on reserve. Fit staff.co dot indeed. I said I've found my mindset getting a bit wobbly. This last fortnight. I'm comfortable being an introvert. I've worked from a dedicated home office now for coming up 15 years. Almost bet. Before people did that back before working from home was an acceptable thing before zoom was ever a thing.

I used to hold my meetings on Skype. And then in 2011, someone invented zoom and I've never looked back, but I figured if I were starting to notice being confined, being locked down, when I'm an introvert, then others must definitely be feeling it too. So let's start with taking control in your head of your thoughts.

Let's start with getting rid of the negative thinking, which is much easier, said than done now to help you understand why we seem so fixated on the negative. Here's an extract from a TEDx talk at UC Davies, entitled getting stuck in the negatives by Dr. Alison Littlewood. I'll put the entire talk on pause clause with noses dot.

If M if you'd like to watch it all because I've, I. Clipped it in various bits throughout just to help it be easier to listen to here. Dr. Ledgewood joined the department of psychology at UC Davis and at 2008, after completing her PhD in social psychology at New York university, her interest as an understanding how people think and how they can think big.

Her research, which is funded by the national science foundation investigates. How certain ways of thinking about an issue tend to stick in people's heads. Her classes on social psychology, focus on understanding the way people think and behave and social situations and how to harness that knowledge to potentially improve the social world in which we all live.

I thought I would talk a little today about how people. I'm fascinated by this question. I'm a social psychologist, which basically means I'm a professional people watch her. So this is what I do. I try to figure out how humans think and how we might be able to think better. Why does a failure seem to stick in our minds so much longer than a success?

Well, together with my colleague, Amber Boydston in the political science department, I started thinking about this question. This question of do our minds get stuck in the night. We all know intuitively that there are different ways of thinking about things. The same glass, the saying goes, can be seen as half full or half empty.

And there's a lot of research in the social sciences, showing that depending on how you describe the glass to people as half full or half empty, it changes how they feel about it. So if you described the glass as half full, this is called a gain frame because you're focusing on what's gained, then people.

But if you describe the same glass as half empty a loss frame, then people don't like it. But we wondered what happens when you try to switch from thinking about it. One way to thinking about it another way. Can people shift back and forth or do they get stuck in one way of thinking about it does one of these labels.

In other words, tend to stick more in the mind while to investigate this question, we conducted a simple experiment. We told participants in our experiment about a new surgical procedure. And we randomly assigned them to one of two conditions for participants in the first condition. The first group we described the surgical procedure in terms of gains.

We said it had a 70% success rate. And for participants in the second group, we described the procedure in terms of losses. We said it had a 30% failure rate. So it's the exact same procedure. We're just focusing people's attention on the part of the glass that's full or the part of the glass that's empty.

Perhaps unsurprisingly people like the procedure when it's described as having a 70% success rate. And they don't like it when it's described as having a 30% failure rate. But then we added a twist. We told the participants in the first group, you know, you could think of this as a 30% failure rate, and now they don't like it anymore.

They've changed their minds. And we told participants and the second group, you know, you could think of this as a 70% success rate, but unlike the first. They stuck with their initial opinion. They seem to be stuck in the initial loss frame that they saw at the beginning of the study, we conducted another experiment.

This time we told participants about the current governor of an important state who was running for reelection against his opponent. We again had two groups of participants and we described the current governor's track record to them in one of two. We said that when the current governor took office statewide, budget cuts were expected to affect about 10,000 jobs.

And then half the participants read that under the current governor's leadership, 40% of these jobs have been saved and they like the current governor. They think he's doing a great job. The rest of the participants read that under the current governor's leadership, 60% of these jobs had been lost and they don't like the current governor.

They think he's doing a terrible job, but then once more we added it. For participants in the first group, we reframed the information in terms of losses, and now they didn't like the current governor anymore. And for participants in the second group, we reframed the information in terms of gains, but just like in the first study, this didn't seem to matter people in this group still didn't like the current governor.

So notice what this means. Once the loss frame gets in there, it's. People can't go back to thinking about jobs saved once they've thought about jobs lost. So in both of these scenarios, actually the current governor gets ousted in favor of his opponent. Well, at this point we were getting curious, why does this happen?

Could it be that it's actually mentally harder for people to convert from losses to gains than it is for them to go from gains to loss? So we conducted a third study to test how easily people could convert from one frame to another. This time we told participants, imagine there's been an outbreak of an unusual disease and 600 lives are at stake.

And we asked participants in one group, if a hundred lives are saved, how many will be lost? And we asked participants in the other group, if a hundred lives are lost, how many will be seen? So everyone just has to calculate 600 minus 100 and come up with the answer of 500. But whereas people in one group have to convert from gains to losses in order to do that, people in the second group have to convert from losses to gains.

We timed how long it took them to solve the simple math problem. And what we found was that when people had to convert from gains to losses, they could solve the problem quite quickly, took them about seven seconds on that. But when they had to convert from losses to gains well, now it took them far longer, almost 11 seconds.

So this suggests that once we think about something as a loss, that way of thinking about it tends to stick in our heads and to resist our attempts to change it. What I take away from this research and from related research is that our view of the world has a fundamental tendency to tilt toward the night.

It's pretty easy to go from good to bad, but far harder to shift from bad to good. We literally have to work harder to see the upside of things and this matters. So think about the economy here's economic well-being from 2007 to 2010, and you can see it tanked just like we all remember. And then by late 2010, it had recovered by most objective measures, but here's consumer confidence over the same time.

You can see it tanks right along with the economy, but then it seems to get stuck instead of rebounding with the economy itself, consumers seem to be psychologically stuck back there in the recession. So oddly then it may take more effort to change our minds about how the economy is doing than to change the economy itself.

On a more personal level with this research means to me, is that you have to work to see the options. Literally, this takes work. This takes effort, and you can practice this. You can train your mind to do this better. There is research out of UC Davis showing that just writing for a few minutes each day, about things that you're grateful for can dramatically boost your happiness and wellbeing and even your health.

We can also rehearse good news and share it with them. We tend to think, right? That misery loves company that venting will help get rid of our negative emotions. That we'll feel better if we just talk about how terrible our day was. And so we talk and we talk and we talk about the boss, who's driving us crazy.

And the friend who never called us back and the meeting at work where every little thing that could go wrong dead, but we forget to talk about the good stuff. And yet that's exactly where our minds need the most practice. So my husband, who has this disconcerting habit of listening to what I say other people should do, and then pointing out that technically speaking, I'm a person too

has taken to listening to me for about two minutes on days when I come home all grumpy and complaining about everything and he listens and he says, okay, But what happened today? That was good. And so I tell him about the student who came up to me after class with this really interesting, insightful question.

And I tell him about the friend who emailed me out of the blue this morning, just to say hello. And somewhere in the telling, I start to smile and I start to think that maybe my day was pretty decent. I think we can also work in our communities to focus on the upside. We can be more aware that bad tends to stick.

One mean comment can stick with somebody all day, all week, even, and bad tends to propagate itself, right? Somebody snaps at you and you snap back and you snap at the next guy too. But what if the next time somebody snapped at you? You forgave them. What if the next time you had a really grumpy waitress?

You left her an extra large. Our minds may be built to look for negative information and to hold onto it, but we can also retrain our minds if we put some effort into it and start to see that the glass maybe a little more full than we initially. 

One of the first things I do when I find myself focusing on the negative things.

Like what if it doesn't work? What if something goes wrong? What if I fail? What if we never get out of lockdown? What if this pandemic never goes away? It's to reframe the same negative question, but juxtaposed by 182 grace, for example, what if it doesn't work becomes, but what if it does work? What if I fail?

But what if I succeed? What, or this pandemic never goes away, but what if it does the trick with this? Apart from turning the question around 180 degrees is editing the box. And to your self rebuttal question, but what earth does because inserting the, but negates everything that came before it. So not only am I creating a pattern interrupt, I'm also canceling out the prior question with a.

The next time you find yourself getting caught up in this downward spiral of doom and gloom of negativity, catch yourself. And I realize it's easier said than done, but the sooner you catch yourself, the sooner you can start and then turn the question around 180 degrees and ask the butt question. So what if it, you know, turn it around, but what.

Now, changing the subject a little bit. I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Paul Jenkins, another us clinical psychologist who specializes on the science of the science and the practice of positivity in January of this year. So that's 2021. As I'm recording this episode, he recorded a YouTube video entitled nine ways to stay positive during the Corona virus pinch.

Again, I'll put the full video on the pause clause with noses dot F M episode page. If you'd like to watch the whole thing now, because. Dr. Jenkins talks much slower than we are used to here. Done under I've increased the replay speed on the clips. You're about to hear on YouTube. I found that I could still understand him listening at a playback speed of one and a half times.

I'm Dr. Paul Jenkins. I'm a clinical psychologist with a specialty in positivity, and these skills are especially important right now, as we deal with this global pandemic, the first way to stay positive is to stay physically active. You need to do this for a lot of reasons. Your brain needs physical activity.

This surprises some people because they know that their body needs physical activity will heads up. Your brain is an organ in your body. And it's the biggest energy hog in the whole system, by the way. So that physical activity makes a physical activity has long been shown to beat antidepressant medication.

In some of the clinical trials, when we're dealing with our mental health, that's going to be important to our positive. Number two practice daily gratitude. Gratitude has long been shown to be an important component of positivity. And it's the fastest way I know to jumpstart your positivity. Here's how I want you to try this practice.

Gratitude specifically about the context that's causing you trouble. Now we're talking about the Corona virus pandemic here today. So look at the virus, look at the pandemic, look at everything that's associated with it and find something to be grateful for. In that circumstance, you can switch this up and do it for a relationship or your job or anything else.

But as long as we're talking about the pandemic, find what you're grateful for in it. You know, I was talking to one of my colleagues in Europe who is a pediatrician and she specializes in parenting and assisting people with some of the same things that I do. Her four-year-old daughter came to her and said, mommy, I love Iris.

She's like what? Yeah. I love virus. Cause my mommy's home. Yeah. Little four year old. Okay. If a four year old can find something to be grateful for in this pandemic, how about you practice gratitude? Another thing to keep in mind is the importance of the right fuel eat. Well. I know we're dealing with a lot of stressors out there and that's even more of a reason to make sure you're running good fuel through your body.

You want to take good care of the equipment and proper nutrition is an important way to maintain your positivity, especially. In the face of stressors that are going on like a pandemic. The fourth way I want to mention is mental hygiene. Look, your brain, your mind is more important than your teeth and my invitation to you would be to spend at least as much time on your mental hygiene as you do on your dental hygiene.

The next way, stay positive during the pandemic, go outside, go outside, breathe some air and look. Look up into the trees. Look up into the mountains, look up into the stars. If it's at nighttime, go outside brief some air, enjoy the beauty of the world that we live in. And incidentally going outside in the car, doesn't count because you're inside the car.

I want you outside nature. Looking up, give it a try. Number six, please be very selective about the input. Going into your mind, if you trust the mainstream or the social media to provide the input that you need to stay positive. I think your trust is very misplaced. We've got to be a lot more intentional and selective about what's going in because that affects our thinking.

It affects our mood. It affects our ability to be positive. You know, one of the great things about a pandemic who says that by the way, is that a little. But it's true. One of the great things about a pandemic is that there are multiple abundant opportunities to serve. So this particular tip is go serve somebody, get your focus outside of yourself and look for opportunities to serve.

This is life-changing. One of my clients called me couple of years ago. I still remember this because it was so profound. He was in a dark place. He was in a different city on a business. Stuck in his hotel room because he couldn't get himself out of bed to go do what he was called to that town to do. I invited him because I was busy getting onto another call in just a few minutes.

I invited him to spend some time. In the next hour. And I would call him back making a meaningful difference for at least three people. He wasn't even sure how he was going to get out of bed. I said, do whatever it takes. You go down to the hotel lobby, find somebody, find somebody to serve. I want you to make a meaningful difference for at least three people in the next hour.

I'll call you back. Call them back in an hour. Guess what things were a whole lot better for him because he got his focus outside of himself. Which was causing a lot of misery for him in that moment. And he focused on other people who needed his help and assistance. Can you find somebody, can you find somebody right now in your immediate surroundings that could use your help go serve somebody, number eight, shift your thinking from I can't, because.

To how can I just because we're dealing with a global pandemic doesn't mean that we have to shut down life. We may need to do it differently. You've probably noticed this. Can you still have the family reunion? Absolutely. And you're going to hold it virtually the last way. Leads with us. Hire a coach, join a community, start a mastermind group.

We don't have to do this alone. And to stay positive requires that we engage in connect with other people who are also interested in staying positive. There'll be a little selective here because there are groups that would take you a different direction. And I think, you know what I mean? So watch out for the negative Nellies out there and intentionally engage with those who are choosing a positive.

That will support you and you in turn can support them to create more positivity. During this pandemic, engage on a virtual platform, call someone on the phone, send the good old fashioned letter. There's still ways to engage with people. You're going to have to be a little bit more creative about it, but it's still really important.

Let's just do a quick summary of that. Nine ways to stay positive during a Corona virus, pandemic stay physically active practice daily gratitude eat well, choose your fuel wisely. And I know that some clinics prior to lockdown, which we didn't know anything about, we're actually doing a 21 day receipt fuel receipt.

Look after your mental hygiene, get outside every day and look. Watch your mental input, be aware of what you're listening to. And that means the rubbish on the radio and the TV or the negativity or the negativity or the doom and gloom. So just be aware of what's going into your head and serve someone, shift your thinking from a can't to how can I engage with others?

If you want more information for Dr. Jenkins, you can find him@liveonpurposecentral.com. Again, I'll put that list. That link on the Postgres wet noses dot if in website now, and that last clip, Dr. Jenkins mentioned five ways to maintain mental health. And here are those. I've done quite a bit of editing in this clip.

So again, I'll put the full video on the show notes, page of episode 44. 

If you'll do all five of these tips, I guarantee your mental health will improve. Obviously an important part of mental hygiene is your brain and your brain is a physical organ in your body and it does require maintenance. So part of your mental hygiene is to maintain the equipment of your brain, your physical brain.

There's some important things that go into this particular step, get enough sleep. The research shows that sleep is extremely important to your brain and maintaining the health of the actual organ. Sleep is important for renewal and rejuvenation, and also purging some of the old stuff that needs to be cleared out.

So get enough sleep. And we're talking probably on the average eight to 10 hours for most people, it might be as low as six, depending on your age and health, but you've got to get that good sleep in while we're on the physical maintenance of your. Diet also extremely important. Eat a well balanced diet.

I'm not a nutritionist, so I'm not going to give you all of the details about that. But you know, the basics here and you probably can identify right away some things about your diet that could be improved. You probably know where I'm going. Next, physical exercise, regular physical exercise. And I'm seeing in most of the things that I read on this particular topic, three to five times a week, you need to engage in groups.

Aerobic exercise, where you get the heart rate up. You want to break out into a sweat a little bit, work that body, this is really important to your brain. There's going to be some obvious benefits for other aspects of your health. But remember, we're talking about brain maintenance here, and finally, while we're on the brain maintenance, your brain needs regular periods.

Of meditation, solitude, prayer, something that allows you to quiet all of the noise and reconnect with your purpose. It's interesting that that feels to be a more psychological intervention, but really it has to do with the physical functioning of the organ in your head. So take care of the equation. An important part of daily mental hygiene is gratitude, practice gratitude, but here's the key.

You practice gratitude about what it is, the way it is without changing anything the way it is right now, not gratitude for what it could be or how you could change it or how it could come about in the future. I'm talking about the way it is right now. And there's important reasons for that. It's really easy to get sucked into some negativity.

When we start to see our current circumstances as being unfavorable well, at the end of the day, our current circumstances are neutral. It could always be better. It could always be worse. Practicing gratitude allows you to see the good that already exists in abundance in your life right now, without changing anything.

And that changes the game when we're talking about mental hygiene and here's how it works. Daily positive input. What are you putting into your mind? I guarantee if you leave it to default and trust the media, either mainstream or social media. Pick, whichever one, if you want to trust the media for the input into your mind, you're going to run into some trouble.

Have you noticed how negative a lot of it is? Daily positive input. What are you listening to? What are you reading? What are you watching? We are as human beings, social creatures, even if you consider yourself to be an introvert connection with other people is important and you might just do it differently, especially when we're dealing.

Situational factors like social distancing. It's important for us to come up with ways to engage with other people, make this a regular part of your mental hygiene. Find ways to connect to network, to mastermind, to serve. These are ways that you get outside of yourself and psychologically speaking. It's a really important factor in managing our mental health.

Let's get connected. 

Dr. Jenkins said there were five, but I counted eight. Here's my eight, make a decision to commit, get enough sleep, eat a well balanced diet, regular physical exercise. That's happy puffy stuff back when here's something that you didn't know about me. And if you met me, you'd probably be really surprised.

Once upon a time, I studied at AUT and I studied sports science. I have a qualification in personal training and it was, there was research for people that went to the gym. Those who went to the gym three days a week or five days a week, actually stuck to their routine more than those who just went four days a week.

So commit and get regular physical exercise. That was just a useless piece of information, regular periods of quiet meditation, prayer and solitude practice daily gratitude. The way everything is right now, not in the future, but now daily positive input. Be aware of what you're reading. On social media and listening to and connect with others.

Get outside of yourself. That's crank it up again, still in the U S this next exercise is from a Simon Sinek. You may know of him as the best selling author. He wrote the book, find your why, and he's also a speaker. Now, this is a presentation. He made two new look, which is an organization that helps teens find it.

This spark or their passion and live with purpose driven lives. If you want to watch cynics full speech, it'll be on the show notes. Page, episode 44. Is the, here are the, the main points of what hers, five rules to follow to help you find your S your spark. 

I have five little rules that you can follow as you find your spark and bring your spark to life.

The first is to go after the things that you want. Let me tell you a story. So a friend of mine and I, we went for a run in central park, the road runners organism. Uh, on the weekends, they host races and it's very common at the end of the race. They'll have a spot or who will give away something apples or bagels or something.

And on this particular day, when we got to the end of the run, there were some free bagels and they had picnic tables set up and on one side was a group of volunteers on the table were boxes of bagels. And on the other side was a long line of runners waiting to get their freedom. So I said to my friend, let's, let's get a bagel.

And he looked at me and said, uh, that line's too long. And I said, free bagel. And he said, I didn't want to wait in line. And I was like free bagel. And he says, nah, it's too long. And that's when I realized that there's two ways to see the world. Some people see the thing that they want. And some people see the thing that prevents them from getting the thing that they want.

I could only see the bagels. He could only see the line. And so I walked up to the line. I leaned in between two people, put my hand in the box and pulled out two bagels and no one got mad at me because the rule is you can go after whatever you want. You just cannot deny anyone. To go after whatever they want.

Now I had to sacrifice choice. I didn't get to choose which bagel I got. I got whatever I pulled out, but it didn't have to wait in line. So the point is is you don't have to wait in line. You don't have to do it the way everybody else has done it. You can do it your way. You can break the rules. You just can't get in the way of somebody else getting what they want.

That's rule number one, rule. Number two, I like. In the 18th century, there was something that spread across Europe and eventually made its way to America. Wearable fever, also known as the black death of child bed. Basically what was happening is women were giving birth and they would die within 48 hours after giving birth this black death of child.

Was the ravage of Europe and it got worse and worse and worse over the course of over a century. In some hospitals, it was as high as 70% of women who gave birth, who would die as a result of giving birth. But this was the Renaissance. This was the time of empirical data and science. And we had thrown away things like tradition and mysticism.

These were men of science. These were doctors. And these doctors and men of science, I wanted to study and try and find the reason for this black death of child bed. And so they got to work studying and they would study the corpses, uh, of the, of the women who had died. And in the morning they would conduct autopsies.

And then in the afternoon they would go and deliver babies and finish their rounds. And it wasn't until somewhere in the mid eighties. That Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, father of Supreme court, justice Oliver, Wendell Holmes realized that all of these doctors who were conducting autopsies in the morning, weren't washing their hands before they delivered babies in the afternoon.

And he pointed it out and said, guys, you're the problem. And they ignored him and called him crazy for 30. Until finally somebody realized that they simply washed their hands. It would go away. And that's exactly what happened when they started sterilizing their instruments and washing their hands. The black death of child bed disappeared.

My point is the lesson here is sometimes your, the.

We've seen this happen all too recently with our new men of science and empirical, uh, studiers. And these men have finance who are smarter than the rest of us until the thing collapsed and they blamed everything else except themselves. And my point is, is take accountability for your actions. You can take all the credit in the world for the things that you do.

As long as you also take responsibility for the things you do wrong, it must be a balanced equation. You don't get it one way and not the other. You get to take credit when you also take accountability. That's lesson two, lesson three, take care of each other. The United States Navy seals are perhaps the most elite warriors in the world.

And one of the seals. Was asked, who makes it through the selection process, who is able to become a seal. And his answer was, I can't tell you the kind of person that becomes a seal. I can't tell you the kind of person that makes it through buds, but I can tell you the kind of people who don't become. He says the guys that show up with huge bulging muscles covered in tattoos who want to prove to the world how tough they are.

None of them make it through. You said the preening leaders who like to delegate all their responsibility and never do anything themselves. None of them make it through the star college athletes. Who've never really been tested to the core of none of them make it. He says some of the guys that make it through are skinny and scrawny.

He said some of the guys that make it through, you will see them shivering out of fear. He says, however, all the guys that make it through when they find themselves physically. Emotionally spent when they have nothing left to give physically or emotionally, somehow some way they are able to find the energy to dig down deep inside themselves, to find the energy, to help the guy next to them.

They become seals. He said, you want to be an elite warrior. It's not about how tough you are. It's not about how smart you are. It's not about how fast. If you want to be an elite warrior, you better get really, really good at helping the person to the left of you and helping the person to the right of you.

Because that's how people advance in the world. The world is too dangerous and the world is too difficult for you to think that you can do these things alone. If you find your spark, I commend you now, who you going to ask for help? And when are you going to accept help? When it's offered, learn that skill, learn by practicing, helping each.

It will be the single most valuable thing you ever learned in your entire life to accept help when it's offered and to ask for it when you know that you can't do it. The amazing thing is when you learn to ask for help, you'll discover that there are people all around you who've always wanted to help you.

They just didn't think you needed it because you pretending that you had everything under control. And the minute you say, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm stuck. I'm scared. I don't think I can do that. You will find that lots of people who love you will rush in and take care of you, but that'll only happen if you learn to take care of them.

For first

lesson for Nelson Mandela is a particularly special case study in the leadership world because he is universally rugged. As a great leader, you can take other personalities. And depending on the nation, you go to, we have different opinions about other personalities, but Nelson Mandela across the world is universally regarded as a great leader.

He was actually the son of a tribal chief, and he was asked one day, how did you learn to be a great leader? And he responded that he would go with his father to tribal meetings and he remembers too. Yes. When his father would meet with other elders, one, they would always sit in a circle and two, his father was always the last to speak.

You will be told your whole life that you need to learn to listen. I would say that you need to learn to be the last to speak. I see it in boardrooms every day. Even people who consider themselves good leaders who may actually be decent leaders will walk into a room and say, here's the problem. Here's what I think.

But I'm interested in your opinion. Let's go around the room. It's too late. The skill to hold your opinions to yourself until everyone has spoken. Does two things. One, it gives everybody else. The feeling that they have been heard, it gives me, it gives everyone else the ability to feel that they have. And two, you get the benefit of hearing what everybody else has to think before you render your opinion.

The skill is really to keep your opinions to yourself. If you agree with somebody don't nod. Yes. If you disagree with somebody don't nod. Simply sit there, take it all in. And the only thing you're allowed to do is ask questions so that you can understand what they mean and why they have the opinion that they have.

You must understand from where they are speaking, why they have the opinion they have, not just what they're saying. And at the end you will get your turn. It sounds easy. It's not practice being the last. That's what Nelson Mandela did. Number three, number five, Monte Python, 1, 2, 5, 3, for all the other nerds in the audience.

There's one

number five. My favorite, one of all true story. There was a former under secretary of defense. Who was invited to give a speech at a large conference, about a thousand people. And he was standing on the stage with his cup of coffee and a styrofoam cup, giving his prepared remarks with his PowerPoint behind him.

And he took a sip of his coffee and he smiled and he looked down at the coffee and then he went off script and he said, you know, last year I spoke at this exact same conference. Last year, I was still the under. And when I spoke here last year, they flew me here, business class. And when I arrived at the airport, there was somebody waiting for me to take me to my hotel.

And they took me to my hotel and they had already checked me in and they just took me up to my room. And the next morning I came downstairs and there was someone waiting in the lobby to greet me and they drove me to this here. Same thing. They took me through the back entrance and took me into the green room and handed me a copy of a cup of coffee in a beautiful service  cup.

He says, I'm no longer the undersecretary. I flew here, coach. I took a taxi to my hotel and I checked myself in. When I came down the lobby this morning, I took another taxi to this. I came in the front door and found my way backstage. And when I asked someone, do you have any coffee? He pointed to the coffee machine in the corner and I poured myself self, a cup of coffee into this here, styrofoam cup.

He says the lesson is the ceramic cup was never meant for me. It was meant for the position I held. I deserve a styrofoam cup. Remember this as you gain faith. As you gain fortune as you gain position and seniority, people will treat you better. They will hold doors open for you. They will get you a cup of tea and coffee without you even asking, they will call you sir.

And ma'am, and they will give you stuff. None of that stuff has meant for you. That stuff has meant for the position you hold. It has meant for the level that you have achieved of leader or success or whatever you want to call it, but you will always. Deserve a styrofoam cup. Remember that, remember that lesson of humility and gratitude, you can accept all the free stuff.

You can accept all the perks. Absolutely. You can enjoy them, but just be grateful for them and know that they're not for you. And let's summarize cynic. He says, you can go after whatever you want provided you don't stop anyone else getting what they want. You get to take the credit when you take accountability, take care of each other, learn to ask and accept, help, and lift others up.

Practice being the last one to speak and be humble and be grateful. 

Did you notice that through all of those excerpts, there was one common denominator, common denominator, and that's practicing gratitude, gratitude for the here and gratitude for the now further gratitude sometimes has to be coupled with reframing, looking for the rainbow when it's absolutely checking it down because it will be there somewhere.

When you look for it, it mightn't be very bright or wow. Inducing, but it will be there. So doing the mind shift thing to being grateful while in lockdown, I'd like to share a couple of mine. Now I'm grateful that I'm able to work from home. I'm grateful that my home office has been set up and functions, dislike.

It's always done. And just like an office should, I don't have to try or attempt to work off an ironing board or off the dining room table. So I'm grateful for my home office and here's a reframe back in February. My husband had total knee replacement surgery. If you've been listening to my podcast for a while, you may have heard me mentioned that he's an airline pilot, airline pilots have to press some at pretty heavy duty medicals each year, which are all signed off by CAA the civil aviation authority.

We were just getting ready for Alan to get his medical. Re-instated when the Waikato DHB was attacked by ransomware hijackers, that delayed things for us by seven weeks, then Jasmine, we thought that we had put the delay behind us. Delta locked down here. These last six months have been testing. And I use testing in air quotes.

I've been the sole income owner in our household, and my income varies significantly, depending on how many vets I can help find their dream jobs and how many vets I have and the locum assignments when the borders are closed, it's hard. I had to dig deep, to be grateful for Delta and for the ransomware hijackers, because they've cost us.

They've doubled the time that Alan's been off work and not earning. However, I'm grateful for the time. This is my reframe. I'm grateful for the time that we've been spending together in the kitchen, cooking dinner together. I know that that wouldn't have happened if he'd returned to work, as soon as he was.

Who would have slotted straight back into working shifts and being away on average for three nights a week. That's, I'm grateful for that. So that's my reframe for looking at the positivity and the attitude of gratitude and the right near the right now, right here. Just because something's simple.

Doesn't mean to say that it's easy, if you're stuck. Trying to find the positive, look at what you can control, look for what you can change and then go from there. Look at how you can make something different with where you are and what you've got. I'm always interested in feedback. So please bring it forward.

Something else. I hope you'll find helpful as having your employment law questions answered. If you haven't caught up with this yet via social media, you've got until this coming Friday, the 3rd of September to send me any employment law questions, you'd like answered. I've invited stiff diabetic. Who's an employment lawyer of diabetic Drayton employment law onto paws claws witnesses.

And another lifetime stiff. And I used to work together at Russel McVay way back when it was Russell McVay, McKinsey bat lead and coach. We were both in the Wellington office. If you go to VIT staff.co dot N Z on the top line search for news and media, and then under that Q and a for postcards with noses podcast, that's where you can send us your question.

Also coming up as love your nurse competition to celebrate fitness awareness week in October, and you can register your interest for that competition again, at  news and media, and then scroll down to the fitness awareness week competition registration. We're giving a way. There is such a thing as a free lunch.

We're giving some free lunches away and tuna next week, because we've got Janet Netta or smart money advice. Who's answering the financial questions, asked by Messi's fit science students. The questions they asked are applicable. Our lives too. Not just students. If you haven't already please click that follow button wherever you listen to your podcasts.

That way you'll never miss out on an episode because your podcast app will deliver them straight into your podcast. Feed. This is Julie south signing off. Thank you for spending the last almost hour with me of your life. With me at pours claws wit noses Kia.   peace. Be with you. Take care and. God bless paws, claws and wet noses is sponsored by vet staff.

If you've never heard of it, staff it's new, Zealand's only full service recruitment agency. 100% dedicated to the veterinary sector and fit staff has been around since 2015 and works nationwide from Kate rehang to the bluff and everywhere in between as well as helping Kiwis fits. Also hubs overseas, qualified veterinarians find work and art hero and New Zealand it staff.co dot.

Indeed. .

 welcome to paws claws and wit nosers. Hi, I'm Julie south and you're listening to the veterinary sector podcast, celebrating all creatures great and small, and the fantabulous professionals who look after them all. Here we are at episode 44 and today. We're looking at mindset, how you can stay sane and positive when the world around you appears to be spinning out of control and other little covert crazy.

Now I like to think that I'm a reasonably good person. I've got good skills at focusing on the positive. Although I haven't always been this way and every now and again, I find myself hitting down a very slippery slope of a downward spiral that seems to take quite a hell of a lot of energy to get back out of it.

I have a few strategies that I've developed over the years to help me stay living in the light things that I know I need to do when I find myself in the shadows and, or starting on that downward spiral. And I'll share those with you at the end. This past week, while we've been stuck and alert level four here in  gods zone, New Zealand, I've noticed an upswing and the type of emails and phone calls that I've been receiving.

And it appears that they, you know, this is life. According to Julie, it appears that the underlying tension that vets and nurses have in their lives appears great. And understand re everybody's more stressed, little things. Those seem to get, get to them more and they've had enough. So they're ringing me because they want a change.

One of the standard questions that Isabel and I always ask is why are you looking to change jobs? And surprisingly, many of the people who call us actually enjoy their jobs. They love. Working where they're working, but what they're feeling is fit up under or not appreciated overworked, tired and exhausted.

So we talk and we talk and we talk and I'm here just to listen. That's fine. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about their physical state, but I can help them with the mental one. I prefer to see the best in people. I like to think that everyone is doing the best with what they have and where they are.

This means even managers who don't say thank you nearly often enough. I believe that people are inherently good people, not bad people. I'd rather lift someone up, then knock them down. And these other fundamentals that this is the view of how I see other people in the world let's take feeling appreciated.

For example, I believe that people would have given the choice, swing to the side of wanting the people in their lives to feel appreciated rather than taken for granted. Do you know, for example, how the people that you work or live with know that you appreciate them, unless you asked someone outright.

How would you like me to show you that I appreciate you and they know themselves well enough. Most of us will show others how we, that we appreciate them the way we want to be appreciated ourselves, which may be different to how the other person feels like or wants to be appreciated, knows they're being appreciated.

And during lockdown last year, Way back then 18 months ago, I uploaded a questionnaire on to VIT staff's website to help employers and employees discover how people like to be appreciated at work. It's a free questionnaire. You don't have to provide your email or anything like that, and only takes about five minutes to complete, and it helps you discover how you like to be appreciated at work.

I recommend that all teams complete it, especially now, and that everyone that means then that everyone can talk the language of appreciation that each individual understands. I'll put the direct link to them. Episode on the episode page at paws claws with noses dot F M. Remember we're at episode 44, go to vet staff.co.nz, and search along the menu for job seekers.

Scroll down to language of appreciation at work question. And all vet told my father when he was a student in Glasgow. He said, if you want to be a success in veterinary practice, just keep the bowels open and just arrested. God. Nutrition is not an opinion. It's a science. They called me that weird herbal needle.

That, and I, I just remember thinking. Well, I'm still gonna do it cause I know it works and I've got the research to back it from reminiscences of the real James Harriet son to P nutrition, to acupuncture the big podcast, discusses current animal health issues from around the world on veterinarian, Brian greeter from New Zealand, just search for the fit podcast.

Wherever you get your podcasts from

paws, claws and wet noses is sponsored by vet staff. If you've never heard of it, staff it's new, Zealand's only full service recruitment agency. 100% dedicated to the veterinary sector and Fitz staff has been around since 2015 and works nationwide from Kate, rehang it to the bluff and everywhere in between as well as helping Kiwis fit staff.

Also hubs overseas, qualified veterinarians find work and art here on reserve. Fit staff.co dot indeed. I said I've found my mindset getting a bit wobbly. This last fortnight. I'm comfortable being an introvert. I've worked from a dedicated home office now for coming up 15 years. Almost bet. Before people did that back before working from home was an acceptable thing before zoom was ever a thing.

I used to hold my meetings on Skype. And then in 2011, someone invented zoom and I've never looked back, but I figured if I were starting to notice being confined, being locked down, when I'm an introvert, then others must definitely be feeling it too. So let's start with taking control in your head of your thoughts.

Let's start with getting rid of the negative thinking, which is much easier, said than done now to help you understand why we seem so fixated on the negative. Here's an extract from a TEDx talk at UC Davies, entitled getting stuck in the negatives by Dr. Alison Littlewood. I'll put the entire talk on pause clause with noses dot.

If M if you'd like to watch it all because I've, I. Clipped it in various bits throughout just to help it be easier to listen to here. Dr. Ledgewood joined the department of psychology at UC Davis and at 2008, after completing her PhD in social psychology at New York university, her interest as an understanding how people think and how they can think big.

Her research, which is funded by the national science foundation investigates. How certain ways of thinking about an issue tend to stick in people's heads. Her classes on social psychology, focus on understanding the way people think and behave and social situations and how to harness that knowledge to potentially improve the social world in which we all live.

I thought I would talk a little today about how people. I'm fascinated by this question. I'm a social psychologist, which basically means I'm a professional people watch her. So this is what I do. I try to figure out how humans think and how we might be able to think better. Why does a failure seem to stick in our minds so much longer than a success?

Well, together with my colleague, Amber Boydston in the political science department, I started thinking about this question. This question of do our minds get stuck in the night. We all know intuitively that there are different ways of thinking about things. The same glass, the saying goes, can be seen as half full or half empty.

And there's a lot of research in the social sciences, showing that depending on how you describe the glass to people as half full or half empty, it changes how they feel about it. So if you described the glass as half full, this is called a gain frame because you're focusing on what's gained, then people.

But if you describe the same glass as half empty a loss frame, then people don't like it. But we wondered what happens when you try to switch from thinking about it. One way to thinking about it another way. Can people shift back and forth or do they get stuck in one way of thinking about it does one of these labels.

In other words, tend to stick more in the mind while to investigate this question, we conducted a simple experiment. We told participants in our experiment about a new surgical procedure. And we randomly assigned them to one of two conditions for participants in the first condition. The first group we described the surgical procedure in terms of gains.

We said it had a 70% success rate. And for participants in the second group, we described the procedure in terms of losses. We said it had a 30% failure rate. So it's the exact same procedure. We're just focusing people's attention on the part of the glass that's full or the part of the glass that's empty.

Perhaps unsurprisingly people like the procedure when it's described as having a 70% success rate. And they don't like it when it's described as having a 30% failure rate. But then we added a twist. We told the participants in the first group, you know, you could think of this as a 30% failure rate, and now they don't like it anymore.

They've changed their minds. And we told participants and the second group, you know, you could think of this as a 70% success rate, but unlike the first. They stuck with their initial opinion. They seem to be stuck in the initial loss frame that they saw at the beginning of the study, we conducted another experiment.

This time we told participants about the current governor of an important state who was running for reelection against his opponent. We again had two groups of participants and we described the current governor's track record to them in one of two. We said that when the current governor took office statewide, budget cuts were expected to affect about 10,000 jobs.

And then half the participants read that under the current governor's leadership, 40% of these jobs have been saved and they like the current governor. They think he's doing a great job. The rest of the participants read that under the current governor's leadership, 60% of these jobs had been lost and they don't like the current governor.

They think he's doing a terrible job, but then once more we added it. For participants in the first group, we reframed the information in terms of losses, and now they didn't like the current governor anymore. And for participants in the second group, we reframed the information in terms of gains, but just like in the first study, this didn't seem to matter people in this group still didn't like the current governor.

So notice what this means. Once the loss frame gets in there, it's. People can't go back to thinking about jobs saved once they've thought about jobs lost. So in both of these scenarios, actually the current governor gets ousted in favor of his opponent. Well, at this point we were getting curious, why does this happen?

Could it be that it's actually mentally harder for people to convert from losses to gains than it is for them to go from gains to loss? So we conducted a third study to test how easily people could convert from one frame to another. This time we told participants, imagine there's been an outbreak of an unusual disease and 600 lives are at stake.

And we asked participants in one group, if a hundred lives are saved, how many will be lost? And we asked participants in the other group, if a hundred lives are lost, how many will be seen? So everyone just has to calculate 600 minus 100 and come up with the answer of 500. But whereas people in one group have to convert from gains to losses in order to do that, people in the second group have to convert from losses to gains.

We timed how long it took them to solve the simple math problem. And what we found was that when people had to convert from gains to losses, they could solve the problem quite quickly, took them about seven seconds on that. But when they had to convert from losses to gains well, now it took them far longer, almost 11 seconds.

So this suggests that once we think about something as a loss, that way of thinking about it tends to stick in our heads and to resist our attempts to change it. What I take away from this research and from related research is that our view of the world has a fundamental tendency to tilt toward the night.

It's pretty easy to go from good to bad, but far harder to shift from bad to good. We literally have to work harder to see the upside of things and this matters. So think about the economy here's economic well-being from 2007 to 2010, and you can see it tanked just like we all remember. And then by late 2010, it had recovered by most objective measures, but here's consumer confidence over the same time.

You can see it tanks right along with the economy, but then it seems to get stuck instead of rebounding with the economy itself, consumers seem to be psychologically stuck back there in the recession. So oddly then it may take more effort to change our minds about how the economy is doing than to change the economy itself.

On a more personal level with this research means to me, is that you have to work to see the options. Literally, this takes work. This takes effort, and you can practice this. You can train your mind to do this better. There is research out of UC Davis showing that just writing for a few minutes each day, about things that you're grateful for can dramatically boost your happiness and wellbeing and even your health.

We can also rehearse good news and share it with them. We tend to think, right? That misery loves company that venting will help get rid of our negative emotions. That we'll feel better if we just talk about how terrible our day was. And so we talk and we talk and we talk about the boss, who's driving us crazy.

And the friend who never called us back and the meeting at work where every little thing that could go wrong dead, but we forget to talk about the good stuff. And yet that's exactly where our minds need the most practice. So my husband, who has this disconcerting habit of listening to what I say other people should do, and then pointing out that technically speaking, I'm a person too

has taken to listening to me for about two minutes on days when I come home all grumpy and complaining about everything and he listens and he says, okay, But what happened today? That was good. And so I tell him about the student who came up to me after class with this really interesting, insightful question.

And I tell him about the friend who emailed me out of the blue this morning, just to say hello. And somewhere in the telling, I start to smile and I start to think that maybe my day was pretty decent. I think we can also work in our communities to focus on the upside. We can be more aware that bad tends to stick.

One mean comment can stick with somebody all day, all week, even, and bad tends to propagate itself, right? Somebody snaps at you and you snap back and you snap at the next guy too. But what if the next time somebody snapped at you? You forgave them. What if the next time you had a really grumpy waitress?

You left her an extra large. Our minds may be built to look for negative information and to hold onto it, but we can also retrain our minds if we put some effort into it and start to see that the glass maybe a little more full than we initially. One of the first things I do when I find myself focusing on the negative things.

Like what if it doesn't work? What if something goes wrong? What if I fail? What if we never get out of lockdown? What if this pandemic never goes away? It's to reframe the same negative question, but juxtaposed by 182 grace, for example, what if it doesn't work becomes, but what if it does work? What if I fail?

But what if I succeed? What, or this pandemic never goes away, but what if it does the trick with this? Apart from turning the question around 180 degrees is editing the box. And to your self rebuttal question, but what earth does because inserting the, but negates everything that came before it. So not only am I creating a pattern interrupt, I'm also canceling out the prior question with a.

The next time you find yourself getting caught up in this downward spiral of doom and gloom of negativity, catch yourself. And I realize it's easier said than done, but the sooner you catch yourself, the sooner you can start and then turn the question around 180 degrees and ask the butt question. So what if it, you know, turn it around, but what.

Now, changing the subject a little bit. I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Paul Jenkins, another us clinical psychologist who specializes on the science of the science and the practice of positivity in January of this year. So that's 2021. As I'm recording this episode, he recorded a YouTube video entitled nine ways to stay positive during the Corona virus pinch.

Again, I'll put the full video on the pause clause with noses dot F M episode page. If you'd like to watch the whole thing now, because. Dr. Jenkins talks much slower than we are used to here. Done under I've increased the replay speed on the clips. You're about to hear on YouTube. I found that I could still understand him listening at a playback speed of one and a half times.

I'm Dr. Paul Jenkins. I'm a clinical psychologist with a specialty in positivity, and these skills are especially important right now, as we deal with this global pandemic, the first way to stay positive is to stay physically active. You need to do this for a lot of reasons. Your brain needs physical activity.

This surprises some people because they know that their body needs physical activity will heads up. Your brain is an organ in your body. And it's the biggest energy hog in the whole system, by the way. So that physical activity makes a physical activity has long been shown to beat antidepressant medication.

In some of the clinical trials, when we're dealing with our mental health, that's going to be important to our positive. Number two practice daily gratitude. Gratitude has long been shown to be an important component of positivity. And it's the fastest way I know to jumpstart your positivity. Here's how I want you to try this practice.

Gratitude specifically about the context that's causing you trouble. Now we're talking about the Corona virus pandemic here today. So look at the virus, look at the pandemic, look at everything that's associated with it and find something to be grateful for. In that circumstance, you can switch this up and do it for a relationship or your job or anything else.

But as long as we're talking about the pandemic, find what you're grateful for in it. You know, I was talking to one of my colleagues in Europe who is a pediatrician and she specializes in parenting and assisting people with some of the same things that I do. Her four-year-old daughter came to her and said, mommy, I love Iris.

She's like what? Yeah. I love virus. Cause my mommy's home. Yeah. Little four year old. Okay. If a four year old can find something to be grateful for in this pandemic, how about you practice gratitude? Another thing to keep in mind is the importance of the right fuel eat. Well. I know we're dealing with a lot of stressors out there and that's even more of a reason to make sure you're running good fuel through your body.

You want to take good care of the equipment and proper nutrition is an important way to maintain your positivity, especially. In the face of stressors that are going on like a pandemic. The fourth way I want to mention is mental hygiene. Look, your brain, your mind is more important than your teeth and my invitation to you would be to spend at least as much time on your mental hygiene as you do on your dental hygiene.

The next way, stay positive during the pandemic, go outside, go outside, breathe some air and look. Look up into the trees. Look up into the mountains, look up into the stars. If it's at nighttime, go outside brief some air, enjoy the beauty of the world that we live in. And incidentally going outside in the car, doesn't count because you're inside the car.

I want you outside nature. Looking up, give it a try. Number six, please be very selective about the input. Going into your mind, if you trust the mainstream or the social media to provide the input that you need to stay positive. I think your trust is very misplaced. We've got to be a lot more intentional and selective about what's going in because that affects our thinking.

It affects our mood. It affects our ability to be positive. You know, one of the great things about a pandemic who says that by the way, is that a little. But it's true. One of the great things about a pandemic is that there are multiple abundant opportunities to serve. So this particular tip is go serve somebody, get your focus outside of yourself and look for opportunities to serve.

This is life-changing. One of my clients called me couple of years ago. I still remember this because it was so profound. He was in a dark place. He was in a different city on a business. Stuck in his hotel room because he couldn't get himself out of bed to go do what he was called to that town to do. I invited him because I was busy getting onto another call in just a few minutes.

I invited him to spend some time. In the next hour. And I would call him back making a meaningful difference for at least three people. He wasn't even sure how he was going to get out of bed. I said, do whatever it takes. You go down to the hotel lobby, find somebody, find somebody to serve. I want you to make a meaningful difference for at least three people in the next hour.

I'll call you back. Call them back in an hour. Guess what things were a whole lot better for him because he got his focus outside of himself. Which was causing a lot of misery for him in that moment. And he focused on other people who needed his help and assistance. Can you find somebody, can you find somebody right now in your immediate surroundings that could use your help go serve somebody, number eight, shift your thinking from I can't, because.

To how can I just because we're dealing with a global pandemic doesn't mean that we have to shut down life. We may need to do it differently. You've probably noticed this. Can you still have the family reunion? Absolutely. And you're going to hold it virtually the last way. Leads with us. Hire a coach, join a community, start a mastermind group.

We don't have to do this alone. And to stay positive requires that we engage in connect with other people who are also interested in staying positive. There'll be a little selective here because there are groups that would take you a different direction. And I think, you know what I mean? So watch out for the negative Nellies out there and intentionally engage with those who are choosing a positive.

That will support you and you in turn can support them to create more positivity. During this pandemic, engage on a virtual platform, call someone on the phone, send the good old fashioned letter. There's still ways to engage with people. You're going to have to be a little bit more creative about it, but it's still really important.

Let's just do a quick summary of that. Nine ways to stay positive during a Corona virus, pandemic stay physically active practice daily gratitude eat well, choose your fuel wisely. And I know that some clinics prior to lockdown, which we didn't know anything about, we're actually doing a 21 day receipt fuel receipt.

Look after your mental hygiene, get outside every day and look. Watch your mental input, be aware of what you're listening to. And that means the rubbish on the radio and the TV or the negativity or the negativity or the doom and gloom. So just be aware of what's going into your head and serve someone, shift your thinking from a can't to how can I engage with others?

If you want more information for Dr. Jenkins, you can find him@liveonpurposecentral.com. Again, I'll put that list. That link on the Postgres wet noses dot if in website now, and that last clip, Dr. Jenkins mentioned five ways to maintain mental health. And here are those. I've done quite a bit of editing in this clip.

So again, I'll put the full video on the show notes, page of episode 44. If you'll do all five of these tips, I guarantee your mental health will improve. Obviously an important part of mental hygiene is your brain and your brain is a physical organ in your body and it does require maintenance. So part of your mental hygiene is to maintain the equipment of your brain, your physical brain.

There's some important things that go into this particular step, get enough sleep. The research shows that sleep is extremely important to your brain and maintaining the health of the actual organ. Sleep is important for renewal and rejuvenation, and also purging some of the old stuff that needs to be cleared out.

So get enough sleep. And we're talking probably on the average eight to 10 hours for most people, it might be as low as six, depending on your age and health, but you've got to get that good sleep in while we're on the physical maintenance of your. Diet also extremely important. Eat a well balanced diet.

I'm not a nutritionist, so I'm not going to give you all of the details about that. But you know, the basics here and you probably can identify right away some things about your diet that could be improved. You probably know where I'm going. Next, physical exercise, regular physical exercise. And I'm seeing in most of the things that I read on this particular topic, three to five times a week, you need to engage in groups.

Aerobic exercise, where you get the heart rate up. You want to break out into a sweat a little bit, work that body, this is really important to your brain. There's going to be some obvious benefits for other aspects of your health. But remember, we're talking about brain maintenance here, and finally, while we're on the brain maintenance, your brain needs regular periods.

Of meditation, solitude, prayer, something that allows you to quiet all of the noise and reconnect with your purpose. It's interesting that that feels to be a more psychological intervention, but really it has to do with the physical functioning of the organ in your head. So take care of the equation. An important part of daily mental hygiene is gratitude, practice gratitude, but here's the key.

You practice gratitude about what it is, the way it is without changing anything the way it is right now, not gratitude for what it could be or how you could change it or how it could come about in the future. I'm talking about the way it is right now. And there's important reasons for that. It's really easy to get sucked into some negativity.

When we start to see our current circumstances as being unfavorable well, at the end of the day, our current circumstances are neutral. It could always be better. It could always be worse. Practicing gratitude allows you to see the good that already exists in abundance in your life right now, without changing anything.

And that changes the game when we're talking about mental hygiene and here's how it works. Daily positive input. What are you putting into your mind? I guarantee if you leave it to default and trust the media, either mainstream or social media. Pick, whichever one, if you want to trust the media for the input into your mind, you're going to run into some trouble.

Have you noticed how negative a lot of it is? Daily positive input. What are you listening to? What are you reading? What are you watching? We are as human beings, social creatures, even if you consider yourself to be an introvert connection with other people is important and you might just do it differently, especially when we're dealing.

Situational factors like social distancing. It's important for us to come up with ways to engage with other people, make this a regular part of your mental hygiene. Find ways to connect to network, to mastermind, to serve. These are ways that you get outside of yourself and psychologically speaking. It's a really important factor in managing our mental health.

Let's get connected. Dr. Jenkins said there were five, but I counted eight. Here's my eight, make a decision to commit, get enough sleep, eat a well balanced diet, regular physical exercise. That's happy puffy stuff back when here's something that you didn't know about me. And if you met me, you'd probably be really surprised.

Once upon a time, I studied at AUT and I studied sports science. I have a qualification in personal training and it was, there was research for people that went to the gym. Those who went to the gym three days a week or five days a week, actually stuck to their routine more than those who just went four days a week.

So commit and get regular physical exercise. That was just a useless piece of information, regular periods of quiet meditation, prayer and solitude practice daily gratitude. The way everything is right now, not in the future, but now daily positive input. Be aware of what you're reading. On social media and listening to and connect with others.

Get outside of yourself. That's crank it up again, still in the U S this next exercise is from a Simon Sinek. You may know of him as the best selling author. He wrote the book, find your why, and he's also a speaker. Now, this is a presentation. He made two new look, which is an organization that helps teens find it.

This spark or their passion and live with purpose driven lives. If you want to watch cynics full speech, it'll be on the show notes. Page, episode 44. Is the, here are the, the main points of what hers, five rules to follow to help you find your S your spark. I have five little rules that you can follow as you find your spark and bring your spark to life.

The first is to go after the things that you want. Let me tell you a story. So a friend of mine and I, we went for a run in central park, the road runners organism. Uh, on the weekends, they host races and it's very common at the end of the race. They'll have a spot or who will give away something apples or bagels or something.

And on this particular day, when we got to the end of the run, there were some free bagels and they had picnic tables set up and on one side was a group of volunteers on the table were boxes of bagels. And on the other side was a long line of runners waiting to get their freedom. So I said to my friend, let's, let's get a bagel.

And he looked at me and said, uh, that line's too long. And I said, free bagel. And he said, I didn't want to wait in line. And I was like free bagel. And he says, nah, it's too long. And that's when I realized that there's two ways to see the world. Some people see the thing that they want. And some people see the thing that prevents them from getting the thing that they want.

I could only see the bagels. He could only see the line. And so I walked up to the line. I leaned in between two people, put my hand in the box and pulled out two bagels and no one got mad at me because the rule is you can go after whatever you want. You just cannot deny anyone. To go after whatever they want.

Now I had to sacrifice choice. I didn't get to choose which bagel I got. I got whatever I pulled out, but it didn't have to wait in line. So the point is is you don't have to wait in line. You don't have to do it the way everybody else has done it. You can do it your way. You can break the rules. You just can't get in the way of somebody else getting what they want.

That's rule number one, rule. Number two, I like. In the 18th century, there was something that spread across Europe and eventually made its way to America. Wearable fever, also known as the black death of child bed. Basically what was happening is women were giving birth and they would die within 48 hours after giving birth this black death of child.

Was the ravage of Europe and it got worse and worse and worse over the course of over a century. In some hospitals, it was as high as 70% of women who gave birth, who would die as a result of giving birth. But this was the Renaissance. This was the time of empirical data and science. And we had thrown away things like tradition and mysticism.

These were men of science. These were doctors. And these doctors and men of science, I wanted to study and try and find the reason for this black death of child bed. And so they got to work studying and they would study the corpses, uh, of the, of the women who had died. And in the morning they would conduct autopsies.

And then in the afternoon they would go and deliver babies and finish their rounds. And it wasn't until somewhere in the mid eighties. That Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, father of Supreme court, justice Oliver, Wendell Holmes realized that all of these doctors who were conducting autopsies in the morning, weren't washing their hands before they delivered babies in the afternoon.

And he pointed it out and said, guys, you're the problem. And they ignored him and called him crazy for 30. Until finally somebody realized that they simply washed their hands. It would go away. And that's exactly what happened when they started sterilizing their instruments and washing their hands. The black death of child bed disappeared.

My point is the lesson here is sometimes your, the.

We've seen this happen all too recently with our new men of science and empirical, uh, studiers. And these men have finance who are smarter than the rest of us until the thing collapsed and they blamed everything else except themselves. And my point is, is take accountability for your actions. You can take all the credit in the world for the things that you do.

As long as you also take responsibility for the things you do wrong, it must be a balanced equation. You don't get it one way and not the other. You get to take credit when you also take accountability. That's lesson two, lesson three, take care of each other. The United States Navy seals are perhaps the most elite warriors in the world.

And one of the seals. Was asked, who makes it through the selection process, who is able to become a seal. And his answer was, I can't tell you the kind of person that becomes a seal. I can't tell you the kind of person that makes it through buds, but I can tell you the kind of people who don't become. He says the guys that show up with huge bulging muscles covered in tattoos who want to prove to the world how tough they are.

None of them make it through. You said the preening leaders who like to delegate all their responsibility and never do anything themselves. None of them make it through the star college athletes. Who've never really been tested to the core of none of them make it. He says some of the guys that make it through are skinny and scrawny.

He said some of the guys that make it through, you will see them shivering out of fear. He says, however, all the guys that make it through when they find themselves physically. Emotionally spent when they have nothing left to give physically or emotionally, somehow some way they are able to find the energy to dig down deep inside themselves, to find the energy, to help the guy next to them.

They become seals. He said, you want to be an elite warrior. It's not about how tough you are. It's not about how smart you are. It's not about how fast. If you want to be an elite warrior, you better get really, really good at helping the person to the left of you and helping the person to the right of you.

Because that's how people advance in the world. The world is too dangerous and the world is too difficult for you to think that you can do these things alone. If you find your spark, I commend you now, who you going to ask for help? And when are you going to accept help? When it's offered, learn that skill, learn by practicing, helping each.

It will be the single most valuable thing you ever learned in your entire life to accept help when it's offered and to ask for it when you know that you can't do it. The amazing thing is when you learn to ask for help, you'll discover that there are people all around you who've always wanted to help you.

They just didn't think you needed it because you pretending that you had everything under control. And the minute you say, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm stuck. I'm scared. I don't think I can do that. You will find that lots of people who love you will rush in and take care of you, but that'll only happen if you learn to take care of them.

For first

lesson for Nelson Mandela is a particularly special case study in the leadership world because he is universally rugged. As a great leader, you can take other personalities. And depending on the nation, you go to, we have different opinions about other personalities, but Nelson Mandela across the world is universally regarded as a great leader.

He was actually the son of a tribal chief, and he was asked one day, how did you learn to be a great leader? And he responded that he would go with his father to tribal meetings and he remembers too. Yes. When his father would meet with other elders, one, they would always sit in a circle and two, his father was always the last to speak.

You will be told your whole life that you need to learn to listen. I would say that you need to learn to be the last to speak. I see it in boardrooms every day. Even people who consider themselves good leaders who may actually be decent leaders will walk into a room and say, here's the problem. Here's what I think.

But I'm interested in your opinion. Let's go around the room. It's too late. The skill to hold your opinions to yourself until everyone has spoken. Does two things. One, it gives everybody else. The feeling that they have been heard, it gives me, it gives everyone else the ability to feel that they have. And two, you get the benefit of hearing what everybody else has to think before you render your opinion.

The skill is really to keep your opinions to yourself. If you agree with somebody don't nod. Yes. If you disagree with somebody don't nod. Simply sit there, take it all in. And the only thing you're allowed to do is ask questions so that you can understand what they mean and why they have the opinion that they have.

You must understand from where they are speaking, why they have the opinion they have, not just what they're saying. And at the end you will get your turn. It sounds easy. It's not practice being the last. That's what Nelson Mandela did. Number three, number five, Monte Python, 1, 2, 5, 3, for all the other nerds in the audience.

There's one

number five. My favorite, one of all true story. There was a former under secretary of defense. Who was invited to give a speech at a large conference, about a thousand people. And he was standing on the stage with his cup of coffee and a styrofoam cup, giving his prepared remarks with his PowerPoint behind him.

And he took a sip of his coffee and he smiled and he looked down at the coffee and then he went off script and he said, you know, last year I spoke at this exact same conference. Last year, I was still the under. And when I spoke here last year, they flew me here, business class. And when I arrived at the airport, there was somebody waiting for me to take me to my hotel.

And they took me to my hotel and they had already checked me in and they just took me up to my room. And the next morning I came downstairs and there was someone waiting in the lobby to greet me and they drove me to this here. Same thing. They took me through the back entrance and took me into the green room and handed me a copy of a cup of coffee in a beautiful service  cup.

He says, I'm no longer the undersecretary. I flew here, coach. I took a taxi to my hotel and I checked myself in. When I came down the lobby this morning, I took another taxi to this. I came in the front door and found my way backstage. And when I asked someone, do you have any coffee? He pointed to the coffee machine in the corner and I poured myself self, a cup of coffee into this here, styrofoam cup.

He says the lesson is the ceramic cup was never meant for me. It was meant for the position I held. I deserve a styrofoam cup. Remember this as you gain faith. As you gain fortune as you gain position and seniority, people will treat you better. They will hold doors open for you. They will get you a cup of tea and coffee without you even asking, they will call you sir.

And ma'am, and they will give you stuff. None of that stuff has meant for you. That stuff has meant for the position you hold. It has meant for the level that you have achieved of leader or success or whatever you want to call it, but you will always. Deserve a styrofoam cup. Remember that, remember that lesson of humility and gratitude, you can accept all the free stuff.

You can accept all the perks. Absolutely. You can enjoy them, but just be grateful for them and know that they're not for you. And let's summarize cynic. He says, you can go after whatever you want provided you don't stop anyone else getting what they want. You get to take the credit when you take accountability, take care of each other, learn to ask and accept, help, and lift others up.

Practice being the last one to speak and be humble and be grateful. Did you notice that through all of those excerpts, there was one common denominator, common denominator, and that's practicing gratitude, gratitude for the here and gratitude for the now further gratitude sometimes has to be coupled with reframing, looking for the rainbow when it's absolutely checking it down because it will be there somewhere.

When you look for it, it mightn't be very bright or wow. Inducing, but it will be there. So doing the mind shift thing to being grateful while in lockdown, I'd like to share a couple of mine. Now I'm grateful that I'm able to work from home. I'm grateful that my home office has been set up and functions, dislike.

It's always done. And just like an office should, I don't have to try or attempt to work off an ironing board or off the dining room table. So I'm grateful for my home office and here's a reframe back in February. My husband had total knee replacement surgery. If you've been listening to my podcast for a while, you may have heard me mentioned that he's an airline pilot, airline pilots have to press some at pretty heavy duty medicals each year, which are all signed off by CAA the civil aviation authority.

We were just getting ready for Alan to get his medical. Re-instated when the Waikato DHB was attacked by ransomware hijackers, that delayed things for us by seven weeks, then Jasmine, we thought that we had put the delay behind us. Delta locked down here. These last six months have been testing. And I use testing in air quotes.

I've been the sole income owner in our household, and my income varies significantly, depending on how many vets I can help find their dream jobs and how many vets I have and the locum assignments when the borders are closed, it's hard. I had to dig deep, to be grateful for Delta and for the ransomware hijackers, because they've cost us.

They've doubled the time that Alan's been off work and not earning. However, I'm grateful for the time. This is my reframe. I'm grateful for the time that we've been spending together in the kitchen, cooking dinner together. I know that that wouldn't have happened if he'd returned to work, as soon as he was.

Who would have slotted straight back into working shifts and being away on average for three nights a week. That's, I'm grateful for that. So that's my reframe for looking at the positivity and the attitude of gratitude and the right near the right now, right here. Just because something's simple.

Doesn't mean to say that it's easy, if you're stuck. Trying to find the positive, look at what you can control, look for what you can change and then go from there. Look at how you can make something different with where you are and what you've got. I'm always interested in feedback. So please bring it forward.

Something else. I hope you'll find helpful as having your employment law questions answered. If you haven't caught up with this yet via social media, you've got until this coming Friday, the 3rd of September to send me any employment law questions, you'd like answered. I've invited stiff diabetic. Who's an employment lawyer of diabetic Drayton employment law onto paws claws witnesses.

And another lifetime stiff. And I used to work together at Russel McVay way back when it was Russell McVay, McKinsey bat lead and coach. We were both in the Wellington office. If you go to VIT staff.co dot N Z on the top line search for news and media, and then under that Q and a for postcards with noses podcast, that's where you can send us your question.

Also coming up as love your nurse competition to celebrate fitness awareness week in October, and you can register your interest for that competition again, at  news and media, and then scroll down to the fitness awareness week competition registration. We're giving a way. There is such a thing as a free lunch.

We're giving some free lunches away and tuna next week, because we've got Janet Netta or smart money advice. Who's answering the financial questions, asked by Messi's fit science students. The questions they asked are applicable. Our lives too. Not just students. If you haven't already please click that follow button wherever you listen to your podcasts.

That way you'll never miss out on an episode because your podcast app will deliver them straight into your podcast. Feed. This is Julie south signing off. Thank you for spending the last almost hour with me of your life. With me at pours claws wit noses Kia.   peace. Be with you. Take care and. God bless paws, claws and wet noses is sponsored by vet staff.

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