3561: [Part 1] Want to Feel Sicker Than You Really Are? Follow These 6 Tips by Sabrina of Budding Optimist on Healthy Habits

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[00:01:01] This is Optimal Health Daily. Want to feel sicker than you really are? Follow these six tips, part one, by Sabrina of BuddingOptimist.com. And I'm Dr. Neal Malik, your host and narrator. Hey there, welcome to another edition of Optimal Health Daily, where I read some of the best blogs covering health and fitness, just like an audiobook. Now, we have a bunch of shows where we do this very same thing, but covering different topics. Just search for Optimal Living Daily to find all of them.

[00:01:30] Now, today's post is a bit longer than what I typically narrate, so I'll read the first half today and then finish it up for you tomorrow. So with that, let's get right to part one as we optimize your life. Want to feel sicker than you really are? Follow these six tips, part one, by Sabrina of BuddingOptimist.com.

[00:01:54] Do you have an illness? I don't mean the ordinary kind of illness like the common cold or the stomach flu. I mean the punch you in the gut and kick you in the teeth kind of illness. Do you want to feel sicker than you really are? I can help you out with that. I don't want to brag or anything, but let's just say I'm a bit of an expert when it comes to feeling sick. After all, I spent almost three years of my early 20s being sick with cancer.

[00:02:18] I was physically ill, no doubt about it, but with the help of a few habits, there were times where I felt a lot worse than I really was. You want to know how I did it? Today, I'm going to share with you six tried and true tips from my experience that will for sure make you feel sicker than you really are in no time. Six tips that will make you feel sicker than you really are. One, dress like you're a patient. When you were little, did you ever play dress up? How did you feel when you put on a costume?

[00:02:48] I remember every time I donned my cape and toy sword, I'd always wanted to be a version of Robin Hood. I would instantly feel more powerful. For a long time, I thought this was just my childish imagination. But as it turns out, there's some science behind it. Research suggests that the clothes we wear can influence our behavior, attitudes, personality, and even how we interact with others. The effect is called enclosed cognition.

[00:03:14] In a well-known experiment, researchers found that participants showed better performance on attention-related tasks when wearing a lab coat, attire that's typically associated with doctors. I experienced this effect in the most profound way when I was 19. I had gone for a blood test one July morning to check if my hormones were out of whack. And that afternoon, I was hurried to a nearby hospital by a worried doctor who suspected that I had leukemia. I ended up staying at that hospital for the next month and a half.

[00:03:44] I was unprepared to say the least. In one day, my life went from the beach, ice cream, and summer breeze to blood tests, scans, and biopsies. So, in that frantic period of time, I happily ignored one line from the words of advice that were written on a poster in every patient's room. Quote, Try to wear your own clothes. End quote. But who had time to worry about laundry? So instead of wearing my own clothes,

[00:04:13] I wore the impossibly baggy, hideously green hospital gowns day in and day out. And guess what? But it didn't take long before I started to feel like I wasn't myself anymore. Things became even worse when my hair started to fall off. I became so foreign to myself that I would jump back whenever I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Who is this person? This bald, pale lump of flesh with sunken eyes and a hunched back,

[00:04:40] dressed in a washed out green gown that hid every curve on their body. I could not bear to look at myself. When I finally left the hospital, I was a completely different person. I was 15 pounds heavier, bloated, and on the edge of depression. I told myself, if I ever needed to stay in the hospital for an extended period of time again, I would give that line in the words of advice a shot. I would wear my own clothes. Two years later,

[00:05:07] I had to stay in the hospital for an extended period once again. This time, I did wear my own clothes. Almost magically, I felt more energetic, more confident, more like myself. I didn't feel as sick as the first time around, even though I was going through a much tougher regimen of treatments. Things were going well, and then one day, I ran out of fresh laundry. In desperation, I looked over at the green hospital gowns and thought, well, can't hurt if it's just for a few days.

[00:05:37] Oh boy, was I wrong. During the few days that I wore the hospital gowns, I slipped back into the state that I was in two years prior, exhausted and withdrawn. Once again, I started to lose my sense of self. The effect was so obvious that it prompted my mother, who had originally wanted me to keep wearing the hospital gowns, so that she didn't have to worry about doing my laundry, to bring a huge bag of clean clothes for me. As someone who has been there before, I tell you,

[00:06:07] dressing like a patient really is the quickest and easiest method to get you feeling a lot sicker than you really are. If you don't have a hospital gown handy, any clothing that would deprive you of your own identity would do the trick. Two, stop all your normal routines. If you want to feel sicker than you really are, stop everything you're doing now. I mean, everything. Don't get out of bed at the time you usually get out of bed in the morning. Don't listen to your favorite music playlist

[00:06:36] like you're used to doing on your way to work or school, or play with your children after they come home from school. Don't even think about these things. Instead, throw all your normal routines out the window and give up total control of your daily life. Why? When we stick to a routine, such as getting up at 6am every morning to walk our dogs, we create a structure around our lives, and structure promotes predictability. Predictability reduces uncertainty in our lives,

[00:07:04] and that in turn lowers our stress. Now, stress, my friend, is what you want to have if your goal is to feel sicker than you really are. Having a routine will also make you feel more in control of your life. After all, it takes tremendous self-control to repeat our daily rituals, whatever they may be. The feeling that we're in control is crucial to our health. Without it, we can feel like we're withering away. But the feeling of control is a terrible thing to have

[00:07:32] when you actually want to feel sick. In fact, the feeling of control is said to be the number one contributor to happiness. Now, why in the world would you want happiness? The more you disrupt your normal routine, the less predictability and sense of control you will feel in your life. And as a result, the more stressed and unhappy you will be. If just feeling sicker than you really are isn't good enough for you and you actually want to incur real damage to your health, then what are you waiting for?

[00:08:02] Let all hell break loose on your normal routine. 3. Complain, complain, complain. If everything I just shared with you doesn't make you feel sick enough, try adding complaining to the mix. Don't be shy about it either. Complain out loud, complain often, complain about everything. From the bad pudding you had for lunch to this illness that couldn't have come at a worse time, nothing is off limits. Just go at it as if you've hit the complaining all-you-can-eat buffet.

[00:08:32] Complaining releases the stress hormone cortisol. Now, cortisol, if you haven't heard, is pretty nasty stuff. It preys on our health over time. When we chronically marinate ourselves in cortisol, we become more susceptible to a slew of disorders, such as lowered immunity, higher cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, and even obesity. It even makes us more vulnerable to strokes. There's no doubt about it, complaining is bad for our health. Now,

[00:09:00] they say that if you try to shift your focus to the things that you're grateful for, no matter how small they may seem, you will complain less. Research even shows that an attitude of gratitude is related to a 23% reduction in cortisol levels, among other health benefits. But you're trying to feel worse, not better, right? So don't ever think about the things you're grateful for. It will only make you feel less stressed. Instead, keep on complaining. Four. Hear that on tomorrow's episode.

[00:09:34] You just listened to part one of the post titled, Want to Feel Sicker Than You Really Are? Follow These Six Tips by Sabrina of BuddingOptimist.com and I'll be right back with my commentary. Observe the North American Dad. 50s. Great polo collection. He enters his vehicle information on Carvana. An offer appears in minutes. Remarkable. He squints, reads it again, smiles and says, Dang, that's a good offer.

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[00:10:32] And discover custom playlists on Spotify, built just for you based on who you are and how you listen. Live your story with Coach. Learn more at coach.com. Dr. Neal Malik here with my commentary. Let's go back to Sabrina's third suggestion, which was essentially to reduce our complaining. Sabrina said that complaining can increase our feelings of stress and increase levels of that nasty hormone cortisol throughout the body. On the other hand,

[00:11:02] expressing gratitude can reduce cortisol levels while providing lots of other health benefits. Here's what I've noticed about myself. When I'm in a complainy kind of mood, it's hard to break out of that negative thought process. It's like once I'm in that negative frame of mind, it's difficult to start listing all of the things I'm now grateful for. If this sounds like you, here's something I found helpful. Text or message or call someone you haven't connected with in a while and just ask them how they are.

[00:11:32] I still remember a day when I was in one of those complainy moods. I was actually sitting on the couch, stewing in my own grief. There was no particular reason for it. I was just in a mood. I didn't want to feel like this anymore, so I picked up my phone and texted my uncle. I hadn't spoken to him in a while and he was recovering from shoulder surgery, so I texted and asked how his recovery was going. He responded right away. He was appreciative that I was thinking about him and we ended up chatting about baseball

[00:12:01] in the upcoming football season. So within minutes, my mood had changed from complainy to joy and my uncle appreciated the contact too. So the next time you're not feeling like yourself, try connecting with someone you enjoy relating to and you'll probably start feeling better in no time. All right, that'll do it for today. Thank you so much for listening every day and sharing the show with someone. Of course, I will be back here tomorrow to finish up this post, so I'll see you there

[00:12:30] where your optimal life awaits.