Well, hey, folks!  This is a big week!  It is the anniversary of my first podcast a year ago.  So exciting!  I can’t believe I have done 48 episodes – at the start, I couldn’t imagine doing the first four, and now I am done 12 times that!  I know many of you feel like we are old friends at this point, but for the people who are new, I want to tell you how this all came to be.  As most of you know, I am a radiation oncologist, and I have been in practice for more than 20 years.  About 5 years ago, I was struggling in my life.  After having years of fertility treatments, and then ultimately, 4 kids, I was slowly gaining weight.  I thought this was from not exercising and really loving food.  I was fighting with my kids, and always irritated with my spouse.  I was feeling burnt out at work.  I blamed most of this on being too busy and feeling sluggish from my weight.  I knew I needed a change, but...

Hi, and welcome back! This is episode 4. Almost a month in already! Time flies when you’re busy. Although, sometimes even busy doesn’t make it fly, and that is a bit of how I am experiencing social distancing. Today, I am going to spend a few minutes reviewing first. We have previously gone through allowing negative emotions. We discussed the differences between thoughts and circumstances. Last week we talked about our primitive brains vs. our upper brain, and how the primitive brain is working to keep us safe. I’m wondering - were you aware at all this week of your primitive brain in the background? It is interesting, whatever I write about, I find I think about a lot more that week. This past week, I was really noticing all the times my brain was trying to keep me safe, and how infrequently what it told me was useful. But, I am grateful for that old brain of mine, when I do things like step in front of a moving car in a parking lot, and my primitive brain acts...