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...

Working Through Negative Emotions After Cancer: The Timer Technique

If you spend your whole day worrying, you need to put some limits on your brain. Believe it or not, we can actually tell our brain what to spend its time thinking about. I created this technique for patients about 15 years ago, and this has been lifechanging for many. Today, we will learn to allow bad feelings for some part of the day, and then tell our brain that it is done with fear, worrying, obsessing, what-if-ing for the next 24 hours. This is how you do it. Get a timer, your phone, the oven timer, whatever you have. Set aside time that you can do this without interruption – if you have a crazy life like me, one option is getting to work early and sitting in the car away from everyone! This time will make you a better parent, spouse, daughter or son, friend, and colleague, so don’t feel like you are being selfish taking this time every day. Set the timer for 15 minutes. Then really allow all...