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The Dr. Laura Podcast
Better Ways to Relax After Work
00:11:19
Listen to my Morning Monologue: I’m sharing my take on pressing issues, enlightening research on human behavior, answering questions I get by email, and my favorite, most instructive interactions with callers. Everything you’ll hear is designed to help you become a better spouse, parent, family member, co-worker, friend, and human being. It’s the free therapy you need! Call 1-800-DR-LAURA / 1-800-375-2872 or make an appointment at DrLaura.com
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Thank you for listening to my morning monologue brought to you by Golden Crest Metals, a new sponsor I want to welcome to my program. Find out how gold and silver can protect what you have worked so hard to build. Learn more@goldencrestmetals.com Protect Remember, you can hear my radio program daily on Sirius XM triumph and connect with me 24 7@drlora.com an article that was written by Jessica Stillman. Let me see where it was in inc.com inc7better ways to relax after work than mindlessly scrolling on your phone do you know how many hours a day, a week you spend mindlessly scrolling? Facebook? Instagram? Mindlessly seeing tidbits of all kinds of things. Do you know how often you do that? Hours and hours could be six hours in a day. You get up in the middle of night, late at night. When you first get up in the morning, don't get out of bed. Lunch break. It adds up. So. This article said there's a big problem with that approach to relaxing after work. Namely, it ultimately does not make you feel better. Wow. Okay. So it's a sad way she writes to spend so many hours of a precious life. When you put it that way, it really stops you in your head doesn't you're wasting life. You're not just wasting time, you're wasting life. There are people in hospitals struggling to hang on for another day, a month, a year, and you're wasting it mindlessly scrolling. Do the crossed eyes look good? Let's do it again. Okay, so I thought this article was quite interesting, so I'll go through them with some alacrity. Knitting British Olympic diver Tom Daly actually credits his gold medal to his knitting. The fact that you get only one opportunity every four years is super intense, which is why knitting really helped took the stress out of it. I honestly think I owe the Olympic gold medal to knitting. He never said he knitted beautiful things. He never said he sold them for $5,000 a sweater. He just said it relaxes you. So that when he had to do you know the thing about the Olympics and every four years and all of that is you sort of almost just get one try. You're running a race, you get one try to win the race. That's a lot to put on yourself every four years. Adult Coloring Some psychologists recently studied the effects of those intricate adult coloring books. Mandala patterns, I think they're called, were trendy found that crayons and colored pencils help adults calm down and get into the zone. Reduces stress, improves well Being lowers anxiety, reduces burnout. Equal to or better than meditation and you have something to show for it. Now I go along with the knitting, although I do the crocheting. I knit sort of under duress, but I love crocheting and it does the same thing. It puts you in a zone. Number 3. Join a choir or. Or a drum circle. I must admit I didn't know what that was. If you're more musical, science has another suggestion. Singing and drumming have powerful. I guess there's some benefit in my gavel. Even just belting out tunes in the shower can improve your mental health. Singing is a deeply embodied activity. It reminds us to get in touch with our whole selves. Singing a favorite song to reconnect with yourself, to escape worries, reset your brain. In one study, a group drumming initiative resulted in significant reductions in anxiety and depression along with an overall mental well being. Singing bursts you with endorphins. I don't care how that sounds. I got endorphins. Makes you feel very bonded to people when you're singing with them. And they say a boatload of studies suggest that more social connection is an all around tonic for our mental health. And that's why you join a choir. Now every now and then I have been heard to say sing along with some of the music that Carson plays and inevitably someone says something, texts me something or emails, whatever. They do something mean and watch my face. I don't care. It feels good and you should do it too. The point is not how good you are at singing, the point is how much you enjoy it. And I don't know why, but I always sound better in the shower. Okay, dance. Oh, she starts out. Personally, I know no one who wants to hear me sing. That's too bad. Who cares? For others like me who sadly lack any hint of musical talent, science has suggested how you might connect with music and relax. Dance around your living room or sign up for a dance class. All kinds of movement. Movement are good for cognitive functioning. So I guess we get less stupid over time if we move our bodies. I like that. Dancing, they discovered, was the most effective way to turn back the clock on your brain. What are you? All those substances and stuff they have commercials for. Pop this pill, you'll be smarter. Pop this pill, you won't get dumber. Whatever it is. Dance. Many, many, many super achievers spend so much of their precious time reading novels. Uh huh. Maybe because being absorbed in stories is a great way to unwind. The effects getting lost in a great book has on the brain helps re expand our shrunken attention spans and your kids probably have a 20 microsecond attention span. But according to one leading neurologist, an excellent memory workout that keeps your mind sharp as you age. I have always read a ton of novels. Number 6 Number 7 I do very rarely, but I do most of these other things. 6. Go for a walk. Do that every day. Testimony of many of history's greatest thinkers from Charles Darwin to Steve Jobs. That walking, they said, was an essential part of how they disconnected from their worries and worked through their toughest problems. I wrote my books that way. Yeah, I used to take a long walk and think the book through in my head. Probably people who watched me walk by thought I was a little weird because I would talk it out loud. I wouldn't just think it in my head. I would talk what was going on in my head out loud and I'd get home and type. That's how I wrote all my books. During walks. Great time because everything else goes out of my head when I'm walking. Number seven I do this rarely Cook dinner from scratch. I know it saves you money, improves your health. Less than 1% of restaurant meals meet the highest health standards, one study showed. Frankly, I don't think we go out to a lovely dinner with some wine and company to be healthy. Yeah, I think we do it because it feels good. So the above seven ideas are science backed ideas or how to focus and drop the anxiety and depression and be able to use your brain better. All of those trump scrolling. I would add an eighth something that works for me every time without fail. Straightening up something, organizing something. Just taking your pantry. Pull everything out. Check to see if the things are still usable. I got a big lesson in that. A friend came over said do you realize half of what's in here has expired? No, I never even. I never even thought of that. Organizing where everything is neat. I baked some bread yesterday morning that was that's making something from scratch. I like baking bread and I just opened the things and I could pull out what I needed. I made cinnamon raisin bread. I think from now on I'm gonna double up on the cinnamon. I really like the smell, the aroma of cinnamon when the bread's done. So 1-800-375-2872 if you like this podcast, be sure to rate it on Apple podcasts or your favorite place to listen to my podcast. Of course I'd love if you gave me five stars. And be sure to share this podcast with a friend on Facebook or your preferred social media platform.