Writing
If you care about obesity, our food supply, the politics of food, the Farm Bill, and how all this fits together, you must see this documentary made by two young men concerned about the fact that most of us have no idea where our food comes from or what’s in it. I just saw it for the first time and it knocked me out with its humor, its urgent message and its compassion. You can see it on PBS on April 15th! Check it out, and check out their website:
Check out the April 1 issue of Woman’s Day magazine for an article featuring my advice about how to take the first important step toward effective stress management!
Somewhere along the way, you may have lost touch with your wild side. Work, kids, money, relationships - all these things have a way of stifling the creative fire we carry within. Don’t let your fire go out! Find a way to keep it burning for all to see. Play an instrument, run like the wind, splash paint on paper or the walls of your garage - whatever it takes to feel that wild, crazy joy that comes with letting go. It’s part of being happy and making the world a more colorful place for the rest of us to be in. Cheers!
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Hey, I’m in the newspaper! Recently, a reporter from Portland’s daily newspaper, the Oregonian, came to visit me as I taught one of my classes at Portland State University. She and I had coffee after class, and I told her a bit of my life story. The result of that visit is this story that was in the paper today. Check it out - I’m almost sort of a little it famous!
One of the nicest things about being a woman is having girlfriends we can call when things go wrong. It can be very comforting to dissect your last argument with your boyfriend or gossip about an annoying person at work. This can feel good and relieve pressure in small to moderate doses, but it’s a good idea to be careful not to overdo it.
We tend to over-talk sometimes. When we’re under stress, it’s a naturally feminine trait to want to talk about what’s bothering us. It’s part of the female stress response known as ‘tend and befriend.’ It can raise the levels of the comfort hormone oxytocin in your brain. Talking with a friend is also healthy because it elicits emotional social support from the people in your social network. Emotional social support is one of 4 major types of support, and most research has shown that this type is the most protective against health. So it’s good to maintain a social network that contains a few connections that are warm, nurturing, and sympathetic.
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My book has been reviewed in the Q Section of the Chicago Tribune. Here is the review, written by Anne E. Stein and published on April 8, 2007:
“The health benefits of managing stress, writes former emergency- room doc turned psychologist Claire Wheeler, are huge. Besides avoiding health issues such as high blood pressure or chronic pain, “clearing your body and mind of unnecessary stress and tension allows you to thrive.” So how to do it? Although not all these suggestions fall under the “simple” category, they are well worth pursuing.
Cultivating optimism, for example, is one way and can be learned. Take a look at your “explanatory style.” When something bad happens, do you assume it’s because of something you did or something about you? Do things “always” happen to you? “Ask yourself if there’s another possible explanation that’s external, transient and specific to the situation.” Optimists tend to explain things because of external causes that are specific to the situation, not themselves.”
Cool, huh?
“Flow” is a term coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to describe a state he observed in artists and athletes who were performing at high levels. It is the state of being in which creativity occurs. Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as a kind of optimal experience, when things go well in “an almost automatic, effortless, yet highly focused state of consciousness.” It has several characteristics that almost everyone has experienced.
Stream of Consciousness writing is an old technique (Proust wrote a whole book that way) that I’ve found is a marvelous way to capture a moment. Every sensation, noticed and put to paper, becomes captured in a sensory image that’s more real and visceral than any photograph can be. Life streams by, sometimes so quickly, and beautiful moments like this one can be so vividly remembered when you have something like this to read:
“If we hope to live not just from moment to moment but in true consciousness of our existence, then our greatest need and most difficult achievement is to find meaning in our lives.” -Bruno Bettelheim
My interest in the health benefits of art has grown out of a lifelong passion for the beauty of natural shapes and forms. All my life, I’ve enjoyed drawing sketches of people, plants, and animals. It has always soothed me to spend a few minutes putting graceful lines on a piece of paper.
As a medical student, I created intricate drawings to prepare for anatomy lab. Drawing the structures of the human body was a deeply satisfying way to learn how we’re put together. The process of drawing helped me deal with the stress of having to learn so much material in so little time.
When I started studying psychology and mind-body medicine, I learned about the benefits of flow, self-expression, and disclosure. These things gave me an academic explanation for the deep pleasure I’ve always felt when engaged in simple creative activity.
Welcome to my blog! I spend hours every week scouring the medical and psychological research literature for my work as a physician, writer, and professor. This blog is where I record many of the interesting, exciting things I learn every day about how your ideas, dreams, visions, fears, and other thoughts and feelings affect the cells of your body and your health. You can also find out about me, my book, and my work. And, because I love to travel and sail, you’ll find entries about those things as well.
Life is meant to be happy. Learn more about how your body, mind and spirit interact – and start being happier right now.
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