014 : HALT - Dr. JD Hasenbank talks Hunger, Anger, Loneliness, & Tiredness

In this episode I sit down with Dr. JD Hassenbank, Muscle Magician, who's main mantra is move better, hurt less.

In our current situation in 2020, there has been a lot of mental taxation to overcome.

While we all constantly monitor and navigate our stress levels, Dr. Hassenbank provides us with some mental exercises to help us process all that's going on using the HALT process.

Hunger, Anger, Loneliness, Tiredness, or H.A.L.T.

As we try and conquer the current times, we hope his words alleviate tension and stress. 

Here's our chat. 

JD Hasenbank : @Drhasenbank

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Let's step back a little. Take a look inside our true self. Get comfortable in the uncomfortable. And let's embrace our reality. Life is tough, but so are you. Welcome to the Choose Your Attitude Podcast with Nicholas Strand. Join Nick, author of Loving Someone Who's Dying, as he shares his experiences of life loss to life on the road as a traveling roadie. He and his guests will get into real topics while encouraging you to let go of the past, lift up the present, and fiercely build your better tomorrow. Let's get through this together. Now, here's your host, Nick Strand.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Hey, welcome to the Choose Your Attitude Podcast, where we discuss real life stuff, learn to master the only aspects we can control in life, and use it as a tool to make today the best day of your life. Every morning we wake up with a choice to make. What attitude are you going to create your life with today? We chat with people of all walks of life, people sharing their own stories and tips of some of life's most difficult journey. There is no proper way to do this correctly besides talking about it and walking through the process, no matter how difficult it may be. So let's train the elephant in the room together. But first, a word from our sponsors. Are you looking for some much-needed motivation? Maybe a new way to feel inspired. We know that life is tough, but so are you. Finding that perfect shirt you've been dreaming of is a tough journey. But we have you covered. That's why we are here with Choose Your Attitude Apparel. Wear it with confidence and remind yourself you're choosing a way to success. It is a constant reminder that you can share with others. Join the Choose Your Attitude community and share an attitude of style that others will want to be a part of. So get yours now at ChooseYourAttitude.com. Would you like to be a sponsor on the Choose Your Attitude Podcast? Reach out to us at podcast at chooseyourattitude.com. HALT! In this episode, I sit down with Dr. JD Hazenbeck, Muscle Magician, Move Better, Hurt Less. In our current situation in 2020, there has been a lot to overcome mentally in our stress, overwhelming desire to understand. John provides us with some mental exercises to help us process all that is going on using the HALT process: hunger, anger, loneliness, tiredness. As we try and conquer the current times, here's our chat in hopes to help you process the reality. Welcome to Choose Your Attitude Podcast. Streaming at podcast.com. This episode also has a video version that you can find and subscribe to at youtube.com. That version usually airs about a week after the podcast. Um, I want to welcome everybody. Um, I have JD Hazenback, Hazenbank, sorry. Um, he actually I uh friend of mine, Josh, uh bus driver for uh touring, uh roadie friend, um, I actually came across his video um and he was talking about HALT. Uh we'll go a little bit deeper into that. Um, but it was uh I I loved his uh character, um, and I and I loved kind of how he was explaining this, um, and it kind of caught me up. Um, and so it was something that I I I wanted to reach out, uh, come to find out. Um, he as well is kind of uh in the road family. Uh, there's a little bit of a relationship there. So um I want to introduce everybody to uh JD Hasenbank. How are you doing? Good. How are you guys doing? Good, good, good. Um, explain a little bit about yourself. Uh introduce uh the audience to uh kind of who you are and um your history, I guess, with uh I believe it was Kenny Chesney.

SPEAKER_03 4:12

Yes, yeah. So I'm a doctor chiropractic, but I'm sort of like if you took a martini shaker and put a little chiropractic, a little acupuncture, physical therapy, athletic training, strength and conditioning, and functional medicine and shook it all up and spilled it out, you'd get me. So I uh I'm pretty much I love to learn personally, but also share hacks for your health and to just function better, move better, hurt less, have less stress, more energy, all that good stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

It's yeah, and um it it's definitely very helpful, uh, you know, when when uh even even in the learning process, I know for you even, I bet, um, but even for me, is like going through this process of of trying to share um is at at the same time a great learning experience. Um, and I love kind of how you shared that out um as I learned from it, and I wanted to bring you on to that. Um, so in your work, one of the videos you shared was about HALT. Yeah. Um Yeah. Can you talk about it that a little bit? You uh you named it the uh the big bad the big bad daily stressors, HALT. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

So just kind of a little backstory. I've been in practice for 20 years. I'm a movement guy, so I help people primarily in practice move better or hurt less. And when I go out on the road and take care of some of the tours that I go on, um, that's who I am. I'm kind of Dr. Feel good. So I take spots that are tight, um restricted, stuff that's hurting, and I do my muscle magic and get the moving better. But during these times, right now, I can't put my hands on people. And a lot of what I talk about in the day-to-day kind of in the scenes with people, I layer a lot of this information in and teach a lot of why I'm working on them. And it got to the point where I just realized like this season is stressful for me, you, and everybody. I mean, it's disorienting, it's a little bit fearful, it's a wondering of are we gonna even be able to get back to the lifestyle that we were used to or that we really want to live? I mean, do we even really want to live like that anymore? It's it's uh it's been a little bit of a swirl during this time. And so the biggest thing that people are asking me, either via Zoom or phone call or text or when they uh do come in, is they're saying, man, I'm just so stressed right now. My traps are tight, my back is tight. I mean, I'm like aching and hurting all over. And so we talk about what kind of things you can do to not only hack cure stress, but also help your body become more resilient, handle stress. And the very first thing you do is just take out the biggest stressors in your daily life. There's a lot of stuff we don't have control over, but these four we absolutely have control over. And it's the Halt.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

I I love that. Um, I it it's a it's a great reminder to remember uh Halt, um, that's for sure. Um and I was looking through it um at uh HALT for uh hungry, angry, lonely, and tired. Um I was actually just talking to you about how I woke up this morning, and um I myself have been having a hard time to get on my feet today, and um I feel a little uh uh definitely uh uncomfortable because of that stress. Um, I actually made myself a um smoothie to uh try to kind of help with the hunger and um kind of uh reward my body and kind of you know uh adjust my mental uh state. But um going into each layer of those, can you kind of help explain if I was to, you know, uh try to feel a little bit more comfortable and are uncomfortable right now, um, using uh, you know, kind of those steps of halt?

SPEAKER_03 8:09

Yeah, and I know we wanted to jump into a little bit of it is okay, like feeling stress is okay, feeling anxiety, depression. I mean, my gosh, my anxiety has been off the charts. I've lived with anxiety all my life, but I've learned how to not just manage it, but how to really tap into dropping it down and low. When I feel it, I don't ignore it. I go, hmm, I'm a little more anxious. Or I might wake up a day like you have today where you're like, I kind of feel depressed. Like I'm having a hard time getting going. Like I'm not quite myself. Recognizing and feeling your feelings is kind of key number one, just kind of checking in and being aware of what's going on. Key number two is realizing that there's really no shame or blame for this. It's just the way you are and what's happening right now. And number three, being able to speak it, either write it down in a journal, speak it to a friend, somebody who's trusted that can kind of go, okay, somebody who's not gonna try to fix you, somebody who goes, I get it. I've been there, dude. Yeah. And then number four is knowing that you can do something about it. You don't have to sit in the pit forever. You can literally do something about it if you choose to. You can choose your own attitude, you can choose how you feel. I mean, you can choose a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Yeah. It's it's um it's true. It's definitely one of those things that I've learned through my life, um, and I'm definitely still learning, is um, and and I've kind of uh going through that this morning, is uh we feel uncomfortable when we feel this way. Um, and and sometimes we feel in kind of the survival mode of wanting to pull ourselves out of it, or we feel uncomfortable, and so we we sometimes ask, is that okay to feel this way? And it it it's um it's less about uh being right or wrong in that feeling, but more about being aware and understanding to the feelings you're in, um, to absolutely to either a acknowledge them um or b to uh uh understand how to I don't want to say overcome them because I feel like overcome is more of a a fighting word, um, but at the same time to to uh to learn how to have that relationship with those feelings so that way they don't become uh uh un uh misproductive or or um uh catch up on you and uh become a negative uh uh outward uh emotion. Expression. Expression, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:54

Yeah. So so emotions are simply lights on the dashboard of your heart. They're neither right or wrong, but they can give you the ability to take a left turn or a right turn.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 11:08

And if you go one way with your emotion, let's just pick an example. Uh let's take, let's take anger. Like if you're feeling angry, and you talked about I love the podcast that um you and your buddy did on the grieving cycle. Yep, because literally we're in a grieving cycle right now. This is the grief cycle in real time. But if you take anger, for instance, that's part of that grieving cycle, and you turn in the direction of a positive expression of the anger, that actually is called um a desire, a wanting something that's not quite yet, or I wish it wasn't this way, I wish it was that way. It's it's a righteous anger. And if you go the other direction with anger, the interesting thing is when anger is suppressed or repressed, a lot of times people think, well, that's rage. No, anger suppressed is depression. Anger suppressed is depression. When you suppress fear, that becomes anxiety and eventually leads to rage. Now, fear on the positive side can lead to wisdom. I mean, you know, the beginning of wisdom is fear. So I mean, all of these emotions where we think they're bad, sad, um, shame, fear, guilt, anger, um, they can lead to a positive choice, or they can lead to a negative choice. And so I think that's where when you're we're looking at the halt here, it really is something to stop you. Like when you're feeling stressed, when you're feeling anxious, depressed, when you're feeling stuck, brain fog, like just stop for a moment and check in on these big four and simply solve those so you have more capacity for all the stuff you don't have control over, the traffic. Like, when are we gonna go back to work? Like, how are we gonna make the rent payment? How are we gonna, you know, is my business gonna look the same? Am I gonna have a job? All that stuff. The things that we just really don't have a whole lot of control over. We can at least knock these big four down and it gives you more capacity of handling stress as a barrel that's filled with water. All the little stressors that fill up with water and eventually topple over. If you take these big four and get rid of these big four, you have a lot more capacity to handle all the other stuff.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

So, so really it's it's it's like you said, it's it's I I love your scenario of it's it's like your dashboard to your heart or even to your to your body. Because and it's so true, and and that dashboard is your communicator uh to have that relationship with your heart. And so the same idea here is that um if if the dashboard says that the you know we're getting close to empty, you're gonna need to acknowledge that and start thinking about it and kind of processing through it. And the same idea with your body um is that even though that emotion may be negative um or even sometimes positive, it's best not to leap put that aside and ignore it, but to address it and and um not always be so aggressive on the addressing of it, but keep it um as a relationship and an open conversation with yourself as a way to keep moving forward because just like fuel in the car, it's a constant up and down. Um it it's never uh you know it's never a long-term uh payoff plan where you know it's always gonna go away. It's more of a constant change. So in this um uh overcoming or or uh learning about yourself and and um trying to communicate with others, I think one thing I I want to add in there too, um not to jump around too much, but um like you had said too with communicating with friends and such about those emotions, it's not only sharing that with them to get them to listen, but I think it's also a process in you yourself, as you communicate with somebody, you're learning how to process your own emotions so you can speak it. And by doing that, you're actually learning more about yourself. Um it reminds me back to I'd use this before as a teacher always told me is that you know you don't know something until you can teach it. And it's it's it almost it almost seems like the same idea is that um when you can explain, and even if it's a hard to explain, but just the process of of getting in there and trying to explain how you feel, um, and keeping that up on the table helps you process through it so that way you can actually keep rising as opposed to uh you know get to a point where you know it's just fumes and you're on the side of the street now and you you know you need somebody to stop and help you. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 16:18

Um so I think yeah, I think it it doesn't matter if it's a process of writing or speaking. Yes, what ends up happening is you don't know when you start to write or start to speak. What you're eventually gonna say. You have kind of a broad idea, but what's crazy is there is brilliance that starts to spill out either on that page or actually in the conversation. And it's not the the process of speaking how you're feeling isn't to figure out why or how to solve it. It's just simply acknowledging and starting to put words to it because words are powerful. I mean, words are either gonna drive you in a positive direction or negative direction, either self-fulfilling prophecy in the wrong way or the right way that you want to go. So by speaking it out, you will inherently most of the times figure out what your own solution is and what's going on just simply by speaking it. And it and it literally is magical. It happens in the moment. And having gone through, you know, I mean, tens of thousands of dollars of therapy because of trauma in my childhood and story, what I learned was my individual counseling and all the group sessions I did together with Ben and other people in story groups, et cetera, that I had no idea that I was gonna learn just from speaking it out. Number one, and number two, listening to somebody else share their story and their feelings, I actually learned just as much, if not even more, sitting and listening to somebody else process. So it's one of those things where my gosh, if we can't get together individually, just get on a Zoom and just share. You don't have to fix each other. You can just literally dump and go, hey, let me just spill for 10 minutes and you can spill for 10 minutes and we'll have to figure this out. We're just gonna speak it out and talk it out. I'm not a writer, I'm a talker, obviously, as you can tell. So, you know, it's better for me to sit and talk it out.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

I I think you make a good point there, and I think we're really learning that right now, uh, too. Um, is we got lost in the world of technology. Uh we live in a world of social media where um, you know, we simply say our hellos or we we think we're checking in with people because we saw their po uh picture today, um, and not actually communicating.

SPEAKER_03 18:48

Um we're observing, not interacting.

SPEAKER_01 18:52

Exactly. Yes, exactly. Even though in mentally we think we're interacting because we're we're observing, however, it's not a two-way observance. Yes. Um, what that does though, I have noticed, and and I'm saying I'm kind of throwing myself under the bus as I say this, um, is it's a one-way communication. So you're only seeing, but then also you're not hearing. Um, and that that feeling of uncomfortable when you hear somebody else's story um or or challenged to understand why they're feeling that way, it helps you kind of understand A, that we're all in this together. Uh not to be cliche about it.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

Seriously, we are.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

We all have a struggle and we're all dealing with something. Um, but I know this is one thing that I really am working on right now is when you can listen to somebody else's story um and allow that to be accepted and work on that at the same time as as what you give as far as your story, you're able to kind of as you said, process not only their emotions, but understand how they have looked at themselves to give you more uh tools to do the same for yourself. Um so something we've become f familiar with or comfortable with and interacting with, oh, but this works for me. Oh, but this works for me. But if you hear it from somebody else and you go back, you're able to kind of start challenging yourself to become actually more comfortable in the uncomfortable, yes, as opposed to accept where you stand and let some of the water fill up that barrel to where all of a sudden you're you're drowning, you're overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_03 20:49

Yeah. I mean, basically what you're doing is you're you're trying to suck air through a straw underneath the water. I mean, it's it's literally that analogy where you're you're trying to survive by just getting just getting the basic barely necessities of life. Um the other thing is being able to see somebody's body language and being able to see like how their body responds to processing their story is unbelievable. And I think that's why I went to having Zoom conversations with my buddies and people I love and respect um and wanted to spend more time with over Zoom versus a phone call, a text, or or whatever, because being able to see them and interact with them in this way, even though we're not in the same room, has been amazing. And we all are so freaking busy and go nonstop. I mean, my days were 7 a.m. clinic to 7 p.m. clinic, Monday through Thursday, hit the road, go out, tour, come back on Sunday, do it all again. And we just didn't have the time to interact, not only with each other, but just even with ourselves to Sit and check in. I mean, I did my best to do my check-ins and mindfulness and meditations, but I have to get up at freaking 4 30 in the morning to do that.

SPEAKER_01 22:08

You know? Yeah. We uh I I had said this before too. We forget how much uh of someone's presence, um, their facial expressions. Um, I use this as uh I had a uh I have a very close friend of mine who's deaf um and we use sign language. And in sign language, your facial expressions can determine a sign into three or four different ways. And we forget about that not only because of social media, because anymore it's just words, and that those words or emails don't really share that, but even in conversation, you hear emotion, so you're able to by some of the the verbal, you're able to kind of guess what's happening. But with Zoom, like you said, is it's a whole new it's a whole nother level of understanding and being able to see a person's you know smile, a person uh, you know, that that connection that I I don't even think we realize that when you see somebody else and you get that eye contact and you're able to kind of see that struggle or see that happiness, um, you feel it. Um yeah, absolutely. And I think and I think sometimes um that creates sometimes the uncomfortable, but that uncomfortable is I think what we're talking about of wanting to try to stand in um not as a way it not as a way to make it more challenging on yourself in in a negative sense, but more in a positive sense that when you when we look for example, right now, it's okay to feel how we are right now. Yeah, it's scary, yeah, it's it's it's it's emotional. Um it doesn't make our circumstances better, however, it allows us to get through that process better um so that way we can get to the finish line, or at least make every day better so that way it doesn't over overcome us uh or overwhelm us um as an individual. So we can actually make each day as best as we can, no matter the levels of you know uh the struggles we're in.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

Absolutely. I mean, the present of being present with somebody and being in their presence is that you get the me to connection. You get the oh yeah, me too. Like you thought you were the only one. Yep. Or you thought you were one of very few that felt like that, and you realized that, gosh, I'm not alone. Like, yeah, I feel that, and it lowers the stress.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

It it's almost in in my head as we're saying that, it um, I wouldn't say it's like you're giving the ball to somebody else or the re the the uh baton and a relay race, but it's almost the same idea is that you're you're the motion of letting that off your chip, your your chest and and kind of handing it, you know, to letting somebody else be like, nope, uh let me let me take some of this for you.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

Um and it's a it's a it's a do-it-together, it's a shoulder-to-shoulder. Meaning, I'm not gonna solve your issue, you're not gonna solve mine, but you know what, we're in this together. Um, let's go ahead and carry this, you know, and make the load a little bit lighter.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Yeah. So so as we as we are in these situations and we're we're understanding them, going back to that halt, um, to to try to how can we help ourselves or help somebody else as we as we process through that um to go a little bit deeper into those levels?

SPEAKER_03 25:53

Um so so on the big bad daily stressors of the halt, the hungry, angry, lonely, and tired, essentially, if you're feeling overwhelmed, you're feeling triggered, you're kind of depressed or feeling out of sorts, or you're actually interacting with a spouse, a child, a parent who is a little more angry, a little more out of sorts, looking kind of feeling kind of stressed, and you're kind of sensing that. The first thing you want to do is go, hey, for myself or that person, um, am I hungry? Have I eaten recently? And what was the last meal I actually ate? Because if it was crab, if it was sugary, that stuff's gonna be out of your system in 30 to 60 minutes and your blood sugar is gonna drop. Did I eat well? Did I have good fats? You know, did I have good, you know, protein and some slow absorbed carbs like you know, veggies or you know, fibrous stuff. Um, solve the hunger issue first because it takes stress off. So if you're stressed, that's not the time to fast. Like if you're an intermittent faster like I am, if you are um trying to cut, lean, or help your metabolism, fasting is an additional stress to drive you into fat burning. But why add additional stress when you're already feeling stressed? Just solve the hunger issue. Um, and then on the anger side, one of the things is to just check in and move the biggest thing, if you're feeling angry or somebody is angry with you, some of the best things you can do is just take a pause, say, hey, I'm not leaving forever. I just need some space to go check in and kind of reset. Um, and that's kind of where you go, was I am I hungry? Am I lonely? Am I tired? Or where's this anger coming from? You know, why it is it coming out negative versus saying, hey, I really wish for this. I really wish it wasn't like this. Can we work together to find a solution? Or can you do that inside yourself to go, hey, I wish I hadn't sleep in today, or I wish I didn't drink too much last night and wake up feeling horrible today. Like just check in and go, like, what would you what would I like to do different? What would I like to be different about this situation? The word the word hangry comes to mind. Yes, yes. Yes. Yeah, we and the interesting thing is if you're angry and you haven't solved that first hunger thing, like go solve that. See if it changes how you feel. You'd be amazed. You'll probably be like, oh, okay, yeah, that feels better.

unknown 28:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

Lonely. Yeah, go ahead. You want to just run through them? Uh yeah, let's go for it. Okay. Uh, so on the lonely side, a lot of times you'll find that somebody will pick a fight with you, or you will pick a fight with somebody else just to get connection. And it's not intentional, it's very subtle. I mean, sometimes it might be intentional, but a lot of times it's like we're arguing about something, but that really isn't as big of an issue as we're making it. What's going on? Like, are we are we lonely? Are we not spending the time that we want to spend together, getting that connection that we want to get together? Um, and it really actually, it could even be lonely with yourself that you haven't spent enough time connecting with yourself or connecting with God or or whatever to just go, okay, where am I depleted on feeling satisfied and feeling connected? That's the lonely component right there. And again, angry and lonely take a little bit of time to draw away, to check in and analyze each one of those components. And I would say when we're looking at our feelings, I would say it's like looking at a box of jewels. And so if you think, well, gosh, I'm lonely, I'm angry, I feel fear, I feel shame, I feel guilt, those are jewels. They are, they really are precious jewels. You don't want to hand them to anybody to explore. You want to just kind of look at them yourself and hand them to trusted people to say, hey, can I just share with you what's going on? But on the lonely component, you know, ask yourself, am I getting the connection with people? If not, and I can't get in their face, can I get them on a Zoom? And y'all, I'm serious. Zoom works so much easier than FaceTime. I mean, it's it's weird how I've just kind of migrated to Zoom and ditched FaceTime because it just is a more stable platform. Uh, in the last one, out of the halt, hungry, angry, lonely, is tired. You know, when you're tired, it's a lot easier to feel stressed, overwhelmed, get triggered. Uh, and so for the tired component, if you're not able to get the sleep that you need at night, hack your sleep during the day. A 30-minute nap is equivalent to an extra hour's sleep at night. An hour nap is equivalent to an extra two hours, and a two-hour nap is equivalent to almost an entire night's sleep. So that's that's the way Einstein, Edison, and so many of the greats hack their sleep is they slept a little less at night, caught up during the day, and I have a 30-minute power nap scheduled every day. I eat my lunch within 15 to 20 minutes, and I put my eye mask on to block out a little light. I put my earbuds in. I play an app called Brainwave, and I have a post on that on my Facebook, and I dial it into PowerNap, and it drops my brain into sleep and then wakes me back up without feeling tired or oversleeping. And I get up and I never have the afternoon dip, and I just feel like it can handle more.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

And and actually, uh as you talked about those, um, it it a lot kind of came through. Um, first off, tired and nap. Um a you choosing to do that not only is the time for a nap, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a little bit of processing where your mind is kind of as you're taking that half hour nap to get into that, your mind is slowly shutting down, processing all your feels and trying to kind of uh reset and and andor find uh your presence um again um as opposed to understanding yourselves. We get so busy in our day, I know I do this, where um I'll start out in the beginning and I'll get halfway through the day and realize I haven't eaten, I haven't addressed anything, and having those moments of uh, like you said, of pause. Um, and and you know, your nap that that allows you to address the situation, remind yourself, okay, where am I at right now? How am I feeling right now? Um, and I think that's that's important as well. Um, and and I see that, you know, I see that myself as I will take a nap sometimes, uh, especially when I get to the low, and it's like, okay, I just need to reset and um kind of find myself again and regain that energy to overcome. Um, another thing that I as you were talking about all these, um, that I I wanted to kind of maybe uh talk to you about um is also when you feel these things sometimes it's good just to feel it. So if you're yeah if you're feeling angry, um we've talked about using these steps to try to pull yourself out of it. We've we've talked about these steps about understanding that feel. But I know with me, sometimes what'll happen is is I will feel really uh down or or angry, and I will try a good day or two of doing these different steps, and I can't get through them. And what I realize is not to submit to them, but I need to take a break and get into that feel and just kind of acknowledge it, allow it, and become better acquainted with it.

SPEAKER_03 34:07

Um, absolutely. You you do not have to figure it out. We're talking about processes that take a little bit of time. So if you don't have the time and you're going, what's going on? and you recognize you're feeling angry, it is actually amazing enough and powerful enough to go, uh like quietly in your mind's eye, go, I am feeling angry, and that's okay. We can figure that out later. Um, and then the other thing which piggybacks off of too is your attitude. Yes, it's crazy, y'all. There's so much research behind fake it till you make it. You can literally, if you're in, and I'll challenge you. Have you ever been in an argument with somebody? And then somebody rings the doorbell or somebody comes by and you go from being like, oh da, to hey, how you doing? What's going on? Like you're choosing your attitude in that moment, and it literally is switching your brain patterns and neurochemicals, and you come out of actually having this sort of faked conversation that actually turns into a wow, I feel a lot better now.

SPEAKER_01 35:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:15

I mean, it's it's it's an easy, easy hack, and it's not dismissing an emotion, but it's a it's a way to go, I have more power over this than I than I really think.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

It's um it reminds me of uh, I think his name is Dr. Caesar, the dog uh trainer. Yes. Um when the dog is you know completely in a a frenzy bark or whatever, um, he will throw the dog off to the side to kind of uh intermake or or interrupt that brainwave um and and kind of get you back into reality. Um I remind I remember it uh by when the counselors they put a rubber band on your arm and when you're having a bad thought, you snap it and it hits your, you know, to kind of kind of shock like shock shock you, yeah, redirect your mindset. Um and like you said, it it's by doing that, it it takes it to a different perspective. Um, because you're right, sometimes we fall so deep into trying to understand in a conversation or such, yeah. Um, especially when we're angry um or or uh lost um in that feeling that I I I reference it to drowning. Um you know, when when you're six feet tall, you're in a five-foot pool, you know, and and you feel like you're drowning, um, the only thing you're focused on is trying to get up out of that pool, but you don't realize all the people around you saying, get up, all you have to do is stand up, or and and it's literally just standing up. Um and so by being able to get out of that survival survival mode, um, snap your brain wave to become present and kind of uh take a reproach of where you're at in the present, um, will allow you to get back into that productive perspective as opposed to the reactive in the moment perspective. Um, and that's what these levels are trying to help us uh uh accomplish is when we get stuck in these moments and we're trying to get out of that when we click using these different approaches to help us process and build through them. Um it doesn't mean it's going to save everything, it's just gonna try to make your day better and make that day a more of a success and overcoming and making it as full as you can. Um, and as I say this, I'm taking all this in because, like I said at the beginning of our conversation, you know, I was in my fields. I, you know, I'm processing it. It's a tough time. Um, but by having these in these conversations and and going through these processes with others, you learn how to better go through them. And so, you know, I'm already in a sense feeling better because I'm redirecting my mindset to look at it a different way and hold it a different way. Um, so that way, like you said, you can choose that attitude. Um, and and um we we often forget that our physical presence we do not have much control over, however, our mental presence we have all the control over, even though sometimes it tries to get the best of us. But if there's any control we have, it's our mental state.

SPEAKER_03 38:53

Absolutely. And you you really touched on a great point, which is realizing and recognizing as well as practicing things that we have control over. And I know I threw out a large term tea over text and said, hey, self-efficacy is really become a huge thing in healthcare to go, hey, let's teach people how to have some semblance of control over the internal or external environment that affects their health. Now, whether it's your physical health, your mental health, your psychological health, whatever side of things that you want to discuss, like the more sense of control that you have and the more confidence with practicing the things that work, and they don't have to work all the time, but they it gives you this relaxation to go, I can do this. I've got what it takes. And I think a lot of times stress and ignoring our emotions brings up the fear of being exposed for I don't have what it takes. I mean, it's an inherent fear in everybody to go, will I be exposed or discover myself, or somebody else will discover that I just don't have what it takes to do X, Y, or C.

SPEAKER_01 40:14

I I think um that in itself is I I think also a difficult time bringing connecting back to what I was talking about with social media, um, and especially with uh uh celebrities or musicians. Um you can post all the pictures you want, you can have this shield all you want, um, but the bravery doesn't come from the couple pictures you have, and then to go hide behind it and have that tough life. It's overcoming your challenge, and I think that's why we see celebrities uh or we see a lot of uh Instagram influencers with all these smiles and pictures, and it's a little bit because we want to live at that that level. What we don't realize is that's just a a facade. Um and and we we sometimes I'm connecting this then back to Brianna because um or or somebody who is lost, uh, for example, on the first episode um who lost a limb. Yeah. Um you look at celebrities and and we hold them up because they live this glamorous life, and it doesn't seem like they have struggle, but then we tend to call people like Brianna who have this huge uh weight on their shoulder, um, or like Andrea, who lost her leg, because they actually have to overcome something. So you see that overcome, so you actually hold them up on a little bit of bigger pedestal, but they're doing exactly what we've kind of talked about is they're just aware that this is me. I can't change the physical presence, and that I am not immortal, so today is all I have, and so the only way that I can overcome this is to mentally choose to take baby steps to make uh the understanding of where I stand better. Yes. Um and and uh using these steps and and like you said, the uh self uh uh efficacy.

SPEAKER_03 42:42

Yes, self-efficacy.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Yeah, and and and that's what I think um it is you know kind of what's weird about the celebrities is it seems like they're in full control when you know I I just before this happened, um, there was a football player that had a uh you know a an uh issue with their family, and it makes this big deal about it, but we forget that these people are human and that things happened. And um, you know, by by comparing them and and feeling like oh they have full control, they're human too, and and they're just doing what they can to overcome all these challenges. Um, and so uh yeah, I I think I've kind of gone off uh track here a bit, but I I think you're understanding kind of where I'm going with that.

SPEAKER_03 43:36

Absolutely. And I want to piggyback on that. So again, if you go watch any of my videos or you come and see me, I mean, the first thing that you're gonna say or anybody else says is oh my gosh, this guy's got so much resilience and so much passion and so much confidence and um so much knowledge. But guys, literally in the last six weeks, I've lost my shit. My wife and my kids more times than not. I mean, I've hidden and holed up because of the stress of like, what am I gonna do? Like, how am I gonna make payments on, you know, my offices and, you know, my house and tuitions and and you name it. And I have not eaten correctly and I've not gotten the sleep and I've been angry. And so I mean, that's that's kind of where I want to let you know what you're seeing on camera here today, or what you see on camera on on Facebook, or you see our pictures, um, it's only a sliver of the story. Like, my gosh, I mean, this has been this has been brutal on us mentally, physically, emotionally. And and I mentioned it, I mean, I'm gonna speak personally, but I and I have a feeling others are gonna have some version of PTSD from this whole experience that we're gonna have to acknowledge, not ignore, and to go, when it's all over and we get back to life, something's still just not gonna feel right. Something's gonna feel off, and we're gonna go when the letdown occurs, like something's gonna go, why am I not rebounding and springing back to where I was before? And number one, that's normal, that's okay. Number two, like you can choose to do something about it. You don't have to live in that depressed or constantly chronically anxious type of state. Uh, there are solutions that you can make, either baby steps, but I'm gonna really challenge you here. Okay, because when it comes to anything, whether it's like changing your body composition, losing weight, or it's like um accomplishing something mentally, physically, or uh emotionally, the quicker, faster, bigger steps you make, the more momentum you gain. So it's kind of the like you can take baby steps. There's nothing wrong with that. But when you actually go full in and all out, not only do you create momentum, but you create this sense of wow, like things are so much different, so much better. It it it creates that surety of the self-efficacy, sort of like, oh my gosh, I could I could be there, but I don't have to be.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

I no, completely. Um, and when you say this, it it it brought up it resonated uh a lot of things for me. Um I think PTSD saying that uh for this uh is heavy, but at the same time, I would relate that to everybody's past. Yes, um, nobody is perfect. I like to say I'm perfectly imperfect. I love that. Yes. Um, but uh we've all screwed up, we've all made a mistake, and those things I know for me countlessly will hit me when I least expect it, and to this day I'm like, oh, I shouldn't have done that. But it's using those uh situations as inspiration or uh tools to help you become better today. Love it. Um yeah, it's our our our past is exactly that, you can't change it. So it's using those learning lessons to make us the best we can because to tomorrow's not guaranteed. Yeah, and our goal is is that we have reached the highest peak we can when that last day comes. Yep. And so using those forms of PTSD um I would say is almost something to kind of uh embrace. Uh I like to say the embrace your reality. Yeah. Um is to be able to use those tools and not throw those under, but when they come up, remind them and keep them out here so that way you can use them to inspire you and to perfect yourself to overcome these challenges. So now, next time this comes up, you're one up to whatever that that monster may be.

SPEAKER_03 48:20

And PTSD isn't this like big, big, bad, ugly thing. It's your brain and body and heart's way of going, damn, that was hard. Yeah, really hard. Like, can we have a little bit of time to recover from that? Yep. It's being kind to your brain, body, and heart, and even soul to go, it's okay if it takes me a little bit to get back, go in the right direction. And it's okay if I never actually get back to who I was before this experience. That's why they call the memory. Embracing the suck and then kind of going, you know what? That has actually changed me. What if what if that hard and bad experience has actually changed me for the better? Now that I've done all the processing on my childhood trauma, like I would not wish it on anybody, but I would not go back and change a single thing simply from the fact of I would not be who I am today, have the empathy that I have, have the understanding, and have the um almost like the intuition, the ability to have a radar and monitor for things around me that I that I have today. And I wouldn't give that up for the world because it takes all of that for me to scan and analyze somebody's body that's not fully like apparent what's going on, to go, I'm kind of getting a hunch or sense for, and I'll hit a spot and I'll go, oh my god, how'd you know about that? And I'm like, I mean, I could sit there and tell my whole story, but I'm like, thank goodness I have what I have now.

SPEAKER_01 49:55

I I I refer that kind of to me and Brianna. Um Brianna passing. Um it I I don't want to call it a it it is a choice, um, but it it's difficult by all means. But I have taken the choice to challenge myself and now with choose your attitude um from her own legacy is to take that uh instead of be sad for her being gone, challenge myself to to take the lessons I've learned and build off of them. So I'm actually uh you know taking all those lessons um and and making it a positive of her life as opposed to sit here in the morning of my selfishness for her not being here physically um after passing, which sometimes is difficult. Um so connecting with that of my past, anyways.

SPEAKER_03 50:55

Um yeah, it's it's not only honoring her life, but it's also honoring the life you have left. Exactly and and the hard that you went through to kind of know that things might head in this direction and end up where it's ended up, you know?

SPEAKER_01 51:15

Uh taking uh appreciation for the life we have and trying not to take it for granted. Um and and one of the things to kind of to piggyback off what you said too, after that you were talking about the PS uh PTSD, and then you talked about um you know kind of snapping uh and making an extreme change as opposed to baby steps. And I think that's huge and difficult all at the same time. Absolutely. However, I think a lot of that um two relations, one relation I would go back to the whole Brianna part. Um, a lot of people have a really hard time after somebody passes for that person to so-called move on. And really what I I'm noticing is it's not them moving on in the baby step. What they're doing is they're activating a change in them in themselves in a positive light to try to stay on top and try to keep moving forward out of that depression of the sadness that occurs. Yes. Um, another connection I would put in, um I forget the guy's name, but he's the general that did the graduation speech, and he talks about making your bed. Yes. And he talks about I myself have seen that, and that's a challenge I've had. So he talks about the simple step of making your bed every morning to get you moving forward. It's a quick win. It's a quick win, but it's a big step. Yes, and what that did for me is I had many mornings that I was waking up and I was slowly moving. Well, yes, I could slowly try to work out, but what I did is I said, Stop. Let's make this extreme. I set my alarm for an hour earlier than what I normally wake up to. Why? To do that quick change. At the same time, I've started to make my bed, and that extreme has allowed me to help encourage that choice because it was all a choice. I had to make the choice to set the alarm. I had to make the choice to make the bed, but these actions start start to stack up and help you overcome and acknowledge and give you that energy.

SPEAKER_03 53:32

Um, so and the big change doesn't have to be in every area of your life, right? Literally, I mean, it can be as simple as that to go, wow, an hour earlier, oh, that feels like that feels like a monster leap. Why not just 15 minutes earlier? But I mean, that's a big change. You don't have to change everything else. Once you master that, and once that becomes habitual in a rhythm, then you can start taking chunks out of other areas of your life and make big changes there. And I would say don't go to the extreme and try to change everything at once because it's just too overwhelming. You know, just take big chunks out of it and and it creates that momentum and you get the dopamine hit and it feels good, it feels connecting, and you're now having some level of self-efficacy, some self-control.

SPEAKER_01 54:26

I love it. Um I am inspired already. Nice. I have um I myself um have actually uh you know gone through a little bit of a change in this you know uh small hour that we've sat here and talked. And me too. Um yeah, it's um it's encouraging and it's like you said, it's a great reminder that you know we can sit up here on this pedestal and and uh you know talk about these things, but it doesn't mean that just because we're saying them means that we've won up this and we've mastered it. Yeah, we've mastered it. Part of us talking is us learning and and you know trying to become better ourselves. Um, and so by sharing that with others, we hope to you know uh kind of spread the wealth, if you will, and uh even more put us on the um uh uh responsibility to even try harder um you know at that. So yes. Thank you uh for being absolutely I do want to ask one more question that I always ask at the very end of these things. Um so Brianna did uh amazingly come up with the legacy of choose your attitude, create your life. I love that. I know you kind of touched it a little bit, um, but directly, if I was to say choose your attitude, create your life, how does your mind, how do you kind of interpret that um to somebody?

SPEAKER_03 55:51

Well, it's it's like I talked about before. It's a it's a little bit, and this is really dumbing it down of saying fake it till you make it. But the deal is is that when you and I'll relate this to I'll rate this to um getting into mindfulness and uh meditation, which used to sound really kooky to me and had to read all the scientific research, and then I was like, oh my gosh, this stuff is brilliant. But literally focusing on what you want is incredibly powerful. And some people are like, well, that's selfish, but ultimately, like I want to focus on having peace and joy and playfulness and uh spunky attitude and patience and things like that. By choosing to focus on that, even though I don't feel patient, even though I don't feel kind or playful, I'm choosing to focus on that knowing that my brain, my body, my biochemistry, and my genetics will change in that direction. And science actually says that's proven and true. So I really think this is very intentional is powerful. Your words are powerful, your thoughts are powerful. And so as you lasso them in and redirect them, you know, it makes all the difference in the world for me, but also for everybody I'm around and interacting with.

SPEAKER_01 57:16

Yes, I love that. Um, thank you. Um, is there any other quick quick points you want to make before we uh drop out of here?

SPEAKER_03 57:24

Um, or that's that's about it. That uh you're more powerful than you believe and have more control than you think you have for a lot of situations.

SPEAKER_01 57:35

I love it. Um, how can people find you if they want to uh connect?

SPEAKER_03 57:39

The best way to find me is to go to drhassinbank.com or go to my Facebook. It's at dr Hassinbank. Um honestly, if you just Google JD Hassanbank, uh those will pop up right there. Um if you have a question, my number, literally, you can text me today, 615-600-4747. That's not a mock or phone number. That is my mobile number. Text me a question, ask me a question, not gonna charge you. Um, we can create a dialogue and see if it's something that that I can either do a quick answer for you, get your reference, or if you're like, hey, I really want to test my stress hormones and see kind of what load my body's under. I want to be able to understand how to hack some of the other systems in my body, my brain. Um, if I wasn't a sports chiropractor, active release guy and that failed, I'd probably be a neuropsychologist because that's where my passion is for myself and you know, for the people, people I love. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:41

Uh, what about your podcast? You're talking about a podcast.

SPEAKER_03 58:44

Um a buddy of mine, again, it just came from reconnecting and saying, golly, we should actually, we should actually zoom, we should film our conversations because we are sharing so much great content back and forth. And we were like, hey, let's just have a show. Let's have a live show. So we're gonna have a show launching next Wednesday officially. We've kind of done some test shows, but officially next Wednesday at 1 p.m. on Facebook or YouTube. It's called Smarter, Not Harder. And you can find a link to that on my um uh Dr. Hassanbank uh Facebook page. And then I'll also be posting some that aren't live that I'm doing uh shows with and recording that are called health hacks. And they're two professionals getting together talking about okay, what kind of hacks are you giving your patients and clients and what kind of hacks are you doing for your health, your fitness, and things like that? We're sharing our tips and tricks back and forth and just recording it and putting it up there so that people can learn like what is the stuff we do to fix ourselves?

SPEAKER_01 59:48

I love that. Um, and I will make sure too that we put that on the uh uh on the description of the podcast so that way uh people can get that as as well uh there. Um so um once again, uh thank you for being on. Uh thanks for having me. So good chatting with you. Yes. Um, thanks everyone for joining us, the choose your attitude podcast. Don't forget to come uh visit us at choose yourattitude.com where you can find more information about the mission as well as choose your attitude apparel, along with the books Loving Someone Who's Dying in the Illustration Quotes on a Fridge. If you have any questions or ideas for the show, please email us at podcast at chooseyourattitude.com, as we are always excited to hear from you. Thanks everyone for listening. And as always, choose your attitude, create your life. See ya.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:34

Thank you for listening. To reach out to Nick and the Choose Your Attitude community, find us on social media at Choose Attitude Create Life. Share your attitude with the world with merch guaranteed to encourage at chooseyourattitude.com. Be sure to share us with friends, family, and colleagues. And while you're at it, leave us an uplifting review. We'd very much appreciate it. Check back for new episodes. Until next time, choose your attitude, create your life.