Wellness Week 2018

Meditation for dentistry
Breathe in, hold, and breathe out. As a dental or an oral health student, meditation seems completely at odds with what we do. However, it is actually one of the most effective ways to combat the stresses of our profession!

So what exactly is meditation?
According to Headspace, “Meditation isn’t about becoming a different person, a new person, or even a better person. It’s about training in awareness and getting a healthy sense of perspective. You’re not trying to turn off your thoughts or feelings. You’re learning to observe them without judgement. And eventually, you may start to better understand them as well”.

Meditation is a practice and most people won’t master it in a day. Think of it like exercising a part of your brain you’ve never worked out before. There are no rules and everyone has a different method of meditation. Simply closing your eyes and slowing down your breathing for 10 breaths is a meditation.

To find out more and try out some meditation exercises the next time you feel anxious or stressed, check out Headspace’s awesome YouTube channel, or download their app for short guided meditation sessions.

ABC Life Matters also has a number of guided audio meditations here for you to listen to at home or uni.
Give it a go today and you may just love it!

Healthcare students are subject to an ever-increasing academic demand and balancing both study and a social life can prove challenging. This can lead to sacrifices, with wellbeing, sleep, routine and diet being impacted.

Medical Indemnity Protection Society – MIPS want to make sure you look after each other and check in on your mates. Make sure you ask “R U OK?”

https://www.mips.com.au/articles/the-mind-matters

For Dr Sandhya Iyr, a catastrophic hand injury a mere few months into owning a practice saw her out of work for 6 months. She shares her experience here for us all to learn from.

“The issue of burn out is far too frequent in our great profession. I would like to share with you some of my learning over the past few months. If you ever find yourselves in this situation, know you are not alone and there are a lot of people here for support.

Signs of burn out for me were feeling depleted, helpless, overloaded, didn’t want to get out of bed, overwhelmed, emotionally & physically drained and zero motivation.

Remember- Burn out is a signal, not a sentence.

I listened to a podcast by Jim Kwik a while ago and the episode changed my thinking instantly. Maybe I was ready to receive, but I have implemented these 7S’s into my life and it helped almost immediately.

Details of the podcast below:

• Space: Schedule white space in your day. Forces you to be more intentional with your time. Change of scenery for a small amount of time during the day. Nothing breeds creativity like a sudden short change in your scenery
• Selective: Imagine a laptop that has too many tabs open, it just consumes more energy. Closes tabs in your brain; be selective and stop over-committing. – say no to good, so you can say yes to great. You can do anything but you cannot do everything; have a to-do list, but also have a “not to-do list”- Be brave to say “heck no! I will not do that.”
• Shift: What controls your altitude in life is your attitude. Shift from mind to heart – practice gratitude. What you appreciate, appreciates!

Instead of saying:
I have to study, say, I get to study
I have to travel, say I get to travel
I have to exercise, say I get to exercise

• Systemise: systemise your repetitive tasks. Eg: your morning routine, your work out schedule. first you create your habits, then your habits create you.
• Sharpen – if you have a lot of wood to cut, sharpen your saw before you start cutting. listen to inspiring podcasts on your way to work; listen to people outside of dentistry, seek exponential thinkers and listen to their insights on life.
• Self Care: Essential to replenish your mental, physical and emotional energy. Gather a tribe, eat well, sleep well, exercise- at the least- get sunlight and fresh air at least once a day; if you going to drink alcohol> drink less but only drink the good stuff, declutter your desk, declutter your wardrobe, throw out stuff you don’t use and donate old clothes. Get your world news from non-biased sources, NOT Fox News.
• Support: Create, connect, deepen friendships with positive people, enough to counter-balance the negativity from other unavoidable sources. Linear correlation between feeling lonely and feeling exhausted. Connect- if not on a public forum, then by private means. Give love and compassion, the more you give the more you receive.

My favourite podcasts to listen to on the way to work are:
http://podcast.diamandis.com/
http://ultimatehealthpodcast.com/naveen-jain/
http://jimkwik.com/category/podcast-1/
http://drjessegreen.com/savvydentist/
https://hbr.org/2018/01/podcast-women-at-work

Learn, Earn and Return! “

(With permission from Sandhya Iyr)

Mission of the day: ask at least 1 person “R U OK?”

Staying connected and having meaningful conversations is something we can all do as dental and oral health students. You don’t need to be an expert – just a good friend and a great listener. So, if you notice someone who might be struggling, either a friend, classmate or colleague – start a conversation.

Today, Thursday 13th September, is the national RUOK day and ADSA wants you to be a part of it! Coffees and other goodies will be provided to universities across Australia by ADSA as part of the initiative.

R U OK? is a suicide prevention organisation dedicated to helping all Aussies play a role in stopping feelings of loneliness and isolation among family members, friends and workmates by staying connected and having regular, meaningful chats. Check out their website for tips on how to get the conversation going.

Mission of the day: ask at least 1 person “R U OK?”

Staying connected and having meaningful conversations is something we can all do as dental and oral health students. You don’t need to be an expert – just a good friend and a great listener. So, if you notice someone who might be struggling, either a friend, classmate or colleague – start a conversation.

Today, Thursday 13th September, is the national RUOK day and ADSA wants you to be a part of it! Coffees and other goodies will be provided to universities across Australia by ADSA as part of the initiative.

R U OK? is a suicide prevention organisation dedicated to helping all Aussies play a role in stopping feelings of loneliness and isolation among family members, friends and workmates by staying connected and having regular, meaningful chats. Check out their website ruok.org.au for tips on how to get the conversation going.

You open the fridge when you get back home from a long day at uni. It’s empty. Sound familiar? This is a sight all too familiar for those of us who are living away from home. Exams and healthy eating don’t exactly go hand in hand but to perform as well as you can in your studies, you need to eat healthy food to feed your brain.

Here are 10 foods to boost your brainpower from BBC Goodfood:
1. Wholegrains – to help improve concentration and focus eg. brown rice/pasta/bread
2. Oily fish – to help promote healthy brain function eg. walnuts, soya beans, chia, salmon, sardines
3. Blueberries – to help boost short-term memory
4. Tomatoes – to help prevent free radical damage
5. Eggs – to help delay brain shrinkage
6. Blackcurrants – to help reduce anxiety and stress
7. Pumpkin seeds – to help enhance memory and boost mood
8. Broccoli – to help improve brainpower
9. Sage – to help boost memory and concentration
10. Nuts – to help protect healthy brain function

So how many of these do you eat on a regular basis?
For more great healthy eating tips as a uni student, check out Better Health Victoria’s website and Healthy Food Guide’s .

Procrastination is something we all do to some extent. However there is a simple way to overcome this by making SMART goals!

SMART stands for
· Specific – not vague!
· Measurable – did you do it or not
· Achievable – are you able to accomplish this?
· Realistic – think big but make sure it’s still possible
· Time-bound – set a time limit

So what’s so special about SMART goals? If you were running a marathon or climbing a mountain, smart goals would be the mile markers along the way, updating you on your progress towards the end. Clear and attainable goals such as “I will finish these two lectures for this subject from 7-9pm” will be much more effective than “I want to do some lectures after dinner”.

Want more information on how to write your own SMART goals? Check out https://www.tableau.com/learn/articles/smart-goals-criteria for some great advice.