In this episode 22 protocols
▶ 9:17 Regular Exercise Behaviors “I've been doing weekly therapy for over 30 years. In fact, I consider doing regular weekly therapy just as important as getting regular exercise, which of course I also do every week.” ▷ 56:54 Evidence-Based Grief Psychoeducation Behaviors “What can I expect? What is happening to me? Why is this happening to me? That is a psychoeducation level that is vitally important to people, regardless of sort of how much support they have.” ▷ 57:21 Social Support During Grief Behaviors “And beyond that we know how important support is social support having loved ones around just as you were describing.” ▷ 1:01:16 Keep Up Routine Preventive Medical and Dental Care During Grief Behaviors “It is all of our jobs to groom the mourning person, to care for them, to say, hey, how long has it been since you saw your doctor for your regular checkup?” ▷ 1:05:00 Seek Evidence-Based Psychotherapy if Grief Becomes Stuck or Worsens Behaviors “We do know for the one out of 10 who develop a disordered grieving, who really are not showing any changes over time, even though time is passing, those people might need a very specific evidence-based psychotherapy intervention.” ▷ 1:07:10 Alcohol Diet “Is a drink or two, assuming you're of age and you're not an alcoholic, upon hearing the devastating news, is it the worst thing in the world?” ▷ 1:10:39 Baby Aspirin Supplements “So we gave aspirin, a baby aspirin, to people in the first two weeks after the death of their loved one and looked at whether that was cardioprotective, which of course it was because we understand how aspirin works. Now, the reason we need big studies is to make sure that there isn't some negative side that we would want to bar against, right?” ▷ 1:12:29 Monitor Physical Health During Bereavement Behaviors “Why at our bereavement support groups do we not also take their blood pressure? To find out where they're at physically, in addition to teaching them the many coping skills they might use in addition to having a beer, so that they can learn what grief is like and how to elicit support and ultimately how to adapt and develop a meaningful life that includes grief but includes all the other wonderful things.” ▷ 1:18:10 Exercise to Match Your Grief State Behaviors “So what I mean by that is if you are in a moment where everything in your body is in protest, you are amped up and you can't sit still, then working with your body, right, maybe you are the person who needs to go for a run every day where that hasn't really been who you were before, right?” ▷ 1:18:38 Yoga Practice Behaviors “On the other hand, maybe you're the person who needs to develop a yoga practice to figure out how to breathe through that amped up feeling and soothe yourself, physically soothe yourself so that you can bring your heart rate down, right?” ▷ 1:19:48 Mindfulness Training Behaviors “We did an intervention study in my lab with widows and widowers where one arm received mindfulness training... Turns out mindfulness training was helpful. But progressive muscle relaxation was even more helpful for people's grief.” ▷ 1:19:57 Progressive Muscle Relaxation Behaviors “Another arm received progressive muscle relaxation, which is sort of like learning a really fancy body scan. You contract and relax different muscle groups in your body. And you become aware of what that feels like to really understand what relaxation feels like.” ▷ 1:20:41 Guided Audio for Progressive Muscle Relaxation Tools “It's a brief contraction. It's, you know, you can go online. There's really easy instructions. It's often done with a sort of guided audio to help you figure out.” ▷ 1:22:20 Suppression as a Situational Tool Behaviors “And if you are about to walk into a pitch meeting, suppression is probably the way to go in that moment where suddenly your deceased child has popped into your head and thinking, I am not going to think about this right now.” ▷ 1:22:51 Allow Direct Grief Engagement Behaviors “At another moment, you might be looking through a photo album and just be overcome with tears but over time realize I can stay in that puddle either.” ▷ 1:45:04 Shift Your Environment to Interrupt Rumination Behaviors “For me, one of the things I had to learn was I need to shift my environment. If I realize, oh, I'm doing the rumination thing again, literally, I just need to get up and walk outside, right?” ▷ 1:58:53 Daily NSDR-Style Relaxation Practice Behaviors “I have this practice that I do every day, which is more or less like yoga nidra, self-directed relaxation, long exhale breathing, which sort of coined non-sleep deep rest.” ▷ 2:00:18 Write and Regularly Update an End-of-Life Letter Behaviors “I decided to write out a document, which was not a will of assets. I have that separately, but just a note to people. And it literally starts, if I die, here are some things I'd like you to know.” ▷ 2:01:17 Store End-of-Life Instructions in a Password-Protected Location Tools “But I feel very good about having this document. and I have a place where it's password protected and it's someone has the password.” ▷ 2:04:22 Exposure to Feared Situations Behaviors “I knew the first and most important thing was not to avoid flying. The exposure of doing it again and again, as brutally painful as it was, was important.” ▷ 2:11:07 Oscillate Between Grief and Restoration Behaviors “We talk about in the literature on grief and grieving this idea of oscillation, that mental health is really about oscillation. Call it the dual process model of bereavement.” ▷ 2:15:47 Be Honest About What You're Avoiding and Re-Engage Socially Behaviors “We each have to, you know, have a come to ourselves moment and be honest with ourselves about what it is we're avoiding.”