Healthy Wealthy & Wise Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD
The Healthy Wealthy and Wise Podcast, with Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD is a monthly podcast that focuses on personal growth and development by exploring a range of topics related to mental and physical health, personal wealth, leadership, and interpersonal relationships. Dr. Choctaw draws on his 75yrs experience and 50 plus years of surgical practice since graduating from Yale University School of Medicine.
Each month, we strive to provide our listeners with mental, physical, and spiritual strength by giving actionable advice, tips, guidance, and information to help them achieve their own personal, professional, and spiritual goals. We consider the health of the mind, body, and spirit paramount as a single unit that provides a cumulative strength greater than the individual parts, to strengthen the whole person.
We appreciate the natural differences in need between men, women, adults, and children. We recognize that the power to be happy is within each of us and under our control. We embrace technology and identify how it is applicable to our daily success. We address the entire human experiences from generation z to the baby boomers.
We’re passionate about the total person, and helping our listeners build and lead a full, well-rounded and happy life. So, tune in every month for an inspiring, encouraging, and informative podcast!
Healthy Wealthy & Wise Dr. William T. Choctaw, MD, JD
Boosting Your Happiness Quotient: A Roadmap!
Ever wondered what the secret to true happiness is? What if we told you it's not as elusive as you might think? In this informative episode, we take you on a journey to uncover the intricacies of happiness, the role your brain plays, and how you can actively uplift your joy quotient. We dive into the concept of bi-directional happiness, the significance of established beliefs, and even offer advice on avoiding substances that could potentially affect your brain's functionality.
In the pursuit of happiness, did you know your amygdala plays a vital role? That's right - it's the happiness center of your brain. And guess what, your prefrontal cortex, the command center, has a significant part to play as well. We'll provide you with conscious strategies to increase your happiness and share exercises to improve your mental health, similar to what you'd do in a physical fitness program. We will also explore how to find happiness through mistakes and opportunities, emphasizing the importance of evaluating your own beliefs to pave the way for a happier, healthier you. Intrigued? Join us as we navigate the path to mental fitness for happiness.
Healthcare Quality Leadership Education Group
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The Host, Dr. William Choctaw; MD, JD, is a healthcare leadership expert, possessing a Medical Doctorate from the Yale University School of Medicine, and a Jurist Doctorate from Western University. Over a span of 50 years practicing medicine, he has served as Chief of Staff, Chief of Surgery, and as a member of the medical executive committee at Citrus Valley Medical Center over a 10 year period. Also, while practicing at Citrus Valley Medical Center, he served as Chief Transformation Officer, (developed a Robust Process Improvement/Lean Six Sigma program). Dr. Choctaw lectures nationally and internationally on medical leadership issues for hospital staffs, executives, and managers. He served as a Physician Surveyor on the Joint Commission. He's the author of 2 books, "Medical Malpractice: A Physician's Guide to the Law" and "Transforming the Patient Experience: A New Paradigm for Hospital and Physician Leadership, published by the Springer Publishing Co. He’s the President of Choctaw Medical Group, Inc., a clinical practice and medical legal consulting firm for medical staff executives, physician leaders, and hospitals.
Welcome to the Healthy, Wealthy and Wise podcast with Dr William Chokta, MDJD. Our mission is to empower you with the knowledge and the tools you need to thrive in all aspects of your life. Join us now as we discuss everything from nutrition and exercise to money management and personal growth. Dr Chokta will provide insightful advice on how to improve your physical and financial health, as well as your emotional and mental well-being. Whether you're looking to boost your energy levels, unlock financial freedom or cultivate a more positive mindset, we've got you covered. Get ready to become the best version of yourself? So let's get started. Here's Dr William Chokta, MDJD.
Speaker 2:Good morning, I'm Dr William T Chokta. Welcome to the Healthy, wealthy and Wise podcast. We're delighted to have you with us and, as we've said before, the podcast is part of our Leadership Masterclass series and hopefully designed to help you to improve your life and your leadership. So let's get started. Today, we're going to talk about your brain's happy center and how to develop your brain's happy center. Yes, you do have a happy center in your brain and we're going to talk about in detail how you can develop that center to be happier, wealthier and wiser.
Speaker 2:I believe life is about being of service to others. I believe knowledge is power. I believe leaders can change the world. As always, I start off with my beliefs, and I do that for two very important reasons. One reason is to let you know what I do believe and what my basic philosophy is and what I have learned, and also, secondly, to encourage you to have a set of known beliefs that you can articulate. Remember beliefs or our belief systems. We can change or modify. And thirdly, it is to emphasize the importance of our basic beliefs in terms of our mental health and in terms of our actions and feelings. As always, we like to put out an outline and give you an outline so you know what we're going to talk about and, as importantly, to let you know when we're just about done. I realize that you're all very, very busy people doing a lot of different things all at the same time, and I am very appreciative that you have chosen to share a few of those precious minutes with us.
Speaker 2:Today we're going to talk about the definition of happiness, we're going to talk about how the brain is connected to happiness and, most importantly, we're going to talk about how you can actively participate in improving your level of happiness by exercises that you can do in Bob and different parts of your brain. Yes, indeed, your brain is a very dynamic organ. If you will, and consciously, we can do some things that can have impact on what we believe, what we think, what we feel and how we act. And we'll end up with my basic principles, and so when we get to that point, then you'll know that we're just about done. One of the suggestions that I'm going to make in terms of brain development and our happiness center is that you not participate in smoking or alcohol. Now, I realize that at least the alcohol part there may be different opinions about that, but I personally believe that anything that affects, or can potentially affect your brain function in a non-medicinal way should be avoided.
Speaker 2:This is based on and these podcasts specifically are based on my 75 years of life and my more than 50 years of experience as a healthcare professional. As a physician, as we mentioned before, we are very, very interested in you being healthy and we add to that. But how do you define success? And most of the times, if you ask most people how they would find success, what success means to them, they would suggest to you it is being happy, and so we're going to talk about happiness today and give you some suggestions about how you can develop your happiness center. So what is the definition of happiness? My definition of happiness is repeated joy. Very simple, very basic. Repetition of happiness is repeated joy.
Speaker 2:If you've ever seen a little child, let's say four or five years of age, let's say a little girl, who loves cupcakes, and you give her a cupcake that she has not had, say, for two or three weeks, imagine the look on her face when she takes her first bite of that cupcake. That is what happiness looks like. She's a mature boy who has always wanted a puppy and for over a year he's asked for a puppy. He's seen his friends with puppies and you come home one day and you give him a small puppy. Imagine what that look on his face is like. That's what happiness is. Imagine another little child. Let's say he's seven and he's not seen his friends for a while. Let's say they moved away and his best friend moves back into the neighborhood. And let's say he's shy but he sees his best friend for the first time and not for a long time. Imagine what that look is like on his face. That is the look of happiness.
Speaker 2:I mention all that because I want you to be able to recognize happiness when you see it. Certainly you recognize it when you feel it, but it's important that we also see it in others. Happiness is sort of like someone once said wasn't me? That happiness is like jam. You can't spread it even a little bit without getting some on yourself. And that's probably true and that's a good thing. I always like to say happiness is bi-directional, and what I mean by that is that if you're happy and you're exuding or demonstrating that happiness in your inner reaction with another person many times, that person may very well respond likewise, in similar manner to you, and so you may not only give happiness to someone else, but be able to create a circumstance that you receive happiness yourself. So I like to think of happiness as being bi-directional.
Speaker 2:So what we're going to talk about is that we're going to get into discussion about the brain and where these feelings occur, and we're going to talk about a process called a mental exercise of your brain, of your happiness center. And when we talk about exercise of your brain, we're not talking about learning more things or becoming smarter, or learning better numbers or or learning how to do certain tasks more efficiently. We're talking about feelings. So this is not about tasks. This is solely about feelings, what your brain is like. What we want to do is treat your brain like a muscle. If you will Think about if you an athlete, let's say, you run marathons or you play soccer or basketball or whatever you basically have to be in shape, you have to exercise, you have to work out. Think about your brain as a muscle that you can also work out in terms of your happiness center.
Speaker 2:As we said in one of the previous podcasts and if you've been following our podcast along, we've talked about the happiness center quite a bit, particularly when we talked about mental illness and mental issues, that the happiness center is a place that is located on the undersurface of the brain and each low the one in the left low, one in the right low of the brain it is called the amygdala. The amygdala A-M-Y-G-D-A-L-A amygdala. It is a small, small walnut size structure that is right next to the hippocampus and it's on the undersurface of the brain. Its primary purpose, among other things, is to affect how we feel. Its primary purpose is to affect how we feel.
Speaker 2:In addition to the amygdala, we have different other parts of the brain and obviously one of the very important parts of the brain is our conscious part, called the prefrontal cortex. As the name implies, it is the frontal lobe of the front part of the brain. I like to call it the command center of the brain. Think in terms of the brain, just in these sections, the other sections, but we're just going to concentrate on these two. Just think about the amygdala, which is the reward center, or the happiness center, some people call it of the brain. Think about the prefrontal cortex or the frontal lobe part of the prefrontal cortex, which is the command center or the CEO of the brain. What we're talking about? Is you consciously thinking about how and why you are happy and should be happy on a regular basis? We're talking about a workout Instead of going to one of those physical clubs to work out on a machine. We're talking about you creating this area in your prefrontal cortex so that you're able to do this on a regular basis. Just stay with me for a minute on this.
Speaker 2:We've talked about the part of the brain, the amygdala, which is the reward center or the happiness center. It is a small round structure in each lobe on the surface of the brain, adjacent to the hippocampus. We're also talking about the prefrontal cortex, which is the prefrontal lobe, the front part of the brain, which is the command center, if you will, of the brain. We talk about how it's important in terms of it makes the decisions, the conscious decisions, that our brain makes on a daily basis. You do recognize that the brain functions consciously and unconsciously. Example when we're sleeping, we are basically not conscious, we're not awake, but yet we continue to breathe, we continue to the blood flows in our body normally, our heart continues to beat normally, our temperature within our body is normally regulated, but we do not consciously do those things. That's controlled by those parts of the brain that deal with our functionality in an unconscious way. We're talking about the prefrontal cortex, the conscious part of the brain, the CEO part of the brain, the command center of the brain, and how that command center reacts with the happiness center.
Speaker 2:One of the things that we know that we have said before on previous discussions that what we believe affects how we think, how we think affects how we feel and how we feel affects how we act. So, again, we're talking about happiness, right, and we're talking about how you can develop and increase your level of happiness consciously by doing some exercises that you would normally do if you were a physical athlete, and we're trying to improve your functionality in that way. Well, I believe that can also be done with happiness. One of the things that we've said before and we'll say again is that our beliefs many times manage our conscious and subconscious activity. It affects how we feel, it affects how we think, which subsequently affects how we act. What's my point? My point is, if you have an old, outdated belief system based on, maybe, an experience you had when you were 10 years old and let's assume that that was a negative experience but you continue to carry that belief system into your 30s and 40s and 50s. That is affecting, without you being consciously aware, many times, how you think, how you feel and how you act. So how would you know that's happening?
Speaker 2:Whenever you have a negative feelings, I suggest to you to go back and re-examine why you're having those negative feelings. I recommend having a conversation with the person in the mirror that's certainly what I do and say well, why is this happening? Why do I think this about this guy or this young lady? I've never met them before, so why am I having a negative thought about them? And you'll be surprised that many times it'll be based on something you were told or you thought, you saw or experienced that no longer has relevance to you as an adult.
Speaker 2:And so my point is again, using the same mental and physical analogy if you want to get in shape, to say, run a marathon in six months, you probably want to get rid of excess fat or excess weight and you want to strengthen those muscles because you're going to need them for that 26.2-mile marathon that you're going to run. The same thing is true in terms of your happiness center, or your mental health, if you will, that you want to get rid of those beliefs that are negative, that are not in any way beneficial to you, because basically, they're just, in effect, dead weight and they're holding you back from being able to progress at a more efficient rate. So what I'm talking about, theoretically, is a mental health or mental fitness boot camp, so to speak. We have the physical camps. Certainly, athletes, the professional athletes go to these very elegant camps to improve their skills even more. We're also suggesting that we can have a similar type of approach in our minds, consciously. So how do we do that? And I'm sure some of you are asking that question. Well, we do it by exercising. We do it the same way the physical athletes do. We exercise our mind, and what are some of the exercises that we can do mentally, and these I recommend, or daily exercise, I recommend Think good thoughts.
Speaker 2:That's not very difficult, certainly, and I suggest to you that if you have difficulty thinking good thoughts, then you really want to work on thinking good thoughts. But my point is that in our day, in our 24-hour span that we're conscious, or, say, 15 hours that we're conscious, some good things happen. Some good things happen Sometimes, whether we see them or not, and that's a different discussion. So I want you to think good thoughts, something that happened today or each individual day. That's good. So I want you to think about that, daly. I want you to think about good people. Surely there are people in your life who are good that you know, and you want to think about those people. Dale, there's probably more than one, so you can think about the same person or you can think about another person. However you want to do it, I leave that up to you Think about at least one positive event every single day.
Speaker 2:Now, it's not that good and bad stuff does not happen to us, but most of the times we may not think about it, and unfortunately and this is my belief is that we humans tend to think pay more attention to the bad than we do to the good, for whatever reason. And so what I'm going to suggest to you is to consciously, using your prefrontal cortex, think about at least one positive event that has occurred to you, with you or to you each day. Another thing daily. Think about what you're grateful for and, trust me, we can all be grateful for something. We can be grateful that we're alive. So just think about something. It could be the same thing you can do each day, or it could be something different. I leave that up to you, but think about something positive or something that you're grateful for each day. When I was growing up, we used to call that counting your blessings. So think about a blessing that you received each day.
Speaker 2:Now, this type of physical or mental workout, if you will, this type of mental exercise positive mental exercise toward happiness takes time. You are not going to start in a week and at the end of that week, three times as happy as you were seven days prior, just like you are going to start exercising for a marathon and seven days later be in fit and in good shape to run a marathon. It takes time. And so what does that mean? It means you have to be patient. Now, sometimes many of us don't like that word being patient but it is a requisite part of the process to get us to the state that we want to be. In addition to having good physical health by eating properly and exercising, we want to have good mental health by eating properly and exercising our minds.
Speaker 2:We know that within the body, in the area of the happiness center, ie the amygdala, that the prefrontal cortex and the brain controls our feelings with the use of neurotransmitters, and some of these neurotransmitters are hormones, and prevalent among them are hormones like dopamine and serotonin. One of those hormones are high physicians and neuro pharmacists and neuro neurologists, neurosurgeons can measure the dopamine level. When our dopamine level is high, we are happy, we are motivated, we are alert, we are focused. When our dopamine and serotonin is not, and is, optimal level, we tend to be tired, unmotivated, unhappy, mood swing, having mood swings, sleep problems and concentration problems. That's important because that's how physicians who treat mental issues are able to use medication appropriately to help you to get over some of those particular problems. One of the things that we know is that men are from ours and women are from Venus, and so it's important that we not try to control each other. Particularly don't try to control your spouse because she doesn't act the way you act or because he doesn't act the way you act.
Speaker 2:Many years ago that was a very famous singer, a name. I think his name was Bobby McFerrin. Now this is back in the 80s. So you, jen's ears, won't have an idea, won't have a clue what I'm talking about here, but you baby boomers will, and some of the rest of you will. But he came out with a song this is, I think it was 1988. And the song said don't worry, be happy. Don't worry, be happy. And what he used to, he's just used to hum the tune, and many of us use all hum the tune Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Don't worry, be happy. And my point is it is helpful sometimes If you listen to music and that soothes you and it relaxes you. Then you listen to more music. If you like to take walks and that makes you feel good, take more walks. If you like to take long drives along the coast, so go to the ocean and take more trips to the ocean and take more long drives. Do those things that help you as you are exercising that happiness center in your brain to keep you happier more effectively and over a long a period of time.
Speaker 2:One of the things that's important also is that in life things will happen that are mistakes. You will make mistakes because we're all human and we're not perfect and we're gonna make mistakes. But one of the things I suggest to you that when you do make mistakes is that you make sure that you learn from the mistakes, in other words, that you take the negative a mistake, let's say, and turn it into a positive, and let's call that positive an opportunity. So you take the negative, the mistake that you made, and turn it into a positive and make it an opportunity that helps you. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about Personal example when I was in medical school, I knew Haven, connecticut, when I went to Yale Medical School and then I was also selected to do my postdoctoral training there as an intern and as a surgical resident.
Speaker 2:When I was an intern, I remember when I rotated through the surgery service and I decided to go in the surgery so it was a very important service for me personally my impression was that the professor of that service, the person who was head of that service when I was rotating through, would not speak to me. He just would not acknowledge my presence and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, and I just had all sorts of fits with that and my take on admission immediately was oh, he's a bad person, he just doesn't like people who look like me, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And so I remember one time the same thing occurred, I think. I tried to answer a question. He ignored me and called on somebody else. And so when that process was over, I went into the surgeon's lounge and I guess I was talking out loud in the chief resident.
Speaker 2:Chief surgical resident sort of followed me in or came into the lounge and he was listening to me, I guess, going through my soliloquy, if you will, about how tough things were or whatever, how this guy just didn't like me, was not treated me well. And he looked at me and he said Choptar, what is your problem? And I said but the guy doesn't like me. And blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the chief surgical resident looked at me and he said Choptar, you're an intern, you're a surgical intern. Nobody likes you, nobody likes surgical interns. You're at the bottom of the barrel. This is the process, this is the way we treat interns. He said it had nothing to do with what you look like or where you're from or how you talk. This is how we treat surgical interns.
Speaker 2:I learned a very important lesson at that moment. I learned that my idea of why this professor was treating me a certain way was completely wrong, had nothing to do with what I looked like and nothing to do with what I was for, where I was from. It had to do with the process that was in place to make me a high quality, functioning general surgeon. That's what I was going through, but I missed that because I was in my own stuff. So what I learned from that was that whenever I am in a training situation or educational situation and someone appears to treat me in a negative way, I don't go to point zero like I did when I was at Yale Medical School. I pause and I say did I do something? Or am I misinterpreting this? Because I remember back when I was in medical school I was completely wrong.
Speaker 2:My point is that one experience has helped me. It has decreased stress in my life because I don't worry about bad things happening to me that I can't control. Number one. Number two it makes me not repeatedly make the mistake of assuming a negative when a negative is not there. So my point is you will make mistakes, but you can take those mistakes certainly some of them and turn them into positives. And I can tell you I still remember that today I'm 75 years old and that was over 50 years ago, as we talked about and it's been a positive in my life. It's made me a better person. So I pass that on to you Turn negatives into positives Again, similar to what we were just talking about. Negative things will be done or said to you, and whatever those perceived negative things are always, see how you can turn it around. See how you can make it work as a positive for you, and you will find that not only will that make you happier, it'll make you less sad, and that's basically the same thing.
Speaker 2:So happiness is equal to happiness of oneself and group therapy. So happiness really is self and group therapy occurring at the same time. Think about that when you're around somebody who's happy and I'm sure you know somebody who's happy all the time, always has a smile, and whenever they come into the room, it's like the room lights up, you know. Or in a meeting, like the meeting lights up, but my wife is like that, and when she walks into a room, the whole room lights up. You know that folks like that basically will make you feel good, and you may not even know them. We're just being around them, we're being in the area, and so my point is just be aware of that and that that is therapeutic and it's certainly that something that you want to participate in. In conclusion happiness, by my definition, is continuous joy. I believe it is therapeutic, I believe it is helping.
Speaker 2:I believe that happiness basically what occurs in the happiness center in the brain, can grow and be developed consciously by working with the prefrontal cortex of the brain, the CEO of the commensin of the brain, by consciously doing things every day, thinking certain things every single day. That ends up keeping you positive and making you a better person and making you happier, and I think the happier you are, the healthier you go. As we mentioned, also always evaluate your belief system. The belief system should be an evolving system. Certainly, what I learned when I was 15 years old, I know better at 75 years of age. So I would encourage you to constantly revisit any negative thoughts or feelings that you might have, and you'll be amazed at the number of times that you are incorrect. One of the other things that we talked about is one of the ways to grow that amygdala and those happy thoughts in your happiness center. It's just think daily about what you're great. If you have children, I'm sure you're grateful for them or grandchildren, or spouses, or families or friends, etc. Etc, etc. They're there. So it's important that we start noticing those things.
Speaker 2:My basic principles God is always in charge. I am a physician of faith and indeed it has been my faith in God that has sustained me over these many years. I don't have any bad days. Principle number two I decided about 20 years ago that I'd had enough bad days, so I have either good days or great days. Principle number three I don't sweat the small stuff, and most stuff is small and I figured that out. Principle number four forgiveness is therapy. I've learned that when people do, or I perceive that they've done, something negative toward me, I forgive them immediately. It does not matter who's right or wrong. I found that just by doing the act of forgiving that that is therapeutic for me and many times eliminates any other potential difficulty. And finally, everything is a relationship. Relationships are based on three things mutual respect, mutual trust, good communication. If you have those three things, you have a good relationship. If you do not, then you have some work to do. In conclusion, be the change you want to see in the world. Thank you and have a wonderful day.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Healthy, wealthy and Wise podcast with Dr William Choctaw, mdjd. We hope you enjoyed this episode. In fact, if you found this episode helpful, you can support and subscribe to the podcast on your favorite podcast platform with the keywords Dr William Choctaw, and you'll find it very quickly. Also, subscribing helps ensure that you don't miss any future episodes. And then take the next step of action and share it with your family, friends and all your co-workers. They'll be glad you did so. Until the next time, live your best possible life the best possible way. You've been listening to the Healthy, wealthy and Wise podcast with Dr William Choctaw, mdjd.
