Good Thoughts Podcast

Like Yourself / Be Yourself!  

Feel good about yourself. Like yourself. This is fundamental for life in many ways. This gives you the confidence to engage in life with new experiences and new opportunities. You’re resilient to setbacks and disappointments. You have better close relationships with positive people, and you will not tolerate negative relationships. You’re not wasting time and energy with self-destructive and self-pity thoughts freeing you to be more productive and creative. You enjoy life and appreciate the good things in your life.

Stop negative thoughts about yourself by being your true authentic self and think from your heart and the mind. Accept yourself for who you are with all the good values and flaws. Stop comparing yourself to others. Stop trying to be someone else. Stop trying to please others. Eliminate self-critical thoughts. Take control of your life. Think from the heart with kindness to yourself and self-compassion.

Contribute to society. Contribute by thinking from the heart working for an organization or starting a company that improves people’s lives or makes lives easier, by volunteering, or improving your community. You can’t contribute to society by thinking about yourself all day. Instead of thinking from the head by complaining, criticizing, and blaming, think from the heart with kindness to people and think from the mind with creativity to solve problems and help others, courage to be your true authentic self, and inspiration to improve the world. 

Like the way you are and be your true authentic self. Think from your heart with kindness to yourself. Think from the heart with giving, gratitude, and appreciation for everything you have. Engage in life. Know what you want, where you’re going, and what you’re doing. Be yourself. Thrive in your uniqueness. 

Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy

Copyright© 2023 by Gary Epler, M.D.All rights reserved. This podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only and it is not a substitute for professional medical advice.

Turn Off the Stress Switch

Stress is activated by self-centered thoughts and thinking about yourself. This thinking is unhealthy and hazardous to people and society.

These self-centered thoughts include obvious thoughts such as thinking about your problems, feeling sorry for yourself, or negative thoughts about yourself. Other examples are less obvious such as trying to be someone else or your job title, trying to please others, and thinking about what people think of you. Other less obvious examples include complaining, criticism, and blame as well as jealousy, resentment, and worry. Feeling guilty is stress and means you’re thinking about yourself. Unknown examples include trying to gain power and control over people.

Be your authentic self to counteract social media and social group manipulation from disinformation. There are serious consequences from relying on self-centered stress center thinking, especially with guilt that can result in property destruction and unsafe communities. It makes sense to turn off the stress switch.

Turn off the switch of negative self-centered thinking from the stress center. Think from the heart with giving and kindness to yourself and others. Think from the mind with courage to be your authentic self, creativity to solve problems and help others, and inspiration to improve the world.

Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy

Copyright© 2023 by Gary Epler, M.D. All rights reserved. This podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only and it is not a substitute for professional medical advice.

Never be 'old'. Age is a state of mind. Some people in their 30s and 40s are old. They look old, act old, and think old. Many people in their 80s, 90s, and 100s are never going to be old.

The story begins at infancy. Infants need to use the primitive instinctive brain region to cry for food and a diaper change. After that, thinking from this brain region self-destructs and prevents people from being successful adults making positive contributions to the world. I call this primitive brain region the stress center.

People grow old because they don’t shut down the stress center. They continue with endless self-centered thoughts and thinking about themselves causing lifelong stress and old age.

Apply the principles of the Eplerian Life Philosophy by knowing where you’re thinking from. Shut down negative self-centered thoughts from the stress center. Think from the heart with giving and kindness to yourself and helping others. Think from the mind with courage, inspiration, and creativity to solve problems and improve the world.

Be your true authentic self. Shut down thinking from the stress center and you’ll never be old. 

Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy   

Soft skills, social skills, and using the mind combined with AI for extraordinary success. In the past, everyone learned knowledge facts in school. Now every known fact in the universe is instantly available. Therefore, people need to learn soft skills, social skills, and use the mind for success in making money, at their job, and in the community.  

Ten new soft skills include

1. Always be your true self.
2. Learn something new every day.
3. No negative words or comments in conversations.
4. If you say something, do it.
5. Don't talk about anyone in a negative way.
6. Be patient with people.
7. Drive with consideration for others.
8. Healthy posture and walk with confidence.
9. Always dress well.
10. Use the mind.

Take two trips into the house from the car. Learn and use these soft skills and social skills for success at home and at work.

Gary Epler / Eplerian Life Philosophy

Be Smarter for Your Next Birthday!

Stay smart in an ever-changing world. Know who you are moment by moment, which means you’re as smart as where you’re thinking from. Be your true authentic self by thinking from the heart and the mind for being smart. Some people get smarter with each birthday.

People talk about getting smarter by using the internet and the new AI products. In the past, it’s been thought that people get smarter by using more of their brain. There’s a better way.

Use the mind, which is outside the head and the body. This is a fundamental principle of the Eplerian Life Philosophy. Be yourself, stop thinking about yourself. You can only think from one location at a time. If you’re thinking self-centered thoughts from your head all day, then you can’t think from the mind for being smarter. The less you think from your head, the smarter you are.

Apply this principle in the fast-paced world that changes every day. If you’re thinking about yourself from the head, you can’t think from the heart, you can’t think from the mind, and there is no time for happiness and enjoyment in life. People need to stop thinking about themselves so they can think from their heart with kindness and from the mind to solve problems and help others.

Dr. Gary Epler

Social change is going to happen all the time. If you constantly think about how terrible this is going to affect you, then you’re going to be stressed. The more you think about it, the more stressed you’re going to be. If you limit these thoughts to a few seconds, then the harmful adrenalin cortisol response is neutralized. If you keep thinking these negative thoughts for days, weeks, or months, the adrenalin response will continue causing increased blood pressure, shutting down the digestive system and the immune system, and causing inflammation resulting in heart disease, strokes, and cancer.

Social change is inevitable and is out of everyone’s control. A healthy way to respond to negative change is to be your true self and limit the anger and stress reaction to less than ten seconds. This allows you to stay out of the anger center and stress center and live your life thinking from the heart with kindness to yourself and others, and thinking from the mind with creativity to solve problems, help others, and innovation to improve people’s lives.

Use the neuropathway bypass technique for eliminating stress from negative or difficult people in your life.

A neuropathway is a highway of neurons in the brain with a beginning and an end. Neurons transmit information from one brain cell to another. Neuropathway is started from a person or an event and ends with an emotional response that may be negative, neutral, or positive. 

How to build a bypass around the old stress neuropathway. Build a new one with a positive beginning and a positive ending.

In the morning, visualize the image of the negative person in your life and let it trigger the stress feelings in the pit of your stomach. You can do this during your morning routine, exercise program, or during your morning run or walk. When the feelings of discomfort develop, begin saying two soothing words to yourself repeatedly such as “love and peace.” Say the words over and over until the feeling of anger subsides, usually in less than two minutes.

If you find yourself upset and in a negative-feedback loop about a person that causes stress, use the neuro-bypass technique to eliminate the stress. It's simple to use, visualize the person, feel the stress, and repeat "love and peace" to yourself over and over until the feeling of stress stops for one to two minutes. After one week it will be difficult to feel the stress, after two weeks, there will be no feeling of stress. If successful, it will eliminate the stress triggered by the negative people in your life.

Dr. Gary Epler

Feelings over thinking.

Feelings from your heart include kindness, love, giving, appreciation, forgiveness, and gratitude. When you realize that you’re angry or stressed from thinking about yourself, think from the heart with kindness and giving. Give your help. Be grateful for everything you have and the positive people in your life.

Fear is the feeling from the gut. Unlike negative thinking from the head, fear is a healthy positive feeling because it tells you about the potential risk to your health. Your gut or belly brain sends you a feeling not to eat unhealthy foods or too much food. In addition, your gut feeling will help you make a decision about potentially risky new opportunities or investments.

Feelings from the body include strength from the body and the feel-good feeling in the muscles from exercising. Feel the strength from a healthy standing tall posture.

Feelings from the mind while in a slow brainwave state and include serenity, total calmness, universal acceptance and belonging, and unconditional love. These feelings include new feelings outside the body, such as not always needing to do something. This is a feeling not experienced while in the normal waking brainwave state. Additional feelings from the mind include courage, attention, accomplishment, and success.

Feel kindness and giving from the heart. Feel fear from your gut to avoid unhealthy risks. Feel energy from your muscles. Feel courage from your mind to be your true authentic self for living an extraordinary life.

Dr. Gary Epler

There are many ways to get involved in your community including volunteering, coaching, participating in local events, and becoming a town officer.

To help the community the most, be your true self. Limit your stress to less than ten seconds by not thinking about your problems or trying to be someone else. Think from the heart with kindness and giving. Think from the mind with creativity to solve community problems and help others.

Be your true self. People will trust you and want to hear what you have to say. This will allow you to be influential in a good way for making your community the best place to live.

Dr. Gary Epler

Copyright© 2023 by Gary Epler, M.D. All rights reserved. This podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only and it is not a substitute for professional medical advice.

Leave your cell phone out of sight when talking with family, friends, coworkers, and in public.

Be engaged in life. It’s one of life’s pleasures. You have healthy interactions and experience wonderful moments. This means paying attention to life in front of you. It’s having purpose in life. This means knowing what you want, what you’re doing, and where you’re going. This means being your true authentic self.

Cell phone dependency is out of control taking away positive social interaction and enjoyment. Stage 3 cell phone dependency is having the phone in your hand at all times in all places, and placing the phone face up. The percentage of these phone-dependent non-engaged people is increasing at an astonishing rate to where people don’t talk to each other and have lost healthy conversations, especially deep meaningful conversations. It’s an unwanted intrusion. Ghosting has become an easy way out leaving the other person confused, stressed out, and not able to go forward.

How to stop cell dependency? First, understand and acknowledge the negative use of the cell phone and its unhealthy effects for you and others. Second, negative phone use reflects people thinking about themselves from the stress center.

Be your true authentic self. No thinking about yourself, think from your heart with kindness to others. Think from the mind with solving problems and helping others.

Being your true authentic self will instantly eliminate all negative cell phone use.

Dr. Gary Epler