The number one killer is not Cancer, Stroke, Heart attack, Blood pressure, Cholesterol, Diabetes , or car accidents. The main killer is Stress. Stress can lead to all of the above directly or indirectly, Stress at work, home, school, taken exam, preparing for new job or moving to a new work place and meeting new people.
I knew so many people who moved away ,resigned and quiet their job with us to join new clinic or work place because they get extra few dollars an hour and they felt that they are been promoted and appreciated and when they leave us and go they call us back and ask for their job back ! because they cant handle the stress ,the new environments, they lost their comfort zone and they start blaming the machines and others and never point the finger on themselves and their greed.
They found that the new place have many tasks, to do, have new protocols and procedures, new many people to deal with and they lost their since of security and they couldn’t establish their fame and skills that once they had with the previous job. They didn’t do their home work and research about the new place, and didn’t ask other people who knows because they want to keep the information secret and they want to keep their moving secret.
The way we walk, talk, work, or study activity in specific way ,position and interaction can be challenging for some people if they change their comfort zone.
Doing things we are comfortable with and keeping our imagination hiding. Some people sit and eat, in the same way, all the time they have to put the same drink or organize the table, in the same way, all the time. Some think and resolve the same problem in the same way he/ she did before and it didn’t work. I can tell which person did which ultrasound scans just by following their scan routine on films without seen their name. Sometimes sonographers change their routine due to lack of time or squeezing an extra urgent case.
Many of us are people of habits. We arrive on certain time and leave in certain time, every now and then we change our driving route or thinking strategy and it is useful to do so to give a chance to solve a difficult problem by using different protocol, or doing different part of the body to reach a conclusion before we took the difficult task. Why should he do an ultrasound of the pelvis, She had a right kidney hydronephrosis with no stones in the kidney, and she had normal KUB X-Ray, One of the sonographers asked the radiologist back in 1984.
The radiologist said that it is important to do a limited pelvic ultrasound in this case just to r/o a pelvic mass that was causing the hydronephrosis. Which it was the case, the mass was a large cystic teratoma mass of the right ovary and adnexa.
The radiologist went on to tell him that if the light upstairs stops working and you put a new bulb and still not working, sometimes you need to go down to the basement and check the fuse box. We all laughed and we learned something new.
We prepare our bed and pillows take our medications, prepare our car and food for the next day and plan our day ahead in the same routine every day. If you are given a different room at the workplace and different machine the first thing you will see is your anxiety level and blood pressure goes up until we change the exam table, the chair, and the computer screen to fit our way of scanning and then start doing step by step routine work in the room and apply your skills but your mind always back in your actual room with your actual ultrasound machine until your body and mind tuned with your eyes and hand to do what you do best and that trying to adjust and adapt to your new environment and later it will be just a routine.
The big question is why. Why do we do it this way? Is it just the easiest way to do everything? Or is it your comfort zone. Have you subconsciously programmed yourself so that everything falls into place, making your place safe? Watch the news and eat n the same times, have your bedroom firework on Wednesday or the weekend and then you are dead log on the other days?
Most of us make our own nutshell and walls and never give a chance to change. All the time we are following this unconscious path, we are actually making our minds smaller and narrower.
Our comfort zone is becoming smaller and smaller. Do you ever feel panic coming on if for some reason you cannot do your rituals in the same way? Many technologists do have a panic attack, stressed-out, get increased blood pressure and sometimes they call in sick the day after. Some technologist will show reduced in productivity in quality and quantity when they have this change of comfort zone even if they are using the same ultrasound machine or X-Ray machine but the room is different, usually, they go back to their normal routine when their brain senses the new change and adapt to the new zone.
From the first day, we born we go into automatic mode. If we are rich or famous, then the path we walk usually more helpful. We don’t need the drastic change, just the need its adaptations.
But For most of us; the poor, the misfortune and the middle class the path can be difficult and tortuous. We will be in a nutshell inside another shell like a Russian doll. We will have no chance to shine and gets our 15 minutes fame every now and then. We will deprive our self to project the full positive potential.
So many workers walk through life, on a narrow strip of mental control to be or to find the comfort zone that fit them and they never step outside the box and break the nutshell.They prefer to stay inside the egg shell than facing the unknown environment. They feel so much better in the same place, same work, same room, with the same friends and same desk. They like and feel comfortable in a certain sofa and having a certain cup a coffee. It feels good to go somewhere that you know and that you know the other people and somewhere where those people know your name.
According to many psychologists, that’s why we are sometimes depressed? Maybe because we are just fed up, had it with the workplace and with those who keep changing our routine and place, while the clinical depression which is a chemical state of mind. The worse part of putting our self in state of depression is that we don’t get what we expect to get, we are not getting the salary that we deserve or the job that we love, the car we want and position that we aimed for or the girlfriend that we lost because she didn’t wait for you and found someone else who is richer and more successful than you
.And of course she will tell you it is not you, but it is the romance thing, it is her comfort zone with someone whom she can feel romantic with and imagine herself with the rest of her life. She forgets that people will change and that they will be in a nutshell relationship sooner or later, and then she will underestimate the work she has to do to keep up with her new boyfriend expectations.
But what can we do to change it? So many of us step outside our box sometimes, leave a job or leave a relationship but always come back and ask for the job back or crying and hoping she will be back with the same man/woman that she /he left.We have to learn to undo these habits. I call it the yo-yo personality, the comfort zone relationship.
Those who are suffering from panic attacks or anxiety? Maybe our mind is telling us to get off our backsides and start roll start changing our way, find another job or other relationship. , change ourselves in as many ways as we can, and then maybe our mental health will start to heal and we will feel better and more relaxed.
We always presume that if we run back to our comfort zone then we will be safe. Maybe we don’t realize that actually, our minds are screaming at us, to change and never look back. It doesn’t have to be a drastic move. Change your shirt and style, your hair style, new shoe or a lab coat, die your hair and look good to feel good, be positive and go for a walk at the park or at the town mall, call a friend and go out for a movie or a dinner.
Try a small change to start with, and then build it up. The comfort zone is in your head. Try to make multiple comfort zones in your life. Old dog doesn’t learn new tricks rubbish, you are never too old to learn new things and change your habits.
Radiologists, sonographers, and those who work in a dark room for 7 hours a day have more stress and depression than other people if they don’t change the lights and move every now and then, that exposes you to a white light or sunlight. Try to have your lunch outside or close to a lighted window. Breaking out of your nutshell relationship is exposing your brain to new Ideas and new comfort zones.
Steve Ramsey. Calgary – Alberta. Canada.
Thanks for reading