Evaluate Your Own Expectations

The first step toward preparing for LASIK is to assess your own expectations for the procedure. What results do you anticipate? What changes do you expect to happen after the surgery? The key to having a successful outcome is to be realistic. While laser eye surgery can dramatically improve eyesight, the results are not always perfect. Some individuals may even find that they still need to wear some type of corrective eye wear after the LASIK procedure.

Overly ambitious expectations can lead to crushing disappointments, so it is absolutely essential to discuss your goals and plans with your doctor. An experienced surgeon will be able to provide realistic guidelines for what results you might anticipate. By understanding the potential outcomes, you’ll be far more likely to be fully satisfied with your results.

Understand the Potential Risks

Of course, no medical procedure is without some risk. While LASIK is considered very safe, there are some potential risks, side effects and complications of which all patients should be aware. A small number of people who undergo laser eye surgery (between one and five percent) experience complications such as light halos, increased light sensitivity, dry eyes, imperfect vision and increased sensitivity. In many cases, these problems can be corrected with additional surgery or the symptoms will dissipate over time.

Prepare for the Procedure

Another way to become more mentally prepared for LASIK is to make sure that you are also physically prepared. By knowing that you are ready to have the surgery, you will feel more secure and confident. Follow the recommendations and guidelines provided by your surgeon to ensure that you are completely prepared for LASIK.

Most doctors recommend not wearing contact for a period of several days or even several weeks prior to the procedure. Another step you can take is to avoid wearing perfumes and colognes, which can irritate the delicate tissues of the eyes. Women should not wear makeup for at least three days before the laser procedure. While eye-makeup removal products can take off the visible makeup, tiny particles can still get into the eyes and lead to irritation and pain.

Let me ask you this, have you noticed recently that your mind tends to wander no matter what you are doing? Do you walk into a room only to forget why you even came in? I want you to know that you are not alone. This sort of absentmindedness plagues a huge percentage of the world’s population.

The real problem with this is that it can be very frustrating. So to help you keep you frustration level in check it’s a good idea to try to do your best to keep an alert mental state. There are many easy ways to do this, and if you are not taking advantage of any of them then start today. Read on to find out about some of the most common and popular ways to maintain mental alertness.

1. 1. Exercise is the one that you will hear from me the most. That’s because it is so natural. I know that it is easy to get caught in a rut of going to work and then coming home and then just relaxing. Instead of sitting in front of the TV all night, why don’t you get up off your assets and lift some weights or go for a run? Exercise releases some wonderful chemicals into your brain that can make you more alert, not only during the exercise, but for the rest of the day – right until you go to sleep. This is why many people like to start off their days with a good run through the neighborhood. Of course the type of exercise you choose will depend on what options are available to you.

2. The second method you can use to increase your mental alertness is to stimulate your mind at least once per day. A healthy way to do this is to teach yourself something new. It doesn’t matter whether you sit down and read a science fiction book with interesting scientific theories, or if you read a college textbook and discover new things about biology, there are lots of things to be gained from learning something new. Not only do you get to keep the great knowledge, but you also will sustain higher levels of alertness due to the effort that you put into learning all of those things. So take a trip to the library or your local bookstore today and find a book that piques your interest.

3. Now this one is absolutely essential to your alertness. You need to get a good night’s sleep. In fact, a good amount of sleep is critical to being mentally alert. If you are only getting 5 hours of sleep per night and you are complaining about being forgetful, then you should slap yourself in the face right now at least five times because the answer is obvious. You need to sleep more. If you don’t give your mind enough time to recuperate, then you can expect to receive reduced performance. And don’t make the excuse that you don’t get enough sleep because your job makes you get up early in the morning. If your job requires you to get up early, then go to bed earlier. If you have too much to do, then start planning your days out better so that you get things done more efficiently and have more time to sleep.

Ultimately the best thing to do is to combine these three methods to remain as mentally awake as possible. If you start to utilize all 3 of these, you should start seeing improvements in a matter of days. Hopefully you will stop losing things, stop forgetting important dates, and generally stop being so absentminded. If the problem persists, then you should talk to a doctor or a shrink about any stressors that could be causing you to mentally stray away from other areas in your life. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, but you shouldn’t ignore the possibility.

If you are having problems with stress and anxiety I have a FREE e-Course.

How do you get around this problem?

For starters, whenever you find your mind drifting away, simply bring your attention back to the task at hand.  It’s better not to beat yourself up about it.  Understand that it’s normal to have your mind drift away.  It happens to everyone.

In fact, in Zen meditation, it’s taught that whenever you notice that your mind has drifted off, simply bring your mind back to focus.  And don’t beat yourself up for losing focus.

Now you know what to do when your mind drifts off.  But is there a way to minimize the number of times that your mind drifts off?

You won’t be able to eliminate your mind drifting off completely.  But you can minimize it.  For instance, if your mind keeps wandering off on figuring out what to eat for dinner, have that figured out before you start working on your task.  Write down what you will eat on a piece of paper if you like.  That way, your mind won’t be bothered on what you should eat for dinner because you’ve already figured it out.

Also, make sure you eliminate distractions that would pull your attention away.  Turn off your cell phone, instant messenger, TV, and radio when you’re working.