Can You Do This? Enjoy More-Suffer Less. Plus Two Neuro-Tips for the Year Ahead

by | Jan 3, 2023 | NeuroTip | 0 comments

Setting Your Intention for the Year Ahead 2023

 

Enjoy More-Suffer Less. Period

While reflecting on this year about to end, I could not help, but feeling gratitude. So many things to celebrate in spite of some challenges – a brush with COVID earlier in the year, and recently the flu….

It was quite a roller coaster ride – with plenty of ups and downs (thankfully mostly ups!)

I choose to celebrate even the smallest gains.

This is my intention for the year ahead:

I want to Enjoy More, and Suffer Less

I want to keep this in mind, and do everything I can  to make it happen: I intend to notice, savor, create, enjoy and celebrate lots of delightful moments going forward!!

I hope to inspire you to do the same: so you will keep practicing these techniques until it becomes second nature.

Practicing mindfulness and science-based strategies daily rewires the brain, develops resilience   and has the potential of transform your life.

  1. Science shows that the act of mindfully savoring a positive experience is a distinct predictor of positive emotions and psychological health. That is why, when something good happens, mindfully enjoying and savoring it, should be incorporated in our daily routine.

 

  1. At the same time, when noticing negative or anxious thoughts-which are the main culprit of our suffering– I intend to flip the switch to immediately interrupt the negative chatter in my brain by shifting to a moment of feeling deep gratitude.

 

The research shows that the positive and negative inner chatter normally occurs in the brain.

Negative thoughts and worries (partly generated by the right prefrontal cortex) cause a part of the brain called the Amygdala to send out a threat signal that turns off motivation and generates anxiety and negative emotions.

Once the fight-or-flight response is triggered, it releases stress hormones into the body.

When stress is chronic, the elevated levels of cortisol released over a prolonged amount of time not only can cause a lot of damage in the brain and the body, but can also trigger a

looping and maladaptive stress response. That’s why It is so important to interrupt the negative chatter.

 

Neuro-Tip 1:  Instantly Interrupt Negative and Anxious Thoughts

 

Use this powerful mental practice when you catch yourself worrying, slipping into self-doubt or ruminating. Follow the recipe below. 

  1. First, let’s get you into a state of presence – deeply grounded and mindfully aware:
    Start by mindfully yawning 4 to 6 times and do a very slow mindful movement.
  2. Then, Change the Channel: Shift to a Moment of Gratitude.
    Shift by immersing yourself in deep feelings of genuine gratitude.
    Think of one thing you’re grateful for that brings you joy: Your tribe. Your health. New opportunities in your life.
  3. Vocalize what are you thankful for with intention and emotion, allowing yourself to really feel the gratitude.
  4. Next: Crank up the volume!

 Notice where you sense gratitude in your body. How intense is the emotion. What lights up. What else do you feel when you are grateful?

In this state you’ll see that it’s almost impossible to pay attention to the negative thoughts and feelings anymore, even if you try very hard.  

  

Neuro-Tip 2:  Mindfully Enjoy, Savor and Celebrate Moments of Delight in Your Life to Enhance Your Mental Health.

  1. Set the intention to pause a few times during the day to elicit positive feelings and thoughts.
  2. Yawn and mindfully stretch a couple of times. 
  3. Think about someone you love deeply (or retrieve a pleasant memory)
  4. Notice how you feel when you think about your loved one (or when retrieving a loving memory)
  5. Notice how your heart lights up. Or, notice the happy, uplifting, pleasant feelings.
  6. Try harnessing its momentum and energy!
  7. Next, take it all in! Magnify it. Increase the volume! Expand it!
  8. Try eliciting feelings of exhilaration, bliss and flow! Try to embody and feel those feelings in each cell of your body!

To creating and savoring many delightful moments throughout 2023!

With warmth blessings and love,

Fanny 😊

 

 

 

 

———Sources———-

Being present and enjoying it: Dispositional mindfulness and savoring the moment are distinct, interactive predictors of positive emotions and psychological health

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5755604/

 

            The effects of gratitude expression on neural activity. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26746580/