A speedy workout for improving strength and toning muscle that you can complete from your living room. As soon as you fall out of a routine with fitness it's easy to beat yourself up about it. Rather than force yourself into big long workouts to try and make up for lost time, instead, ease yourself in and gradually build up to where you want to be. You can start nice and steady with this quick ten-minute upper body workout. This routine includes a set of moderate-sized weights so a set of the best adjustable dumbbells will be more than ideal for this muscle toning workout. This style of weight allows you to adjust the weight you are working with by a click of a button or via a dial function. If strength is something you're looking to develop more but you still enjoy cardio-based training, then you can combine both into one session with this BodyFit by Amy workout. Amy has packed heaps of versatile moves into such a short amount of time, making it possible for you to stay active no matter how tight you are for time. If you have a pair of the best cross training shoes then get these laced up and yourself ready for a ten-minute blast of strength and cardio-based movement. You will start by performing 30 seconds of a traditional upper body move in isolation, add some cardio for 30 seconds, place the weights down before a further 30 seconds of straight cardio, and then take 30 seconds rest. This pattern will be repeated with different moves until the ten mins are up. BODYFIT BY AMY'S 10-MINUTE UPPER BODY DUMBBELL HIIT WORKOUT For this workout, you aren't restricted to only using dumbbells. A couple of the best kettlebells can be used or you can even use home contents such as cans or bottles. However, if you do want to build muscle with lighter weights you will have to be pushing yourself that bit harder.
Research published in the Journal of Applied Physiology discovered that lifting lighter weights can be just as effective at building muscle as lifting heavier weights, but according to the researchers from McMaster University, the key is to work until the point of fatigue. Now of course, this ten-minute HIIT workout will have you working to a high intensity, but it won't necessarily work you to the point of muscle fatigue. Regardless, there are plenty of other ways you can train your muscles to fatigue with lighter weights and still experience impressive muscle growth. It's a good idea to learn how to deadlift with dumbbells or continue developing your upper body strength with some of the best home chest workouts. To enhance your muscle growth as well as avoid injury make sure you are eating plenty of protein too. Or consider incorporating one of the best protein powders for women into your diet to help increase your daily protein intake. Protein is essential for helping your muscles repair and recover in between exercise. by Benjamin P. Hardy When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Max Planck, German quantum theorist and Nobel Prize winner There are two primary mental shifts that occur in the lives of all highly successful people. Many make the first, but very few make the second. Both of these shifts require a great deal of mental stretching from conventional and societal ways of thinking. In many ways, these shifts require you to unlearn the negative and sabotaging programming from your youth, public education, and even adulthood. The foundation of the first shift is the sublime power of choice and individual responsibility. Once a you make this shift, you are empowered to pull yourself from poverty of time, finances, and relationships. In other words, the first shift allows you to create a happy and prosperous life, where, for the most part, you control how and on what you invest your time. Unfortunately, the results of the first shift can be overly-satisfying on one hand or paralyzing on the other. Thus, few people ascend to the second shift. Hence, Greg McKeown, bestselling author of Essentialism explains, “Success can become a catalyst for failure.” For example, when a musician starts out, they write lots of music for the love of it. Their dreams are often huge. If they end up becoming successful, in almost every case, they’ll begin producing less and less music overtime. This happens for one of two reasons:
The foundation of the second shift is transcending your own independence, wherein your thinking stretches far beyond yourself. Thus, the second shift begins with 10x thinking and subsequently requires you build a team/network that brings your ideas into physical form. In this article, I explain the process of experiencing the first and second shift. Let’s begin: Shift 1: The Power of Choice The following are the core components of your mental model after you’ve experienced the first shift: You are responsible “If it is to be, it is up to me.” — William H. Johnsen, famed African-American painter In order to make the first shift, you must go from an external locus of control to an internal locus of control. This is the scientific way of saying: you stop playing the victim to external circumstances and take responsibility for your life. You are responsible for how you respond to life. No longer do you impulsively react. No longer do you blame others for any lack on your part. You are 100% responsible for your marriage, for example. None of this 50/50 business. It’s all on you. If it fails, it was your fault. You made choices and now there are consequences. Of course others may be involved, but you can’t blame them for your choices. In the book, Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win, authors Jocko Willink and Leif Babin explain this level of responsibility as fundamental to true leadership. Hence, there are no bad teams, only bad leaders. Any negative outcomes of a team operation fall square on the leader. Any positive outcomes, conversely, are awarded primarily to the team. Self-leadership, similarly, involves the same level of responsibility. If something doesn’t work out, who (or what) do you blame? If anything but yourself, you’ll remain hostage to things outside your control. Every choice has a cost and consequence “Free-will” doesn’t exist. You aren’t “free” to act however you want, unless you’re willing to accept the consequences of those actions. As Stephen R. Covey explains, “We control our actions, but the consequences that flow from those actions are controlled by principles.” The only way to avoid negative consequences, then, is to understand the principles governing natural consequences. Hence, highly successful people are continually learning and striving to better understand the world around them. You can’t be free to act if you don’t understand the consequences of your behavior. Ignorance is not bliss, but bondage to negative consequences without understanding the source and reason for those consequences. Combine this ignorance with a victim mentality and you have a destructive cocktail. Yet, once you realize that every choice -- even small ones — will yield an outcome, you can then decide which outcomes you want. No choice is free. Every choice is tied to an outcome. Thus, every choice has meaning. The final consequence (and cost) of every choice is TIME! You can’t get your time back. Of course, you can course correct. You can learn from past mistakes. You can solve problems. But there is always a cost. Once you realize that, you’re far more sensitive about spending time on non-essential activities. Success (and happiness) is a choice. Success, health, and happiness are all consequences. They are by-products. They are effects, not causes. You can’t control the effects; principles control these. However, you can control the causes of these things, which are your behaviors. Negative environmental factors? Change them. A recent meta-analysis shows that most people misunderstand confidence. Confidence doesn’t lead to high performance. Rather, confidence is a bi-product of previous performance. For example, if you start your day well, you’re likely to have confidence throughout the rest of your day. If you start poorly, that prior performance will sap your confidence, even subconsciously. Get this clear: confidence is a direct reflection of past performance. Hence, yesterday is more important than today. Luckily, today is tomorrow’s yesterday. So, even if your confidence today isn’t optimal, your confidence tomorrow is still within your control. Once you’ve made the first mental shift, you know that your emotional state is your own responsibility and the product of your choices. If you want to be confident, that’s up to you. If you want to be happy, that’s up to you. If you want to be successful, that’s up to you. Momentum is essential. “When you experience positive momentum, you’ll never want it to stop.” — Dan Sullivan, founder of Strategic Coach Finally, people who have experienced this first mental shift really care about momentum. They’ve worked hard to develop their momentum and know what it feels like to not have momentum. Being without momentum is rough. It’s how most people live their lives. And without momentum, results are minimal, even with lots of effort. Consistency is key to developing momentum. You get it by putting intentional effort toward a singular goal or vision, and eventually the compound effect takes over. It’s as though several outside sources are working for your good. Because, they are. Keeping momentum once you have it, then, becomes very important. Hence, you must maintain a thirst for continual learning and growth. Most people get stuck at the first shift. If you take complete responsibility for your life and choices, you will develop a love for learning. You’ll come to understand and live principles which will organically facilitate success in your life. However, there’s a far higher level beyond this first shift, and most people never get there. In the book, Tribal Leadership, authors Dave Logan, John King, and Halee Fischer-Wright explain the different cultures of organizations. Most organizations operate in a “Stage 3” culture, where everyone is “out for themselves.” Thus, the goal of Stage 3 cultures is competition rather than collaboration. Yet, this competition actually occurs with the other people within the same organization. Everyone is trying to “get up the ladder.” Hence, there is sucking up, backstabbing, secrecy, and other nonsense. People within these cultures don’t care about the organization as a whole. They only care about what the organization can do for them. They also only engage in relationships so far as those relationships benefit them. It’s all about them. And for this reason, they suffer. They can’t think beyond their own needs and wishes. Thus, their vision for themselves and the world is actually quite small and limited. The primary stumbling blocks for successful people who have made the first shift are as follows:
However, if you want a much higher degree of growth, relationships, and contribution, here’s how the second shift works: Shift 2: The Power of Context“ Synergy is what happens when one plus one equals ten or a hundred or even a thousand! It’s the profound result when two or more respectful human beings determine to go beyond their preconceived ideas to meet a great challenge.” — Stephen R. Covey In the book, Ego is the Enemy, Ryan Holiday explains that many successful people “stop being a student.” When you’re a student, you actively seek to have your paradigm shattered. You want to be wrong and you want feedback. You care more about learning than what other people think about you. Moreover, once you’ve developed the confidence and skills to do incredible work via the first shift, you may realize you can only get so far by yourself. The “lone ranger” mentality is played-out and overrated. You may be able to rock life by yourself. But you could rock life far more with the help of the right people. Naturally, this is the very ascent Stephen R. Covey explains in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The first several habits are to help you experience the first mental shift, or what Covey calls the “Private Victory.” The habits Covey outlines to experience this private victory are:
However, three additional habits of Covey’s book are intended to take you beyond independence to a state of interdependence, where you experience synergistic relationships in all areas of your life. What I’m calling the second mental shift Covey calls “Public Victory.” The habits Covey outlines to experience this public victory are:
It’s been said that the 21st century is the time of the woman, because naturally, women demonstrate many of the characteristics needed to thrive in today’s global and team-driven economy. On average, women are far better team players and collaborators. Men, on the other hand, are prone to ego and self-absorption. Men more often want the glory while women simply want to contribute and grow. The following are the core components of your mental model after you’ve experienced the second shift: 10x thinking “When 10x is your measuring stick, you immediately see how you can bypass what everyone else is doing.” — Dan Sullivan Becoming “successful” requires taking personal responsibility for your life and choices. By nature, it’s beyond average, since, to be average is to not take responsibility. Thinking 10x is much different, though, than simply taking responsibility. It involves a grand vision wherein others must also be responsible. Moreover, 10x thinking involves far more boldness and creativity than simply “being proactive.” 10x thinking takes you from the goal of earning $100,000 a year to earning $1,000,000. Or, from helping 100 people to helping 1,000. Or, from getting 10,000 page views to getting 100,000. When you do this, your strategy immediately shifts. In his book, Tools of Titans, Tim Ferriss explains that 10x thinking can come from asking “absurd” questions, such as the question billionaire Peter Thiel asks himself: If you have a 10-year plan of how to get [somewhere], you should ask: Why can’t I do this in 6 months? Of this type of questioning, Ferriss continues: “For purposes of illustration here, I might reword [Thiel’s question] to: ‘What might you do to accomplish your 10-year goals in the next 6 months, if you had a gun against you head?’ Now, let’s pause. Do I expect you to take 10 seconds to ponder this and then magically accomplish 10 years’ worth of dreams in the next few months? No, I don’t. But I do expect that the question will productivity break your mind, like a butterfly shattering a chrysalis to emerge with new capabilities. The ‘normal’ systems you have in place, the social rules you’ve forced upon yourself, the standard frameworks — they don’t work when asking a question like this. You are forced to shed artificial constraints, like shedding a skin, to realize that you had the ability to renegotiate your reality all along.” If you want to think bigger, ask better (and more absurd) questions. I once asked myself how I could write a blog post that would get one million social shares. The product was a 10,000 word listunlike anything I’d ever seen to that point. These types of questions lead to creative breakthroughs and different avenues of thought. They also organically facilitate a very different strategic approach. What absurd question will break you out of your limiting and traditional ways of thinking? Delegate “Delegate everything but genius.” — Dan Sullivan When you begin thinking 10x, you realize you can’t do it all on your own. You need to be far more focused. Thus, it becomes essential to build a team around you immediately. Your network is your networth. The sooner you build a team around you, the faster, wider, and deeper will be your results. In almost every case, you won’t feel ready to build this team. Don’t get caught-up with any preconceived notions of what “building a team” means. It doesn’t necessarily mean you need to “hire” people in the traditional sense. It could mean that you exchange favors. Or that you have win-win relationships — such as the one I have with my literary agent, my editor, and friends who help. These are mutually beneficial relationships wherein you focus on your superpower and have those around you who focus on theirs’. Collaboration and synergy in all areas of life “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” — Helen Keller Take a minute to examine your life. When you go to the gym, do you have a workout partner? Surveys show that most people prefer working out alone. However, if you’ve experienced the growth available by pushing yourself with someone else, the idea of working out alone seems somewhat comical. As Michael Jordan explains, “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” In a Darwinian sense, most people compete with others on their own level. Those seeking rapid growth compete with others who are far advanced, what Josh Waitzkin calls“investing in failure.” An even higher order principle is collaborating with others who are far advanced of your current level. For instance, if you want to get stronger or faster really fast, exercise with people in far better shape. If you want to do incredible work, work with more talented people than you. If you want to become a better person, date or marry someone “up.” Of course, if it is a true collaboration, you’ll need to bring much to the table yourself. This isn’t about social loafing. It’s about intensive growth, and must therefore, be both win-win and synergistic. As Andrew Carnegie, among the richest Americans of all time, has explained, “Teamwork appears most effective if each individual helps others to succeed, increasing the synergy of that team; ideally, every person will contribute different skills to increase the efficiency of the team and develop its unity.” Another billionaire, Richard Branson, similarly stated, “Build your own business team. Survival in business requires a synergy of skills.” In everything you do, there should be collaborative and synergistic elements. Of course, there is work which is your work. However, that work should be embedded within a group of others and toward something much bigger. Again, a huge difference from the first shift to the second is that you are responsible for more than just yourself. Because others depend on you to show up and do what you do best, you are responsible to your team. These others could be customers, fans, family, a workout partner. Whatever. The point is, you are responsible for other people’s success. Moreover, in many ways, their success is your success. Their growth and development is just as satisfying as your own — sometimes more. Rest and recovery “Working with a 10x goal and game-plan requires that your brain is relaxed, rested, and rejuvenated.” — Dan Sullivan Deep, creative, and strategic thinking and work is exhausting. An essential component of the second shift is doing “less, but better.” Where the first shift is often about quantity of work, the second shift is all about quality. To experience the first shift, you often just need to throw a bunch of darts at a board. Simply throwing a dart is seen as a huge win, initially. Eventually, some of those darts start hitting the board and getting some attention. However, once you make the second shift, you are among the world-class. It’s not just about hitting the board. It’s about hitting the bulls-eye, consistently. Precision. Quality. Conservation, rest, and recovery, then, becoming increasingly essential. This is true at all elite levels. For example, professional athletes spend an enormous time resting. Roger Federer and LeBron James have said they sleep an average of 12 hours per day. Similarly, to build mass and strength, many people need to workout less, and give their body more time for recovery and sleep. Yet, during their workouts, they need to push themselves harder and heavier. Less, but better. The same is true of mental and strategic work. Recovery is more than just physically resting. It’s also being completely unplugged from “connection.” For instance, a recent study found that constant smartphone use stops people from properly recovering from work (and life). In a sense, people are always “on” to distraction and connection. They never disconnect. People keep their smartphones on them constantly. In the study, the experimental group, who became more conscious of their smartphone use, and took adequate breaks from it, were able to experience psychological detachment from work (which is essential for recovery and engagement), relaxation, and mastery. Take away: Set healthy boundaries on your smartphone and internet use. When possible, keep your smartphone away from your person. If it’s in physical proximity, you will unconsciously use it. Keep it in your car when you get home from work. Or keep it in a drawer in a separate room. Allow yourself to actually rest and recovery so you can engage in life and work! This is absolutely essential if you want to truly make the second shift. Conclusion These mental shifts are incredible. Wherever you are on your own journey, you can intensify and deepen your understanding of the principles at these various levels. Never stop being a student. Never stop learning. Shatter whatever paradigm you have and get a new one. When you change the way you see things, the things you see change. This article first appeared on BenjaminHardy.com. Remy Blumenfeld Contributor It's maddening, but sometimes Forbes readers dismiss the wisdom of a life coach. You tend to pay more attention to the life lessons delivered by billionaires. The problem is that while most life coaches are not very rich, most billionaires are not tremendously happy. So you can imagine my delight when, about 30 minutes into his most recent "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit, Bill Gates, the world's second-richest man, was asked two very personal questions. “Are you happy?” and “Through it all, what makes you happy?” His answers were not only wise, but surprisingly affordable. As a life coach, I don't believe in the idea of happiness--I'd have preferred it if he'd been asked about balance, fulfillment or gratitude. Still, to the first question Bill Gates, 63, responded: “Yes! When I was in my 30s, I didn’t think people in their 60s were very smart or had much fun. Now I have had a counter-revelation. Ask me in 20 years and I will tell you how smart 80-year-olds are.” To the second question, Gates said, “Some recently said that when your children are doing well it really is very special, and as a parent, I completely agree. “Sometimes following through on commitments to yourself, like doing more exercise, also improves your happiness.” Unlike me, Gates—as far as I know—is not a qualified coach. However, as I am not a billionaire, I thought it would be great if the two of us combined our experience. So, here are Bill Gates’ 5 secrets to happiness, universalized in a relatable way by me. 1. Ditch your 20-year-old self and talk to your future self There is no surer way to gain a fresh perspective on any thorny problem than to speak to yourself in 20 years. Your future self is very wise. They know what will bring you peace, ease, and joy. As Bill Gates admits, most of us at 40, 60, even 80, remain in a dialogue with our 20-year-old. This is not a life-affirming dialogue, because at 50, your 20-year-old self thinks you are old and past it. Your 70-year-old self, on the other hand, will tell your 50-year-old person, correctly, that you will never be so young, powerful, vital or fit again. Yourself in 20 years is wise. They know not to sweat the small stuff. They know what will bring you joy. When you have 15 quiet minutes alone, do this easy future-self visualization. A word of advice: If you are at an age where you do not feel, realistically, that you will be alive in 20 years from now, but still want to access a wisdom that eludes you, try imagining speaking to yourself from beyond the grave. What would your long-dead self tell you to do or say right now? 2. Follow through on your commitments Nothing gives you a greater sense of your power than when you do what you've said you'll do. Empowerment coaches call this “manifesting.” Gates probably calls this “making things happen on purpose” or “being your word.” None of us are in control of every outcome, but we can each be absolutely in control of doing what we've said we'll do. And this makes us feel powerfully alive. It draws others towards us. To be your word, it may mean reducing what you commit to, but if you do not follow through on commitments, not only will others stop trusting you, but you will stop believing in yourself. And how joyful is a life where you can't count on yourself? 3. Give to others He didn't include this in what he said, but charitable giving is so much a part of who Gates is that it would be wrong for me to leave this out. As of December 31, 2017, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had an endowment of $50.7 billion. Giving makes us feel good, is beneficial for our health and evokes gratitude. Remember, “it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy,” according to TED talking monk, David Steindl-Rast. 4. Do more exercise As a tennis player, Gates will know firsthand that exercise is good for improving his mood. And it has been proven that exercise helps chronic depression by increasing serotonin, which helps your brain regulate mood, sleep, and appetite. Exercise increases the level of your endorphins, which are natural mood lifters. It also limits the effect of stress on your brain and helps get your sleep patterns back to normal. Exercise gives you a focused activity that can help you feel a sense of accomplishment. 5. Put love first Gates' observation that “when your children are doing well it is really very special,” makes perfect sense. One of the five greatest and most common regrets of the dying is “that I did not spend more time with the people who I loved.” Paired with regret most common among men, “that I wish I hadn't spent so much time at the office,” and suddenly the “work-life balance” takes on a whole new urgency. I know you’re probably thinking: “This is all very well, but a few hundred million dollars sure would help me to feel happier.” Perhaps. But as Gates’ answers would suggest, when you can count on yourself and others can too, when you feel good about yourself physically and emotionally and prioritize those you love, you could well end up a whole lot more fulfilled than an unfit, selfish, lonely billionaire. Contributor: Remy Blumenfeld The stories of how university life has changed are reported in the news daily. We read stories of students being expelled, for congregating, partying, and being kids. The Washington Post reports how it was all ‘so predictable’.
The problem is that university business models are not anti-fragile, they aren’t even smart. They are based upon the way the world used to be, not the way it is, and definitely not the way it is going to be. There is a case that the current higher ed model no longer serves the interests of society, and COVID is shining a light on the hypocrisy. One does not need a Ph.D. to know that socialization is one of the main drivers for students to attend universities. The universities capitalize on this by creating lucrative franchises that provide unity, community, and connection for their students. Greek life, classes, study groups, student activities are all about socialization and connecting with contemporaries. For the Ivys proximity is arguable the greatest value of the education. By removing the ability to socialize, a large part of the value proposition is removed. This is an inconvenient fact now for the higher education machine. Leadership proceeds pretending that the reality of school is simply about classes, and they are applying dictatorial, draconian tools to keep students from assembling, despite having called them back to school. This attempt at controlling the behavior of young adults through intimidation will fail. It will fail because some of the presumably, smartest people in the land have no interest, to be honest about the reality of being a 19-year-old at college. As Upton Sinclair once wrote, “It is difficult for a man to understand something when his salary depends upon not understanding”. If you are, for example, Nicolas Zeppos, Chancellor of Vanderbilt University, earning $2.23 Million a year, charging students $70K for tuition, there is a large incentive to call students back to campus and pretend that everything will be okay. All one needs to do is to impose new rules that put students in the crosshairs of the COVID police (AKA Office of Student Accountability), and not acknowledge that it is all just a futile attempt to keep students from being students, and fully availing themselves of the value they have paid. Kids will be kids and calling thousands of them back to a far-away city to do what they could have done from home, eg. watch classes via Zoom- is just a bad idea. We all know it is about business models. It is about money, and the point of this is that the culture of higher education, the archaic premise of faculty for life, all of it, needs to be reexamined, possibly burnt down, and started over. The point is that ‘study from home’ at a reduced cost could’ve been a temporary solution for a semester. Instead, they put students and society at risk, principally because of outdated business models, and we all suffer as a result. And, even worse, kids are being penalized for being kids- having been lured back to a place where they are not safe. Is this really the best that the brightest minds in our country can come up with? One tip to help make you happy: Think about your goals. It changes how you see the world and releases happy chemicals in your noggin.So what’s going to make you happy? Let’s get more specific: what’s going to make your brain happy? And let’s focus on things that are simple and easy to do instead of stuff like winning the lottery. Neuroscience has answers. I’ve discussed this subject before and it was so popular I decided to call an expert to get even more dead simple ways to start your brain feeling joy. So let’s get to it. Alex has some great suggestions for simple things you can do to feel happier every day … 1) Listen To Music From The Happiest Time In Your Life Music affects the brain in an interesting way: it can remind you of places you have listened to it before.Were you happiest in college? Play the music you loved then and it can transport you to that happier place and boost your mood. Here’s Alex: One of the strong effects of music comes from its ability to remind us of previous environments in which we were listening to that music. That’s really mediated by this one limbic structure called the hippocampus which is really important in a thing called “context dependent memory.” Let’s say college was the happiest time of your life. If you start listening to the music that you were listening to at that time, it can help you feel more connected to that happier time in your life and makes it more present. I hope you weren’t happiest in elementary school because it’s going to be weird if you’re playing the Barney song or the Sesame Street theme around the house. (To learn more about what the music you love says about you, click here.) Now you can’t listen to music everywhere you go. What does neuroscience say you should do when you have to take those earbuds out? 2) Smile — And Wear Sunglasses The brain isn’t always very smart. Sometimes your mind is getting all this random info and it isn’t sure how to feel. So it looks around for clues. This is called “biofeedback.” Here’s Alex: Biofeedback is just the idea that your brain is always sensing what is happening in your body and it reviews that information to decide how it should feel about the world. You feel happy and that makes you smile. But it works both ways: when you smile, your brain can detect this and say, “I’m smiling. That must mean I’m happy.” So happiness makes you smile, but smiling can also produce happiness. Feeling down? Smile anyway. “Fake it until you make it” can work. Here’s Alex: That’s part of the “fake it until you make it” strategy because when your brain senses, “Oh, I’m frowning,” then it assumes, “Oh, I must not be feeling positive emotions.” Whereas when it notices you flexing those muscles on the side of the mouth it thinks, “I must be smiling. Oh, we must be happy.” When you start to change the emotions that you’re showing on your face, that changes how your brain interprets a lot of ambiguous stimuli. Since most stimuli that we experience is ambiguous, if you start to push the probability in the positive direction then that’s going to have a really beneficial effect. In fact, research shows smiling gives the brain as much pleasure as 2000 bars of chocolate, or $25,000. And so what’s this about sunglasses? Bright light makes you squint. Squinting looks a lot like being worried. So guess what biofeedback that produces? Yup. Your brain can misinterpret that as being unhappy. Sunglasses kill the squint and can help tell your brain, “Hey, everything is okay.” Here’s Alex: When you’re looking at bright lights you have this natural reaction to squint. But that often has the unintended effect of you flexing this particular muscle, the “corrugator supercilii.” Putting on sunglasses means you don’t have to squint and therefore you’re not contracting this muscle and it stops making your brain think, “Oh my God, I must be worried about something.” It’s really just a simple little interruption of that feedback loop. So smile. And wear those sunglasses. They can make you look cool and make you happier. (For more on how to be happier and more successful, click here.) So you have your music playing, you’re smiling and wearing your sunglasses. But you can still be stressed about things. What should you think about to kill your worries and keep yourself happy? 3) Thinking About Goals Changes How You See The World And I mean, literally. Researchers flashed a bunch of circles on a screen in front of study subjects. One of the circles was always slightly different than the others. It was brighter or smaller, etc. But when they told people to prepare to point at or try to grab the circles something crazy happened…If they thought about pointing at the circles, they became better at noticing the brighter circle. If they were told to think about grabbing a circle, it was easier for them to identify the smaller circle. What’s that mean? Having a goal literally changed how they saw the world. So when you’re feeling stressed or challenged, think about your long-term goals. It gives your brain a sense of control and can release dopamine which will make you feel better and more motivated. Here’s Alex: The goals and intentions that you set in your prefrontal cortex change the way that your brain perceives the world. Sometimes when we feel like everything is going wrong and we’re not making any progress and everything is awful, you don’t need to change the world, you can just change the way you are perceiving the world and that is going to be enough to make a positive difference. By thinking, “Okay, what is my long-term goal? What am I trying to accomplish?” Calling that to mind can actually make it feel rewarding to be doing homework instead of going to the party because then your brain is like, “Oh yeah. I’m working towards that goal. I’m accomplishing something that’s meaningful to me.” Then that can start to release dopamine in the nucleus accumbens and that can start to make you feel better about what you’re doing. (To see the schedule the most successful people follow every day, click here.) Sometimes you can try all these little tricks and it doesn’t feel like it’s making a bit of difference. That’s often because you’re missing something that’s really key to good brain function … 4) Get Good Sleep We all know depression messes up how people sleep. But what’s interesting is it’s actually a two way street: bad sleep also causes depression. Here’s Alex: They took all these people with insomnia and followed them for a few years and it turned out that the people with chronic insomnia were much more likely to develop depression. Depression causes sleep problems but sleep problems are also more likely to lead to depression. So how do you improve your sleep? Alex has a number of suggestions: Get bright sunlight in the middle of the day. At night, try and stay in a dimly lit environment. Having a comfortable place to sleep and having a bedtime ritual so that your brain can prepare to go to sleep are also good. Trying to go to sleep at the same time every night and keeping a gratitude journal can also improve your sleep. (To learn everything you need to know about having the best night’s sleep ever, click here.) All this little stuff to feel better is good. But if you’re not getting stuff done at work it’s going to be hard to stay happy. What’s neuroscience say about building good habits and conquering procrastination so you can stay smiling? 5) How Neuroscience Beats Procrastination Your brain isn’t one big ol’ lump of grey goo that’s perfectly organized. Far from it. Think of it a little more like a bunch of your relatives arguing at the dinner table during a holiday get together. When it comes to the choices you make and the things you do, Alex says there are 3 regions you need to be concerned with. You don’t need to memorize the names. It’s just important to realize they all get a vote:
I have a friend who always says, “Stress takes the prefrontal cortex offline.” Stress changes the dynamics of that conversation. It weakens the prefrontal cortex. That part of your brain doesn’t have infinite resources. It can’t be eternally vigilant and so while it’s not paying attention, your striatum is like, “Let’s go eat a cookie. Let’s go drink a beer.” Anything that you can do to reduce stress can help strengthen the prefrontal cortex’s control over your habits. So if you want to build good habits and stop procrastinating, the first thing to do is reduce stress. (The best ways to do that are here.) Procrastination is often a vicious circle because you delay, then you have less time to complete the project, so you get more stressed, procrastinate more, have even less time, which makes you even more stressed and … well, you get the idea. So what’s the answer? After a little something to reduce stress, find one small thing you can do to get started. This focuses you and prevents the overwhelm that knocks the prefrontal cortex out of the conversation. Here’s Alex: When the prefrontal cortex is taken offline by stress we end up doing things that are immediately pleasurable. Instead of getting overwhelmed, ask yourself, “What’s one little thing that I could do now that would move me toward this goal I’m trying to accomplish?” Taking one small step toward it can make it start to feel more manageable. (To learn 5 weird but effective ways to conquer chronic procrastination, click here.) Time to round up everything we learned. Alex gave us six great … Wait. Did I only say “5” in the headline? Okay, you’re getting a bonus. Keep reading for Alex’s #1 easy thing to do to cause an upward spiral of happiness in your life … Sum Up Here’s what you can learn from Alex about how neuroscience can bring happiness:
Go for a walk outside every morning, preferably with a friend. Yup, that’s it. How can something so incredibly simple be so powerful? Here’s Alex: I think the simplest way to kick start an upward spiral is to go for a walk outside every morning, and if possible, do it with a friend. The walk engages the exercise system and when you’re walking outside the sunlight you’re exposed to has benefits on the sleep systems and can impact the serotonin system. If you do it every day, then it starts getting ingrained in the dorsal striatum and becomes a good habit. If you can do it with a friend, that’s even better because you get the social connection. Right now: share this post with a friend and ask them to join you for a walk tomorrow morning. That’s it. (And wear your sunglasses.) Go outside. Put one foot in front of the other. Smile with a friend. And you’re on your way to neuroscientific happiness. Looks like it really is the simple things in life that bring us joy. |
AuthorContent gathered & updated by the Bergen Review Media team. Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|