Here is a wonderful little brain boosting exercise you can explore for a few minutes and then I will tell you what some of the positive effects of doing this are.
I would read through this exercise and do it bit by bit to get a good effect. If you really want to feel it on a stronger level for the first time, the podcast of this exercise is now available here. You can also choose how to listen to it whether it’s from the site or on Spotify or Itunes.
Relax
If you can sit comfortably and in a place where you can focus for a few minutes on what I am going to ask you to do.
Let’s give your nervous system a break and help it reset, repair and regenerate with some lovely neurochemistry. With your feet on the floor grounding you, begin breathing in through your nose down to the belly so it begins to rise and fall, find a gentle and slow rhythm and keep your focus as long as you can on feeling your belly with each in and out breath.
Now pause and longer breath info to exercise, inhale for 6 and breathe out for 6 then increase to in hale for 6, exhale for 8 and hold for 4.
Let Go
On an out breath of your choosing consciously begin to relax your facial muscles including your jaw.
Next relax your neck and shoulders and let your hands rest in your lap.
As you breathe out consciously loosen any tension you feel in any part of your body including your arms and legs and feel your feet relax into the floor.
Continue to focus on your belly gently rising and falling for a round 45 seconds, off your mind becomes distracted gently bring it back to feeling your stomach rise and fall.
Tune
Now tune into your body and just get a sense of how you feel right now, what sensations or feelings do you begin to notice? Don’t judge or analyse, just get a sense of how you feel right now and do this for around another 45 seconds.
Connected
Now I want you to think of looking into the eyes of someone you feel strongly connected to or love, maybe a child, parent, friend, partner or even a pet if you have one. Allow some strong positive memories to come to the surface of times you connected looking at them and how they looked at you. Immerse yourself in these thoughts as much as you can.
Notice what changes happen to your body when you think deeply about being connected and loved.
Add in a calm deep voice inside your head as you breathe out, “ i am good enough,” as of course being loved and connected reminds you that of course you are.
Compassion
I want you now to focus on a memory of when you helped someone, was kind, compassionate or supportive. Immerse yourself in that memory where someone or some people really appreciated your help.
Again, notice how you feel the more you think about helping someone and how important you have been to them and others.
Remind yourself again on an out breath “I am good enough,” with those memories reminding you how important you are.
Grateful
Next focus on what you really appreciate and are grateful for having in your life right now, maybe it’s a person, your health, your determination, even your your ability to seek out podcasts like this to change your mind to change your life.
Again notice how you feel.
Add “I am good enough,” on an out breathe again as of course you are and these thoughts help cement that even deeper.
It’s All About The Chemistry
Together we are boosting your neurochemistry with a simple thought process. Just relaxing your nervous system through deeper breathing can stimulate the brain to release endorphins to help you relax.
Through the exercises the feel good feelings came from oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine which are neurotransmitters vital for our mental health.
In brief Oxytocin helps you to feel connected, loved, to love and able to bond with children and other important people in your life.
Dopamine helps us not only feel desire but also pleasure, it helps to drive, motivate us and also rewards us for moving towards anything which can feel good.
Serotonin is linked to how important we feel in status and helps regulate, mood, sex, appetite, social behaviours and sleep, low serotonin can effect all these areas and is linked to a cause of depression.
Fear Is Mostly Out Of Context
Remember as a species it’s very easy for us to think and feel negatively as our natural default due to how we evolved over 600 millions years was by watching our backs that is how we survived to live another day.
This is great for physical danger but the mind also reacts the same way to emotional danger and that can have a dramatic impact on our quality of life if it is out of context and not useful.
For example someone not speaking up at a meeting due to the fear of being embarrassed may be out of context but the thoughts and feelings can be too strong to deal with so their voice goes unheard and their confidence can continue to diminish.
Now gratitude, appreciation, inner strength and love, may sound a bit cheesy and cringe worthy to some but these really are powerful states of mind we really can access at any time have a profound positive affect not only on our chemistry but on how we process reality. Our inner cynic may snigger but I believe that’s just a clever ruse to keep us in a comfort zone of negativity as that can feel safer than the possible positive unknown.
Win Win!
In the exercise you hopefully accessed states of mind which triggered your brain to produce the neurochemistry which made you feel good, when we choose to WAKE UP from any unhelpful negative auto pilot and move our attention to thoughts which trigger positive neurochemistry we are naturally producing an antidote to stress, anxiety and depression and can help those conditions heal. Training the brain this way can help this become a new natural way of thinking and healing at the same time, it really is a win win.
Going back to that meeting If that fearful someone began training the mind to focus on the positives of speaking up, their inner strengths and no longer feared their negativity they are more likely to speak up and be noticed. This simple but effective way of working with your chemistry can help drive you to deal with out of context negativity more easily so there is more of a chance of improving your quality of life.
Instructions!
Remember that with so much information to process, your mind wants instructions on what it should focus on, otherwise it will fall back to your auto pilot and that can be quite negative, if we live stressful lives then it can fall back into quite a dark state of survival mode.
We really do see what we want to see and yet if that is not working for you then you have the ability to consciously change that with a simple thought and feeling. By choosing consciously to focus on the positives around you in various ways you will trigger new brain patterns of thought and behaviour which with repeated use can become your new autopilot.
Now that feels very exciting, imagine what your life will be like if you are no longer focusing so much on what is wrong in life but what is right.
Imagine you are no longer indulging in negative self beliefs but positive ones?
Where will you go with that?
If you would like some help training your mind then please contact me for a chat and we can work out the best course of action from there.
