Feeling ‘MEH’? Wherever you are reading this, it’s probably safe to assume that things are still very ‘interesting’ no – let’s be straight – challenging! How are you feeling? For some, life may be just fine, you may have a business that is thriving because of the times, you may be revelling in newfound peace…
Self-care is essential for resilience. In addition to helping our brains and bodies, we create habits which help us deal much better with challenge and change
We’re starting to hear conversations about ‘getting back to normal’ and ‘returning to the old ways’. This is a normal response to change. Our brains want the certainty of returning to what we know, but we need to reset our expectations. Some things will be different, some will stay the same. One thing that we can guarantee is that we will all be adjusting to the new ‘normal’ and this itself will keep evolving.
Each and every one of us is reacting in our own unique way to today’s events. Learning to think neutrally or positively about challenging situations and events takes practice and time. Whatever you are feeling is to be respected, we are just offering a different perspective that could have beneficial outcomes.
Are you noticing yourself getting more distracted? Working from home, you might be aware that you are making more trips to the fridge, spending more time on social media or staring aimlessly out of the window. You are not alone! Our brains are distraction finding machines and that’s one of the reasons why sitting for hours…
A smile creates instant connection and it truly is the shortest distance between 2 people. Science has shown that the mere act of smiling can lift your mood, lower stress and even boost your immune system. When we smile, we release endorphins, natural pain killers for both physical and emotional pain, and we also release happy hormones such as dopamine and serotonin, all of which contribute to making us feel happier, more relaxed and less stressed.
We are built for connection, not isolation and we have many ways to connect. We are limited only by our imagination. Learn what others are doing and use what works best for you.
Let’s look at some foods that feed our brain for resilience by boosting our immune system, helping against depression and anxiety and keeping the part of our brain healthy that is responsible for willpower, part of our Prefrontal Cortex (ventrolateral prefrontal cortex for the science buffs). We also have 100% control over adding these to our diet.
In stressful situations, our limbic brain (sometimes called our emotional brain) goes into overdrive trying to keep us safe. It is focused on looking for threat and danger and seeing it everywhere. When we feel threatened, our amygdala, which is part of the limbic system, fires up and our instinctive, survival and non-conscious fight, flight, flee reactions kick in. These hijack our ability to think rationally, calmly and clearly.
Our news programs and social media feeds are fuelling our fear of the Coronavirus. We watch footage of women fighting over toilet rolls in a Sydney supermarket with a sense of disbelief but, if we are honest, maybe we can sense a stirring of doubt within ourselves – maybe we need to worry about getting…