Celebrate what is good!

The past 2 nearly 3 years has been a very different time in our lives.  There has been a lot of fear about the unknown and what could happen.  Things seem to change overnight in so many aspects of our lives.  It has caused challenges to our overall wellbeing and our physical and mental health. It feels heavy doesn’t it?  Like we are worn out from all of it.

Emotions and Feelings

Feelings of Worry and Fear are the emotions that are connected to the future.  When we are in this state we lose the sense of the present moment and the gratitude of what is right here right now.  In many cases we have lost the ability to just be still.  Have you noticed that you are more on edge than you once were, or you are constantly distracted??  We worry about stuff that hasn’t happened and when we do that we miss the moment of now! We also worry about stuff that is also out of our control.

What we think about affects our feelings, which affects our choices and therefore our health.  Worry and Fear cause a state of anxiety and there can offend led to not so good lifestyle choices.  We feel a strong need to calm down by whatever means… sweets, alcohol,  and too much of certain things… or we look for stimulants because we need a jolt of Dopamine..

We are clearly not thinking about how these choices in this moment affect the next moment and therefore the future… too many choices like this for too long lead to a future that we do not want.

So this Holiday more than ever before I would love for us all to focus on the good and the present moment.  There is huge value in that which is often overlooked.

Celebrate what is Good this Season

Do you have a tendency to focus on what’s not working well rather than what is?

Do you often find yourself worrying about the future? Have you noticed that the satisfaction that comes from achieving a goal is fleeting?

If so, you’re not alone. This is part of being human.

Human beings have an inherent “negativity bias.” This means that our attention is disproportionately drawn toward potential threats, risks, and things that could go wrong.

Why? Because this helped us to survive in our natural environment.

Our ancestors who had the strongest negativity bias were likely the ones that were best at avoiding threats to their survival—and thus they were the ones that passed their genes down to us.

Human Genetics are Coded for Danger

But while this negativity bias may have served us in our ancestral environment, it backfires in the modern world.

It interferes with our happiness and well-being because it constantly draws our attention to what is wrong or lacking, rather than what is right or working.

Our own health is an example of this.

We hear scary statistics about disease risk and the symptoms and apply to ourselves. We have already expected the worst without knowing and that is super stressful.

As a Doctor I have to be very careful with myself because I know so much… and it is easy to go down that path.

Following just five healthy lifestyle behaviors—maintaining a healthy weight, getting enough exercise, not smoking, not drinking excessively, and eating a healthy diet and making good for you choices in the moment over time can —increase lifespan and the quality of our health by an average of 13 years!

So imagine if you’re maintaining all five of these behaviors, and you’re also getting enough sleep, meditating, PRACTICING PRESENT TIME CONSCIOUSNESS, journalling and spending time in nature!  Wow!! Maybe you even mix in some intermittent fasting and take your whole food supplement to support health.  The quality of your life improves even more!!

Celebrate the Quality of our Lives

We don’t celebrate what we’re doing right. When we do we are calmer, happier and we make better choices. Need support ? BOOK NOW

The Power of Mindset

Turning our focus to what is going well—rather than simply dwelling on what’s not—is not only important for our mental health, but it also improves our physical health.

As I said earlier:

What we think about, affects our feelings, which affects our choices and therefore our health.

So Celebrate the Good this season and remind yourself often.

BTW we are still collecting Bears for Dell Children’s Hospital till Dec 22nd.

Have a health and happy week

Dr Pia