Think Tank: The Neuro Blog
Six "Brain Food" You Don't Know About
Some foods and drinks are not just good for your body, but even better for the brain. While the popularity of nootropics, such as Neuro, is rapidly growing, few people still rely on their traditional sources of brain enhancers.
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Here’s What Music Does To Your Brain
Music has always been part of our lives. Whether you are on your way to attend to a chore or you are just lounging at a café in your city, it’s always there to accompany you. With an array of genres, it is nearly impossible to not pick which type of music is for you.
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Affirm Yourself Correctly and Daily— Here’s How
It is no secret that thoughts are extremely powerful. They can even produce a stronger attracting force once translated into words. In a nutshell, that is basically the science behind affirmations. Uttering and telling the world these positive phrases is one step further than just feeding your mind with positive thoughts. These affirmations will help you empower yourself and conquer any self-sabotaging and self-limiting patterns you may have. Affirmations can also be considered as positive conditioning for your subconscious mind. This can be correlated with human’s need for rewards and recognition. Intended to boost one’s self-worth and value, affirmations elevate your personal competence and give you a wider perspective of your capacity and power as a human being. In addition, affirming yourself also aids in your adaptability. Converting negative thoughts into positive ones exhibits your skills in terms of dealing with the realities of life and tactically creating solutions to surpass those. At the same time, it magnifies your resilience or your ability to bounce back from difficult situations. Psychotherapist Ronald Alexander of the Open Mind Training Institute suggests that daily affirmations can be done thrice to five times a day to effectively reinforce positive beliefs. According to Alexander, writing them in a journal and saying them out loud in front of a mirror are great methods to amplify the strength of the practice. However, to be the life-changing habit that it is perceived to be, you must learn the art of ideating and verbalizing affirmations the right way. Affirmations must be clear and concise Similar to goal-setting, you must be definite about your affirmations. To be able to fully manifest these, you have to say it clearly and concisely from the beginning. By doing this, you instantly position your mind to distinctly map out plans and actions to achieve your intentions. Focusing on direct statements will help you avoid distractions and hindrances towards your projections too. Focus on the positives Use positive statements instead of negative ones. Lean towards optimism rather than pessimism. For affirmations to be transformational, you have to be careful in choosing each word you say. Speak only words that will drive you to your highest good and nothing less. Negative self-talk will only translate into negative actions. Affirmations must be credible and achievable Effective affirmations need to be realistic as well. Regardless of how you can exaggerate most phrases, choose to verbalize statements that you can translate into achievable outcomes and results. Your trust and faith in your affirmations will also depend on their credibility. You may not be able to fully believe and embrace words that are too dreamy and ambitious. Speaking highly is different from speaking impossibly. Stick to what you think and know is attainable and start manifesting them through concrete plans. Repetition is key Mastery comes after practice. To steer yourself towards sustainable and lasting progress in the way you think, feel, and act, you will have to affirm yourself on a daily basis. All must be anchored on consistency, as any practice should. Training your mind to affirm yourself increases its capacity to lead you to success. Doing this regularly also encourages your brain to register these affirmations as facts. Remember, it all starts with the mind. Affirmations only start turning into actuality when you begin claiming them and pronouncing them to the world using your words. Soon enough, your actions will translate into reality. Hero image by Carlos David on Adobe Stock
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Three Reasons Why Snackable Content is Good for your Brain
Do you find yourself spending more time on TikTok than any other apps on your phone? Or do you go for Instagram Reels that last for only seconds rather than those long, dragging 30-minute content on YouTube? Well, you may not be the only one. Recent years have actually shown that humans now have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. So, no wonder, people prefer shorter forms of content nowadays. From initially 12 seconds, humans’ attention span has significantly decreased to eight seconds in the past two decades—that’s faster than the average time of a website to fully load. And many would agree that it is mainly due to the world’s obsession over technology. The more time people spend on the digital world, the less their focus gets. These insights help brands and businesses especially to keep up and be able to stay relevant in such a fast-pacing world. They need to take these marketing trends into consideration and use it to their advantage. These short, quick, and bite-sized contents mentioned above are called snackable content. As the name suggests, it is meant to be easily digested. It can be in forms of photos, infographics, memes, short videos, or the likes, that you generally see every day when you scroll through your social media feed or browse through the web. Thus, it cannot be stressed enough that these snackables are not just for marketing purposes only. They are also great for you and your busy brain due to its non-intimidating nature. Here’s a few reasons why snackable content is beneficial for you: Snackables are Quick to Digest With the oversaturated digital landscape today, everybody is exposed to a number of content on a daily basis. You may not be able to notice it most of the time, but at some point, you experience information overload and get overwhelmed with the volume of information you are introduced to regularly. A study done by the Pew Research Center revealed that one out of five of Americans feel overloaded by information. Off of that number, 40% find it difficult to determine what information is trustworthy. This validates the fact that as a human being, you can only process a certain amount of information all at once. The idea behind the just-in-time system, where what’s only needed is consumed at the moment, can be connected with this. Taking in information in small bites makes it way easier to cope. They Improve your Focus and Support Retention Experts from Morris Psychological Group did a research revealing the impact of taking in too much content. Accordingly, it affects your memory and focus massively. “Being constantly bombarded with far more information than we can process works to the detriment of our memory, our concentration and ultimately our ability to produce timely results and make good decisions,” neuropsychologist Dr. Kenneth Freundlich said in the study. Multiple and huge volumes of information do take a toll on your decision-making. Take note that your brain only has limited capacity to process everything. Therefore, short bursts of content will be kinder to your mind. Snackables will retain better than large amounts of content delivered all at once. Plus, relying heavily on visuals, snackable content will be able to improve your comprehension and retention. Instant and Heavy Impact Breaking information into tiny pieces makes everything stickier and more powerful too. Microcontent communicates with the audience much quickly with its user-friendly and easy-to-decipher format. Snackable content excels in delivering immediate results in a short period of time. The faster the content reaches your brain, the faster your brain is able to process the information. So better believe that there’s more to entertainment than what that 30-seconder video you just watched offers.
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4 Practical Ways to Build Confidence in Yourself
Merriam Webster Dictionary defines confidence as “a feeling or belief that you can do something well or succeed at something”. It is a feeling and a state of mind that propels you forward into doing things. It is a strong, intangible force that may determine whether you succeed or fail at something. Do a quick inventory of the people you know and identify at least 5 people who, in your opinion, are confident. What do they have in common? What aura and energy do they exude? What are their personalities like? How do you feel when you’re interacting with them? Confidence affects a person’s self-esteem and the way they interact with people. It influences the way they show up, talk, choose, even the way they eat! Struggling to feel confident? Here are 4 very practical ways that you can start building confidence in yourself. Start with the small things Confidence, as important as it is, doesn't happen overnight. There is no juice, pill, workout, or cleanse that you can do that will make you confident in a snap of a finger. It doesn't work that way. Confidence is a skill that you need to nurture, practice and put effort into so you can see results. You build and increase confidence by accomplishing things, by getting things done. Everyone and their mom were all up in Adele's business when she lost a lot of weight. While people only saw the change in her physical looks, Adele says "it's not even about the weight". She was going through a tough time and she didn't know how to navigate her day but her daily 9 am workouts gave her a semblance of order. She didn't know what would happen throughout the day but showing up at 9 am and allowing herself to get this seemingly small task done every single day gave her a sense of purpose. The more you get things done, the more your confidence increases. Navy SEAL Commander Admiral William McRaven says that making your bed every morning helps you get into the right state of mind for the rest of the day for the simple reason that you’ve already accomplished one thing - you’ve made your bed. This simple act will propel you towards achieving more simple tasks and prepare you to move on to more complex tasks. Invest in yourself Investing in yourself doesn’t just mean buying a whole new wardrobe every time there’s a sale in H&M or Zara. While looking presentable undeniably adds a ton to your confidence tank, investing in what’s inside is equally important as well. Do you need to be an extrovert to be viewed as confident? Not necessarily. Confidence doesn't just mean you’re the life of the party or you know the right things to say, rather it is knowing what to say, how to say and when to say it. How will you know what to say when you don’t know what you’re talking about? Investing in yourself can be in the form of doing new things, enrolling in classes about things you’ve always wanted to learn, or going to places you’ve always wanted to go. If you feel good on the inside, then chances are, you’re going to feel good on the outside. Invest in your health and make sure you’re putting in the mental focus and effort to take care of your health. Practice and prepare Confidence comes from knowing you are good at what you do. How do you get better? You prepare and practice. You do your homework because those who don't get exposed very easily. The “fake it ‘til you make it” culture is not only exhausting physically and emotionally exhausting, but it also lacks finesse and puts your past accomplishments in a precarious situation. It may work for some time, but building your confidence based on whether you can stomach another round of treatment that you know is beneath you, will have a toll on your self-esteem and mental health. It may work in the short term, but it's not a strategy you want to put all your energy in. Building confidence through practice and preparation may be a slow run, but it's sustainable and a win-win. Not only do you get to weed out opportunities and people who are not the right fit for you, but you also build enough discernment to know what's best for you. Want to be confident for a job interview? Research the company you're interviewing for. Find out what their culture is like and talk to people who can give you honest insights. Don't stop there, in order to exude a level of confidence that'll make the hiring manager go crazy about hiring you, you have to treat the interview as a conversation, not an interrogation. How? Ask sensible, thought-provoking questions! Make them sell their company as a workplace that you’d want to spend your working hours, talents and skills at. Be your own cheerleader This one may mean looking inwardly and evaluating years of conditioning, but this is such an important part of building confidence. Ask yourself these questions: Why is it so easy for you to applaud someone for their accomplishments, but so hard for you to recognize your own? Why do you always tend to downplay it and credit it to luck or any other reason, rather than from your very own ability to accomplish it? Why is it so easy to say amazing things to describe someone but a tad too difficult to say something positive about yourself? Why do you get so uncomfortable when someone compliments your work, or your shirt, or your looks? Say you’re doing a major project and 90% of the work was done on time, and 10% was late. How is it that you’re too focused on beating yourself up for the remaining 10% but find it hard to celebrate yourself for the rest? Recognizing that you’re amazing is not being conceited, nor being arrogant. It is an important part of the confidence-building process, therefore shouldn’t be ignored. You can’t say you’re confident, and then beat yourself up for every minuscule thing that didn’t go according to plan. The next time someone asks you about what you do, speak positively about you and your work. Speaking “positively” doesn’t necessarily mean bragging, especially if you stick to the truth. The next time someone asks you to do something at work and it’s out of your bandwidth, refuse politely. Standing up for yourself may be difficult, but setting boundaries is important and people should know you’re serious about them. Most importantly, be patient with yourself. Confidence doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen very easily. It’s hard work and would require you to step miles away from your comfort zone most of the time. But if you make the first step today, and the second step tomorrow, and so forth, you’ll be surprised at how far you have come. Hero Image by Autumn Goodman on Unsplash
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4 Reasons Why It’s Time To Get A Pet
Whether you’re already a pet parent or have admired pets of friends and family (even strangers) from a distance, you know how amazing it can be when you spend time with these little gifts of sunshine walking on four legs. Videos of cute animals receive millions of views every day for the very simple reason that they make people feel better. Pets have that effect on people - they’re too cute and adorable without even trying. Pets are companions that love you without condition and bias. They just simply do! If you’ve already watched a dozen dog videos on YouTube and are thinking of becoming a pet parent but can’t seem to get over the line, here are some reasons that may just help you make up your mind. Pets are an amazing source of comfort and support Imagine this, you come home after a long, hard day at work and the minute you open your front door, you are greeted by your overly excited pet - wagging tail, warm, fluffy, cuddles, and all. It doesn’t matter if you left him alone the entire day, the only thing that matters to him is you’re home. Now, wouldn’t that turn any bad day into a good one, in an instant?? Pets are also known to provide comfort and support during difficult times for the very simple reason that they fulfill the very basic human need for touch. According to research, interacting with animals decreases the stress hormone cortisol and also lowers blood pressure. Oxytocin or the hormone responsible for creating a sense of calm and comfort have been observed to increase in people interacting with animals. Therapy dogs are especially good at reducing hospital and nursing home patients’ stress and anxiety. Dr. Ann Berger from NIH Clinical Center in Maryland shares that mindfulness, a way to help decrease stress and manage pain, is something that animals do innately. Pets can improve your health If you have pets that need exercise and physical movement as part of their routine, chances are you’re going to be moving with them too. Walking your dogs, or cats in a nearby park not only allows them to get the fresh air and physical activity they need, but you also get your daily dose of sunshine and movement as well. A growing number of studies have also shown that kids who grow up surrounded by furry animals are less likely to develop asthma and skin allergies like eczema. Having pets are also proven to reduce blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels while providing a lot of opportunities for socialization! Pets give you purpose Kookai, a fur mom to her furry Dirk, shares that her “little boy” changed her life. She always wanted a pet dog growing up, and one day she just decided to come home with one! Her entire life changed that day, and the rest is history. “Taking care of a dog is the BEST feeling you’ll ever experience in your life. It’s life-changing and it will bring you immeasurable happiness and love. Because of Dirk, I finally understood what unconditional love meant. He made me feel I have a purpose”, shares Kookai. Pets need their owners for survival, and this need gives their owners a sense of purpose and reason. When a living thing depends on you for something, you find it in yourself to deliver and be there for them. Pets make you responsible One very important nugget of wisdom that you have to remember when getting a pet is that it is a living, breathing creature that requires food, water and attention to survive. Not because they’re fluffy, furry and cute doesn’t mean you can leave them lying around when you’re done playing with them just like you would to a stuffed animal. NOPE. Kookai shares one bit of advice to future parents, “Love them as your own. If you want a pet, don’t keep them in a cage nor tie them up. If you’ll only put them in one, then don’t get one. They don’t deserve that kind of life.” Pets require attention, resources and energy from their carers. When you decide that you’re ready for that type of commitment, you knowingly and consciously bear the responsibility that comes with getting yourself a fluffy (or even scaly) companion. While dogs and cats are the common pet options for most people, don’t discount other animals too! Some pet owners choose to take care of fishes, turtles, and tortoises, among others because they are low maintenance and don’t require as much attention compared to dogs and other furry pets. If you feel you’re not yet ready and you still need a bit of time and adjustment before taking the plunge, worry not! There are plenty of other alternatives available for those who want to spend time with animals but are not yet ready to take care of them full time. If you have friends with pets, you can volunteer to be pet sitters for a few hours while they run errands. You can also try and be a volunteer in animal shelters that care for animals that need permanent homes. Hero Image by Eric Ward on Unsplash
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You're Stronger Than You Think! Here Are 5 Reasons Why
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.” - Mahatma Gandi When do you know you’re strong? Is it when you’re able to lift heavy weights or you’re able to bench press a hundred lbs at the gym? While having physical strength is an advantage in virtually any situation, having mental strength and toughness. Sometimes, when life gives you the hardest battles to fight, and especially when it’s one after another, it seems so much easier to just give up. You find yourself questioning, “what’s the point in fighting if there’s no winning anyway?”. However, most of the time, and contrary to popular belief, winning isn’t everything. The number of times you lost is also the number of times you realized where you went wrong and the number of times that you tried again. Before you raise the white flag and count yourself out of anything, DON’T! You are so much stronger than you give yourself credit for, and here are 5 amazing reasons why: You’re still here In all the years of your life, you’ve probably gone through so much and in each of those instances, you probably thought it’s something you wouldn’t get over. But look at yourself, 5 years after that breakup and you’re still here. COVID-19 put everyone’s lives on hold and it’s not something you (or anyone else) could have prepared for, but look at you now, more than a year after, still able to put one foot in front of the other and carry on. All of that, and you’re still here. Beaten down, probably, but given up? Nah. You now know that “quitting” is reserved only for things that are not for you or are not good for you, but never on you. You’ve identified your strongest ally Yup - it’s you. You’re strong because you know you can count on yourself when push comes to shove. You know you got your back when things get hard and you know it now more than you’ve ever known it your entire life. You’re learning to invest in your focus and clarity in the same way that you invest your time and resources in people. You know to say “me too” and prioritize your mental health because you know that a stronger “you” means a stronger friend, parent, employee and person. You know that if you bet on yourself, you’ll never lose. You’re learning to identify your limiting beliefs, breaking them and creating new liberating ones for yourself. You know better than to be in the company of people who are bad for you and who dim your light. You’re learning to narrow your circle and keep only the people who truly, genuinely have your best interests at heart. As a human being, you give yourself the grace to have “human moments” at times. You allow yourself to cry, break down and question the universe. But you pick yourself right back up, start your engine and get back on track. You also realize the time it needs you to transition from the state of wallowing to getting back up is shorter and shorter each time. You already know you’ve got whatever life gives you - because you’ve got you. You've changed and adapted to change Go through your Facebook memories and look at the post you made 10 years ago. Do you think the “you” now would have lost sleep over something that kept you up at night 10 years ago? Probably not. You may not realize it, but you have grown and changed so much throughout your life. You have evolved and continued to do so as you go through life and this has allowed you to survive and thrive amidst all life’s challenges. You know that change is inevitable, and while it’s taking you a little longer to adjust to some of life’s changes, especially those that need you to move out of your comfort zone, you know that it’s an essential process in life and it will only get you to where you need to be. You know when to ask for help While you know that you are your greatest asset, you also know that there are people out there who want to see you win. You build genuine connections with these people and seek their help when you need to. You build mutually beneficial relationships with them and these relationships help give you perspective. You now know that asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of being human. You're hopeful To be hopeful is to be optimistic about the future. It’s something you don’t see, something you can’t measure and sometimes, something you don’t even have the evidence for. Life may have brought you down to your knees, but there’s a fire in your heart that although may sometimes dim, can never be extinguished. You know very well to protect this light because it lights your way and motivates your actions. A study published in the Journal of School Psychology posits that hope may be considered a psychological strength that can “protects” adolescents when facing life’s challenges. Your hope makes you optimistic and keeps you going. It tells you what however dire your situation is today, there will be a tomorrow, and that tomorrow is another chance to change things. You’re not wishing for any more problems, no you’re not. But you also know that in life, with all its unpredictable twists and turns, problems will come. And when they do come, you’ll be your usual amazing and resilient self, only so much stronger. Hero Image by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash
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Are You Stressed? 4 Ways to Calm Down
Here’s something we hear everyday - “stress is all around you”. We may not like it, but we know that it’s true. As human beings, we each have our own encounters in the battlefield with stress and anxiety and some of them may not be very pretty. Have you been feeling stressed lately? There’s no need to raise a white flag and surrender; here are 4 ways to help you calm down. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing Anxiety and stress affects your breathing, and depending on the gravity, it may even feel a little difficult to breathe sometimes. Part of the body’s typical stress response is shallow and upper chest breathing, which oftentimes may feel a little uncomfortable. When this happens, it may feel counterintuitive to physically stop moving, especially if your body is in a state of panic, but stopping and closing your eyes to focus on your breathing may be your best bet. Trying out different types of breathing exercises may help reduce stress and anxiety. If you can, incorporate one or two in your everyday routine by practicing and setting aside as little as 5 minutes every day. Not only will these make you feel better, they will also make your lungs healthier. Side Note: For some people, concentrating on their breathing triggers hyperventilation. If you know that you are one, it is highly recommended to move on to the next tips. Spend time with nature The soothing, healing and restorative power of nature does a great deal to reduce stress and anxiety. This is largely because time with nature gives us perspective and widens our horizons. It makes us aware that there is a bigger world out there where we can find meaning, beauty and purpose; an environment where we can find something we are passionate about. “Spending time with nature” doesn’t necessarily mean going on hikes, or taking long vacations outdoors. It can be as simple as taking a walk in a nearby park, spending your lunch hour in an al fresco garden restaurant, taking time to cuddle and snuggle with your furry pets, tending to your garden or making one at home! In a digital world where online is the norm (an average American spends about 10 hours/day staring at a screen), consciously taking time to disconnect and make time for nature will do wonders to reduce your stress and anxiety. You’ll be surprised - that walk in the park may just be what you need to feel refreshed. Do something that will require your concentration and focus Dealing with stress and anxiety may feel like an uphill battle all the time. It takes up your energy, focus and makes you feel like a rocking chair - always moving but getting nowhere. However, it doesn’t always have to be. Take back your power by redirecting your focus and energy to something else that you enjoy doing. Yoga and meditation are good ways to focus your mind and eliminate the stress-causing noise that seeks to control your mind. Doing these can give you a state of calm, a feeling of peace and a sense of balance which are good for your overall well being. Engaging in physical activities is also a fun and productive way to distract you from the things that trigger your stress and anxiety. Find something that you enjoy doing regularly, whether alone like running, swimming or working out, or with friends like basketball or football, among others. Writing down your thoughts is also a good way to calm you when you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed. When emotions and thoughts jumble in your brain, writing them down may help declutter and make sense of the chaos. Try journaling before you sleep to release your mind from the day’s events and destress you from the day’s worries. As you make it a habit - when you put your pen down, close your journal and get ready for bed, you’ll know that in that night’s battle, you won. Calm down with Neuro Gum & Mints A steady state of mind is always a canvass for success. Take notice of life’s greatest moments - didn’t you start with a sense of regency followed by a sense of calm? As you spend time with nature, journal your thoughts and breathe your stress away, a couple of Neuro Calm and Clarity Mints will seal the deal and take you to that optimal state of calmness and relaxation. Every Neuro Calm and Clarity Mint is expertly developed and infused with GABA, Vitamin D3 and L-theanine. All these ingredients are known to ease tension, calm your nerves and relax you. Identifying your trigger area/s When you’re calmer, less anxious and more relaxed, try to identify where the stress and anxiety are coming from. Identifying these things will help in lessening the stress and anxiety by enabling you to steer clear from things that trigger them. Try to retrace your steps and see what you did prior to feeling stressed. For example, some people feel anxious after watching the news because the majority of what they see and hear are negative. Most importantly, if stress and anxiety affects your daily life in a serious and destructive way, never hesitate to seek professional help. The first step in solving any problem is acknowledging that it exists. The sooner you come to terms with it, the sooner you can regain control of your thoughts and of your life. You don’t just win a battle, you win the war. Hero Image by Emma Simpson on Unsplash
Learn more3 Keys to a Happier Life
When was the last time you felt happy? The genuine kind of happiness - the kind of happiness that makes you feel you can take on anything, and do anything. The kind of happiness that fills up your entire body, radiates through your smile and echoes through your laugh. The kind of happiness that’s not influenced by anything from the outside; the kind of happiness that stems from within and from knowing that you’re amazing. As adults, we seldom get into the rhetorical question of “what makes me happy?” because it’s not something that we can touch, or see with our eyes. In this day and age, we focus on tangible things; things that we can put a label or a value on. “Happiness is an emotional state characterized by feelings of joy, satisfaction, contentment, and fulfillment”. We may have been looking at the wrong places because happiness isn’t something we quantify, it’s something that we feel. Do you ever wonder what can make you happy? These suggestions might help: Know when to disconnect to connect Social media and its influence over us has grown leaps and bounds over the last few years; we know it, we feel it, we breathe it. Thanks (or no thanks?) to the pandemic, it has become one of the cheapest and most convenient ways to connect with people all around the world as we went into isolation for a few months. Pew Research Center shared that nearly 7 out of 10 Americans are social media users. How many TikTok videos have you watched in the last couple of days? By itself, there is absolutely nothing wrong with social media. In fact, it has helped the majority of us to cope through changing times. However, the way it is being used and the effects of such usage can be problematic. The rise of “influencers” and how they live their curated lives through their feed encouraged comparison and the need for validation. In order to boost esteem and satisfy the need to belong, we post content in the hopes that other people seeing it will “like” it. Because the need to feel validated is hinged on something as fickle as “likes and comments”, it can easily cause anxiety (and for some, even depression) when the desired “likes and comments” are not achieved. Never let social media dictate your happiness, because the dopamine levels it can give you isn’t meant to last. Instead, find meaningful connections with actual, real people. Now that most people are vaccinated and things are starting to normalize socially, take advantage of this time to reconnect with people and actually talk to them. Ask them how they’ve been, go on a coffee date to catch up and talk about how it’s going. Challenge yourself to go “phone-free” for a few hours a day and watch how your mood improves. Include a “gadget-free” bedroom as a part of your night time routine to help improve your sleep quality. Connect with yourself and write in an actual journal to untangle your thoughts for the day. Make your own “IG Highlights” by printing nice photos and hanging them in your living room. Happiness is being able to know that you should disconnect with your online self, so you can be more in tune with your actual self and the people that matter to you. Know that money is good, but understand that the best things in life are free Money is not evil; in fact money is amazing because it makes life comfortable. It makes you enjoy amazing things and experience a lot of awesome adventures. Jim Carrey once said that he hopes everybody could get rich and famous so they would know it’s not the answer to everything. While we all want to skip to the end where we’re all already rich, unfortunately we can’t. Money in itself is not the enemy, it’s how we use and “want” money that we should watch out for. What’s your relationship with money? How do you use it? Is it more of a means to an end, or is it the end-all, be-all goal? Make a conscious effort to improve your relationship with money and never let it interfere with more important priorities like your relationships and your health. It’s true that money can buy a lot of things. However, money can’t buy true happiness, because true happiness doesn’t come from “things” you own. Instead of putting all your energy on money, invest it on what matters like time with your family, and time with yourself, among others. Did you know that hugs are a natural stress reliever? Even if you’re not a hugger, try giving a hug at least once a day and see how it can instantly improve your mood. The beauty about a hug is you can’t give one, without receiving one too. Know that it’s okay to slow down In a world where being busy and being overworked are glorified as being “cool”, it’s almost a sin to want to slow down. The very idea of “slowing down” even scares most people; it’s as if there is always somewhere we need to go and the only way we’re getting there is if we move now. Patience is old news, and fast-paced is the trend. How many times have you been frustrated by the slow internet? When you constantly see that rainbow wheel almost mocking you in the face? Kids nowadays can’t be bothered to sit through an entire video, they hit the fast-forward button faster than they can walk. Articles now have that “5-min read” note at the start because people just need to know how much time they need to spend reading something. The thing is, rushing to do something tends to always feel more stressful. It also has the tendency to block out meaningful communication, breed resentment and cause stress. From this perspective, being fast and constantly moving doesn’t bring happiness at all. In fact, it’s the opposite! Think of something that you do everyday, and try to do it slower. Eating, for example. If you’re always rushing to eat because you need to be somewhere urgently, make a change and give yourself time to enjoy your meal. Strike a conversation with the person you’re sharing a meal with instead of gulfing down everything in a rush. Achieve clarity and harness the power of your emotions by taking your time. You’ll notice how you become a much better person, happier and with more meaningful connections with people and with yourself. Happiness doesn’t need to be an elusive concept. In fact, it’s almost right at your hands. What are you waiting for? Hug a friend, sip your tea, put down your phone, write in your journal, and go to bed with a smile on your lips and contentment in your heart. Happiness is always in the little things, you just need to look closer. Hero Image by Javier Allegue Barros on Unsplash
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