Here’s a holiday message co-created by Master Mind Institute, a partnership between two neuroscientists and I to help people lead better lives by combining neuroscience and coaching.
Wishing You A More Painful 2023!
Bet you didn’t expect that one! But hear us out…
In our course, The Neuroscience of Coaching, we talk a lot about the brain chemical dopamine. While dopamine is sometimes erroneously considered simply a “pleasure chemical”, there is mounting evidence that our pleasure and pain networks are more like seesaws. High levels of pleasure can ultimately resolve with a pain response and high levels of pain can lead to a pleasure response, the most well-known being the endorphin release we experience after an intense workout that can feel like a so-called “high”.
Our culture, forever obsessed with comfort and the avoidance and reduction of pain, also has skyrocketing rates of anxiety and depression. There are in fact entire industries and stores whose goal is to eliminate any kind of discomfort or malaise. But are these “salves” making us any happier?
Biologists believe that lower dose stress, in the forms of exercise, caloric restriction and/or intellectual challenge, has paradoxically beneficial effects on longevity and overall health of people. Like all things, dose is the key. So too much of a stressor will of course end up hurting you.
While we would never advocate for removing basic comforts and all the technological advantages human innovation has brought, this new year we simply invite you to be mindful of how some mild discomfort can improve your health and even your experience of pleasure.
Some simple things to experiment with….
Making the last minute of your shower cold; exercise outside in the cold months (those first few minutes your body isn’t warm yet from movement will be uncomfortable); wait on buying items that are deemed essential for a week or wait for a birthday or holiday; push your breakfast time back 1-2 hours fast for a meal; take a social media break for 24 hours or use it only on alternating days; or take the literal and metaphorical stairs. Please be sure to consider your personal health and medical context as you choose to incorporate any of these suggestions into your life.
As you take on some of these challenges in the new year, you can consider The Straight A’s of Transformation to gain more insight into your relationship with mild discomfort. We explore the Straight A’s in more detail in our Neuroscience of Coaching course, but familiarity with the first two A’s is helpful here.
The first “A” is Acceptance.
This science about the “benefits” of pain is something that we must accept. The evidence shows us that we need mild discomfort and mild pain in order to improve our health and have more success in our endeavors.
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