The more social media we have, the more we think we are connecting, yet we are really disconnecting from each other

5% to 10% of internet users struggle to control how much time they spend online.

Can't Log Off?

Different from substance addiction, the use of social media and the addiction to it's consumption and interaction, is considered a psychological addiction, much like an addiction to gambling and to porn.Although considered a psychological addiction, brain scans show a similar impairment in regions that those with substance dependence have. Specifically there's a clear degradation in white matter in the regions in charge of emotional processing, attention and decision making.

A Psychological Drug?

The current programming of most social media offers immediate stimulating rewards with very little effort. Therefore the brain rewires itself to account for this overstimulation.If your brain is the one going through this change, you'll begin to crave more of these neurological excitements.

More More More...

Studies have shown that when comparing heavy media users to others, they perform much worse at task switching tests.Heavy multitasking online actually impairs your ability to filter out interference and even decreases your brain's capability for commiting information to long term memory

Multitasking Fallacy

Have you ever felt like your phone vibrated when it actually didn't?You check for a notification because you felt a vibration or heard a ring, but nothing...This is a recent psychological phenomenon caused by our brains' rewiring due to heavy technological use.An itch ends up being interpreted as a buzz from our phones...

Phantom Vibration Syndrome

Since social media triggers the release of dopamine, scientist studied this, and they found that the reward systems in people's brains are much more active when they're talking about their own views.Around 80% of internet usage is about people posting about their own views, not listening, not sharing, but spreading their own ideas.

Your Life. Your Thoughts. Your Internet

While most people might think that relationships are likely going to be affected by all these downsides of social media, it has actually been found that a lot of relationships succeed when they begin online.What's the cause? You may ask...Well it's unclear, but it might be due to people being more open about what they want, since they're behind a screen and can disappear if it doesn't work out. It allows you to test the waters without getting too involved too quickly.Hence if you really know what you want and don't want, online dating could actually be a great tool to find a great match.

Are Relationships Getting Destroyed Or Built?

Social media is a community effort, everyone is an asset.

The effects of social media on your body and on society.

Your brain may never be the same!
Watch our Q&A: http://youtu.be/thYzq0TEwbs
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Written and created by Mitchell Moffit (twitter @mitchellmoffit) and Gregory Brown (twitter @whalewatchmeplz).

Further Reading--

Abnormal White Matter Integrity in Adolescents with Internet Addiction Disorder: A Tract-Based Spatial Statistics Study
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0030253

Phantom vibrations among undergraduates: Prevalence and associated psychological characteristics
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563212000799

Cognitive control in media multitaskers
http://www.pnas.org/content/106/37/15583.abstract?sid=113b39d8-d0b5-4f46-b2a5-362ee79d0b61

Amygdala Volume and Social Network Size in Humans
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3079404/

What is the role of dopamine in reward: hedonic impact, reward
learning, or incentive salience?
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/psych/research&labs/berridge/publications/Berridge&RobinsonBrResRev1998.pdf

Understand yourself and those around you.

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5 Crazy Ways Social Media Is Changing Your Brain Right Now

Ways in which social media changes brains and society

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

You can’t be grateful and anxious at the same time. These two are handled by the same part of your brain: amygdala, and can only hold one at a time.

Neuroplasticity

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

The brain is like plastic: we can form it and train it any way we want.Everytime we feel, do, or think something, a new pathway is formed. The more we do it, the more often the brain will chose it again. This is called a habit.

If we wake up everyday filling our minds with negative thoughts, the brain will believe it. Not because it’s true, but because the brain is getting influenced by it.Hence if you believe you are going to have a bad day, you will have one.

Renew your mind. You are loved by God, always will be. Weather you are a believer or not.Think about positive things, believe positive things. And they will come. The more you practice positivity, the easier it will be for your brain to chose that way. It’s not a one time activity.

What To Do?

The Lord, Jesus Christ, payed a price for us. He wore a crown of thorns so we can have mental clarity.He loves you, always will. A simple prayer is where you talk about whatever is on your heart. God listens. Always will.

The Lord

God blows me away!! Today we're tackling two commonly cited Bible passages and adding a layer of neuroscience to our understanding. The cure was right under our noses.

comment 😭 if you cried too...

Scriptures Referenced:
♡ Romans 12:12
♡ Philippians 4:4-9

Video Referenced:
Neuroplasticity: https://youtu.be/ELpfYCZa87g?si=4blYUwkq1d3RogCO
Transform your mind; mindset shift that's changing my life (how to practically sow patient in suffering): https://youtu.be/q-B2LPBNBS8?si=2J41G4euWAc6lpQk

Biblical Affirmations PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1C6KlKmfOQcM4KgTBBScxexpI-Y3MF4wO/view?usp=drivesdk (Shoutout to Ps Trisha and Loi Song Word Alive Church in Cali for this resource! 🥹💌)

Other Resources I highly recommend!!! :
How to fight back the devil: https://youtu.be/jDepLePoTXA?si=shm7jJNdkzLHWok2 
Heal your body with your thoughts: https://youtu.be/2gDr9V_vmFY?si=NfUGYCCOUWyVkiTG
Rewiring the anxious brain: https://youtu.be/zTuX_ShUrw0?si=5qVj3yyhNfadOjIb
How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime: https://www.ted.com/talks/nadine_burke_harris_how_childhood_trauma_affects_health_across_a_lifetime?language=en 

p.s. Always stay humble and be kind! God LOVES you! ♡

✰ S U P P O R T ✰
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† artist, scientist, bible + fashion enthusiast, future educator ♡ here to spread encouragement and love as she tries to figure out ✨life✨ while walking with Christ ♡

Rebecca Ly

I found SPIRITUAL MEDICINE for ANXIETY! | science and the Bible

The value of ritual is in its expression, rather than its content.

Life is a succession of often unconnected, disparate encounters, interactions and relationships, managed, more or less, through habituated patterns of conscious and unconscious behaviour.Ritual represented a break from the everyday and an entry into a different realm of ritual space. It gave us the freedom to respond differently in everyday life.

Ritual as a Break

Puett and Gross-Loh argue that ritual is a kind of make believe, a form of play, or an art form that people tend to forget as they grow out of childhood.When children play, they consciously pretend and lose themselves in alternate realities, exploring imagined and different sides of themselves, and finding new and creative ways of being in the world.Confucian ritual was a cultivated form of play or performance art that could have the same effect on adults as play does on children.

Ritual as a playground

Puett and Gros-Loh say: “Our patterned behaviours and rote habits – not rituals – are what really dictate our lives and get in the way of our caring for other people. But through life spent doing as-if rituals that break these patterns, we gain the ability to sense how to be good to those around us.”To deliberately engage in ritual is not to behave like an automaton. On the contrary, it can bring about a recognition of how many of our everyday, unexamined patterns of behaviour truly are the places where we act like automatons.

Habits vs Rituals

If we’re to perform ritual as if it’s true then we will need to do it wholeheartedly, which is to say, with body, speech and thought. When the whole self is engaged in activity, we participate selflessly, because no part of us is left out from the activity. Body, speech and mind are ambivalent agents. They are gateways to both enlightened and deluded activity.To put things simply, we could say that the role of the body, is to bring the hands together or to adopt the posture of meditation; understood as speech it is remain silent; and understood as thought, it is to concentrate.

Practicing Rituals - Body, Speech and Thought

Rituals from a Zen peerspective - Some reflections and ideas 

philosophy

Philosophy

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Religion & Spirituality

Body, Speech and Thought - The Transformative Power of Ritual

You’ve probably already heard sone one telling you to eat healthy, but what is healthy food? To put it simply, the less processed the better. Things like meat, eggs, fruits, are very natural foods and our body knows what to do with them. The more our food gets processed, the worse it is for our bodies. Look at the ingredients, if you can’t recognize half of them, it’s a sign that it’s not fit for consumption.<ul><li>Start eating healthy</li><li>Avoid processed foods</li><li>Stick to natural sources </li></ul>

Proper Nutrition

People talk about staying active, but what does that really mean?To stay active, you need to actively be pursuing fitness goals. Wether it’s to run a slightly faster mile, or hit a new PR in the gym.Having goals and things to strive for motivates you to want to follow through with them. Combine this with consistency In actively chasing those goals and you have all you need.<ul><li>Set fitness goals</li><li>Follow through on your word</li><li>Chase your goals</li></ul>

Daily Exercise

It’s not enough to get 7-8 hours of sleep. you need more than that, your body works best when you have a consistent routine for when you sleep. Try not to deviate more than an hour in between bed times. Set a goal to go to sleep at that time, and do it. Set a goal to wake up at a certain time, and do it. <ul><li>Have a consistent sleep schedule </li><li>Get 8+ hours each night</li></ul>

Your Sleep Schedule

Most people are chronically dehydrated all of the time. Our bodies need half a gallon to a full gallon of water each day. Anything less than that will yield sub optimal results for your health.<ul><li>Half a gallon to a gallon of water a day</li></ul>

Hydration

Humans are very social creatures and we need the attention from other people. Spending too much time alone leads to a variety of mental health issues such as depression and social anxiety.<ul><li>Stay social</li><li>Don’t remain in complete isolation for too long</li></ul>

Social Health

Your health is your greatest asset, we don’t want to lose it. Learn what your body needs and how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

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Food

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Personal Development

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Exercise & Fitness

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Longevity

The Absolute Basics to Health

First, determine your baseline level by measuring your HRV at rest for 4-6 weeks. Measure it the same way every day, preferably first thing in the morning because that's the most stable part of your day.After this, compare your HRV to your rolling average and to the same day in the previous weeks:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">If it drops too much, you're in fight-or-flight mode likely due to a lot of stress</li><li class="ql-align-justify">If it rises too much, you're in rest-and-digest mode, but you're experiencing too much recovery due to accumulated stress, overtraining or sickness</li></ul>Either way, if your HRV is outside your baseline levels, you should rest.

How to interpret your HRV at rest stats

A higher HRV is generally a good thing, but there are exceptions that the app picks up on. You want your HRV to gradually increase over time (weeks, months, yea

Is a higher Heart Rate Variability always better?

Harm Reduction is to help reduce negative consequences of doing drugs, which doesn't require complete and total abstinence.Understanding that person isn't ready, able or willing to stop, harm reduction can help them make positive change to protect themselves AND other people.It relies on the fundamental level, recognizing that people who use drugs (PWUD) deserve safety and dignity too. It does not treat drug use as a moral failing.

What Is Harm Reduction?

Harm Reduction (H.R.) uses a practical and transformative approach that includes community-driven public health strategies such as prevention methods, risk reduction, and health promotion. These things are to empower PWUD and their families. It gives them the choice to live healthy, self-directed, purpose-filled lives.H.R. works by addressing broader social issues through improved policies, programs and practices.Organizations that practice H.R. incorporate a spectrum of strategies that meet people where they are.

What Does Harm Reduction Do?

H.R. focuses attention in engaging directly with PWUD to try preventing overdose, infectious diseases like viral hepatitis and HIV from spreading, along with offering low barrier options for accessing health care services that include mental health and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) treatment.Organizations that use the H.R. practice may also serve as a pathway to additional health and social services, including prevention, treatment, and recovery services. H.R. offers opportunities to reach out to those who aren't otherwise accessing healthcare services.

What Is The Goal For Harm Reduction?

Some examples of services offered include offering FREE Naloxone (Narcan) to reverse overdose or helping connect people to other needed services like treatment. Treatment Services like medication for people with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) could be co-located with H.R. services and offered as an option. Potential connections to treatments are CRITICAL, as data shows that:<ul><li>Only about 1 of 10 people that suffer from SUD have received treatment.</li><li>Nearly ALL people with SUD that didn't get treatment at a special facility did not think they needed it. </li></ul>

What Types Of Services Are Offered?

The U.S. is currently experiencing the MOST SIGNIFICANT substance abuse and overdose deaths it has ever faced. The epidemic is believed to be exacerbated by the recent COVID-19 worldwide pandemic and driven by the rapid increase of HIGHLY potent synthetic opioids (Fentanyl) and horse tranquilizers (Xylazine) into MANY types of drugs, like stimulants (Crack, Cocaine, and Methamphetamines) and counterfeit prescription pills.In 2022, there were more than 100,000 overdose deaths.

Why Is Harm Reduction Needed?

H.R. services SAVE LIVES by being available and accessible in a way that promotes the need for humility and compassion towards people who suffer from addiction. H.R. has many benefits to help PWUD stay safe. H.R. services have 8 principles that help prioritize giving love and care to PWUD, without judging or shunning them

Harm Reduction Sites And Practices.

<ol><li>Accepting, for better or worse, that illicit drug use is part of our world and choosing to work to minimize its harmful effects rather than simply ignore or condemn.</li><li>Understanding drug use as a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon that encompasses a continuum of behaviors from servere use to total abstinence, acknowledging that some ways of using drugs are clearly safer than others.</li><li>Establish quality of individual, community life and wellbeing – not necessarily cessation of all drug use – as criteria for successful intervention and policies.</li></ol>

The Principles Of Harm Reduction Practices (1)

4. Calling for the non-judgemental, non-coersive provision of services or resources to PWUD and the communities they live in order to assist them in reducing attendant harm. 5. Ensures that PWUD and those with a history of drug use routinely have a real voice in the creation of programs and policies designed to serve them. 6. Affirms PWUD themselves as the primary agent of reducing the harms of their drug use, seeking to empower PWUD to share information and support each other in strategies which meet their actual conditions of use.

Principles Of Harm Reduction Practices (2

7. Recognizing that the realities of poverty, class, racism, social isolation, past traumas, sex-based discrimination, and other social inequalities affect both people's vulnerability to and capacity for effectively dealing with drug related harm. 8. Does NOT attempt to minimize or ignore the real and tragic harm and danger that can be associated with illicit drug use.

Principles Of Harm Reduction Practices (3)

“One of the principle harms of the drug war is that society fails to treat people with dignity. And to me, a prosecutor disrespecting the wishes of a person who dies of drug overdose would just be one more act of turning their backs on people who needed help”

"Harm reduction does not coddle the drug addict... what's better, that people should inject with dirty needles using puddle water from the back alleys, or should they use sterile water and given human contact which would encourage them to seek help?"

Here I will be discussing what harm reduction is, its functions, why its beneficial to people with substance abuse and statistics.

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Learning & Education

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Problem Solving

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Society, Arts & Culture

What is Harm Reduction?

Your heart rate is constantly changing to adapt to what you're doing and keep your body in a steady state (homeostasis). As such, your Heart Rate Variability reflects your body's capacity to adapt to physical and psychological changes.In general, a higher HRV indicates better fitness, but too much variation means you're wasting energy. Worse even, too little variation indicates chronic health problems, where the body is struggling to adapt to changes.

A healthy heart is not a metronome

Heart Rate Variability: New Perspectives

A paper published in Nature Metabolism shows conclusively that lactate is produced normally in humans after ingestion of carbohydrates. Lactate rapidly enters the bloodstream, even before glucose shows up. Far from being a toxic byproduct to be eliminated during hard exercise, dietary glucose is converted so rapidly to lactate that it preempts or shares top billing with glucose as the two main carbon-energy carriers in the body.

Lactate Rivals Glucose As An Energy Carrier

The results of the study show that the rapid conversion of glucose to lactate, starting initially in the intestines, is a way for the body to deal with a sudden dose of carbohydrates. Lactate, working with insulin, buffers the appearance of dietary glucose in the blood.Instead of a big glucose surge, we have a lactate and glucose surge after eating. And the more of it that is converted into lactate from glucose, the better it is to manage glucose. Lactate is a carbohydrate buffer.

Lactate Is A Carbohydrate Buffer

The new study confirms that lactate plays the same role during normal non-exercise activity and resting as in during intense exercise. It's evidence to show that lactate shouldn't be associated with anaerobic metabolism. It's just a normal response to consuming carbohydrates or to exercise. In exercise, lactate is utilized as the dominant fuel source. That's why our blood lactate increases as we exercise a little harder. It's not that we're making it as a waste product. It's getting into the blood because it needs to go to tissues that need it to continue their physiological performance.

Lactate Is Not A Waste Product; It Is, in Fact, A Fuel

The researchers found that the bodies of the volunteers began converting the dietary glucose into lactate before it even left the intestines. Levels of lactate began rising in arterial blood a mere 5 minutes after the meal, while glucose, often touted as the energy currency of the body, only showed up in the bloodstream 15 to 30 minutes after glucose ingestion.

Lactate: The First Responder

The first carbohydrate after a glucose meal gets into the blood as lactate because a) that's what intestinal cells do and because b) most of the glucose is captured by the liver before it is released into the blood for the muscles, where glucose is going to be converted to lactate. This shows that lactate is just a major energy highway for distributing carbohydrate—carbon energy flux.

Lactate: An Energy Highway For Distributing Carbohydrate

In his 1984 book, “Exercise Physiology: Human Bioenergetics and Its Applications” George Brooks coined the term "lactate shuttle" to describe the body's metabolic feedback loop in which lactate is the intermediary sustaining most if not all tissues and organs.

The Lactate Shuttle Theory

Dr Brooks has shown, for example, that in many tissues, lactate is preferred as a fuel over glucose. During intense activity, the muscle mitochondria burn it preferentially and even shut off glucose and fatty acid fuel use. Brooks used tracers to show that human skeletal muscle, heart muscle and the brain prefer lactate to glucose as fuel and run more strongly on lactate. Lactate also signals fat tissue to stop breaking down fat for fuel.

“Cut The Glucose! Bring On The Lactate!”

One gap in these studies was what happens during normal non-exercise activity and resting. The current study fills that gap and supports the idea that when lactate levels in the blood remain high, it is a signal that something is disrupting the lactate shuttle cycle, not that lactate itself is harming the body."It's really informative about various medical conditions," Dr Brooks says. "I think what's significant about the current result is that it's just not a muscle thing. It starts with dietary carbohydrate. This was a missing piece in the puzzle."

It’s Just Not A Muscle Thing

A new paper refutes the notion that lactate is a danger sign of oxygen deprivation in the muscles or a toxic byproduct to be eliminated.

As a student competing in track and field at his Parlier high school, Robert Leija was obsessed with how to improve his performance, and in particular, prevent the buildup of lactic acid in his muscles during training. Like many athletes, he blamed it for the performance fatigue and muscle soreness he experienced after intense workouts.

sports

Sports

Lactate: A Fuel, A Vehicle And A Highway Combined

If you are under pressure and your Heart Rate Variability is too high, your body goes into fight-or-flight mode and shuts down the brain's frontal lobe, which handles sophisticated thinking. This leads to poor thinking and hence to poor performance.Although this is an unconscious automatic process, you can control it. You have to notice such stressful situations and control your breathing rhythm. You want a smooth rhythmic breath with a fixed ratio of inhale to exhale (e.g. 4sec in, 6sec out). This regulates your HRV, making your brain's frontal lobe work better and helping you think better.

Breathe rhythmically to improve your thinking and performance

Your Heart Rate Variability is the one that affects your performance, not your Heart Rate. You can perform well both with a high HR and a low HR, as long as your HRV is optimal. However, if your HRV gets too high, your heart rate is erratic and your performance suffers.Your HRV depends on the emotional state you're in. Positive emotions such as excitement and contentment have an optimal HRV and thus enhance your performance, whereas negative emotions like anger and apathy have an abnormally high HRV and impair your performance.

Negative emotions impair your performance because their HRV is too high

Alan Watkins Performance Model

Alan is the founder and CEO of Complete Coherence Ltd. He is recognised as an international expert on leadership and human performance. He has researched and published widely on both subjects for over 18 years. He is currently an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Psychological Medicine at Imperial College, London as well as an Affiliate Professor of Leadership at the European School of Management, London. He originally qualified as a physician, has a first class degree in psychology and a PhD in immunology.

Website: http://www.complete-coherence.com

- About TEDx -

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

TEDx is an international community that organizes TED-style events anywhere and everywhere -- celebrating locally-driven ideas and elevating them to a global stage. TEDx events are produced independently of TED conferences, each event curates speakers on their own, but based on TED's format and rules.

TED's videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization/our-policies-terms/ted-talks-usage-policy). 

For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request here: https://media-requests.ted.com.

TEDx Talks

TEDxPortsmouth - Dr. Alan Watkins - Being Brilliant Every Single Day (Part 1)

Dr. Alan Watkins - Being Brilliant Every Single Day

Are you happy? At this exact moment, do you feel satisfied with your life?Most people won’t know how to answer this question. And I don’t blame them.We focus so much on reaching happiness we forget to think about what happiness means. So, how could you know when you’re being happy?

Are you happy?

Listen, I’m not a philosopher. I don’t have any answer to the great questions of humanity. If I did, I would be a billionaire living my best life on a private boat in the middle of the ocean. (Yes, that’s my billionaire imagery.) But I’m here. I’m writing for you, hoping to improve someone’s life. So I will tell you what happiness is for me. And I hope you can resonate or find your meaning. For me, being happy is all about the mindset. If you’re happy, you don’t have any worries but your mindset.You want to do things. You are full of energy. And there’s nothing that can stop you.

What is happiness? (1)

So, why don’t we put everything together?Here, I will share five underrated mindset hacks that will:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">leave you without any worries </li><li class="ql-align-justify">make you laugh more </li><li class="ql-align-justify">and make you work on your mindset. </li></ul>Let’s get to it.

What is happiness? (2)

You are reading an excerpt from <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com">The Challenge</a>, a newsletter where I discuss self-improvement, goal-setting, habits, time management, and health tips and tricks.Every week, you will get the following:<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">a challenge to pursue to improve your life</li><li class="ql-align-justify">an infographic to track it.</li></ul><a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/subscribe">Subscribe now</a> to help me continue publishing this type of content.

The Challenge

Laughing is often linked to happiness – and for a good reason. When you laugh, your brain releases painkillers and stress relievers in your blood. So you feel happier.But how do you laugh more?You talk and banter with people more. Going to work has been easy since I can talk and laugh with my colleagues. But I had to <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/p/the-art-of-confidence">become more confident </a>and <a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/p/3-simple-rules-to-boost-your-storytelling">learn storytelling </a>to do that.

1 – The Chit-Chat Necessity

<a href="https://www.cosmopolitanmindset.com/how-to-exit-the-comfort-zone/">Leaving your comfort zone </a>is exciting. And when people never do it, it becomes a problem.If you don’t do it, you will never grow. You will never become a better version of yourself. So, what’s even the point?Yet, even if it has many advantages, leaving the comfort zone is scary.You will be happy when you reach your goals because of it. But in the meantime, it’s scary. And it would help if you had the safety of your comfort zone.

2 – The Comfort Zone Crib (1)

To live a happier life, I always take some time to stay in my comfort zone in the evening.I get back home. I prepare something to eat with my girlfriend. And we watch something together on TV.So find something like that. Find a simple place where you can turn back after a long day of grinding. And you’ll be happy.

2 – The Comfort Zone Crib (2)

All my life, I struggled to focus on one thing at a time.I used to switch from one activity to the other. And with my first job, that tendency multiplied.But there’s one thing my developer job taught me – preparation is everything. So now, I always have a five-minute breakdown before each task to prepare for it.

3 – The 5-Minutes Breakdown (1)

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">I think about what I have to do and what I need to do. And if something is missing, I get it.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">I make a fast visualization exercise in which I look at myself doing the work.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">And then, I take a deep breath and get to work. </li></ul>Do the same, and you will experience a lot less stress. You will finish your task faster. And you will be happier.

3 – The 5-Minutes Breakdown (2)

Living life as a daily challenge is fundamental to being happy.Imagine waking up in the morning and feeling thrilled for the day already. You feel the freshness of the air. And you take your hot coffee, thinking about what you will do in the next 16 hours.How can you get the best out of them?How can you stick to your schedule without procrastinating?

4 – The (Daily) Challenge Mindset (1)

Everything will be a challenge today. But you’re happy because boring isn’t interesting. And you can’t wait to see what’s going to happen.With this mindset, nobody can turn off your vibe. So live your life like a daily challenge, and nobody will stop you.

4 – The (Daily) Challenge Mindset (2)

Negative emotions are addictive.Once you get in the negative vortex, there’s no way you’ll get out of it. So be careful how you deal with negativity because it could ruin your day and life.When I was younger, I had trouble dealing with it. Every time something bad happened, my whole world collapsed. And every misstep was enough to throw me back into the vortex of negative emotions.But I <a href="https://www.cosmopolitanmindset.com/the-pitfalls-of-overachieving-3-ways-to-reclaim-your-progress/">practiced mindfulness </a>for a while. And it helped me understand the fragility of our emotions.

5 – The Frail Negativity

“Be happy” would be a hell of a challenge. I know. But I can’t give you something that generic. It wouldn’t be a real challenge.So, this week, I challenge you to focus on one of these five simple mindset hacks and see if they improve your happiness.<ol><li class="ql-align-center">Talk more with people if you don’t do it enough.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Find your comfort zone where to turn when everything’s collapsing.</li><li class="ql-align-center">You can use the 5-minute breakdown trick to finish your task faster.</li><li class="ql-align-center">Challenge yourself daily to do your best.</li><li class="ql-align-center">And learn to avoid negativity or let it go as soon as it reaches you.</li></ol>[<a href="https://cosmopolitanmindset.substack.com/p/5-underrated-mindset-hacks">DOWNLOAD THE FREE TRACKING INFOGRAPHIC</a>]

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Before you go

Are you happy? Here are 5 underrated mindset hacks that greatly improved my happiness and can help you too!

What is happiness? Many people struggle to answer this question. But I found 5 underrated mindset hacks that might help you become happier.

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Mental Health

5 Underrated Mindset Hacks That Improved My Happiness

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