Taming Negative Self-Talk: Neuroscience and Your Wellness

Posted on September 23, 2023October 3, 2023 by Tanya Mark

You’ve likely encountered that nagging voice inside your head saying, “I can’t do this” when you’ve tried to improve some aspect of your wellness: eating more veggies, moving more, getting more sleep, or maybe meditating. Or maybe you’re critical of yourself when you look in the mirror. But don’t get disheartened. There’s some exciting neuroscience research that can help you understand and counteract that voice.

Tame Your Brain and Negative Self-Talk

The brain’s adaptability is one of its strongest features. However, with repeated negative thoughts, our brain strengthens specific neural pathways, making such thoughts occur more frequently. Think of this like a hiking trail: the more it’s traveled, the clearer it becomes.

Now, this isn’t just a metaphor. A study published in Nature Neuroscience found that neurons in our brains that fire together (think thoughts or behaviors) wire together, solidifying certain patterns and responses.

Moreover, when we entertain negative thoughts, parts of our brain, especially the amygdala, get into overdrive, releasing stress hormones. Prolonged exposure to these hormones can lead to complications like heightened anxiety levels and mood disorders.

Strategies to Harness Your Brain’s Potential

1. Positive Affirmations: A study from the Journal of Positive Psychology highlighted that individuals who practiced positive self-affirmations were more open to behavioral change. So, try to start your day with a positive statement about your health journey, such as “I am taking action to make today a great day.”

2. Mindfulness and Meditation: A comprehensive review in JAMA Internal Medicine suggested that meditation can improve anxiety, depression, and pain. By recognizing negative thoughts early, you can prevent them from taking control. There are tons of ways to be mindful. Try pausing to take a few breaths, or focusing on your senses – what you can see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or listening to a guided visualization. Find what works best for YOU!

3. Reframe and Challenge: Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques, which revolve around challenging negative patterns of thought and reframing them, have been shown to be effective in various conditions, including anxiety and depression. Next time you think, “I always give up,” try reframing it as, “Each attempt brings me closer to my goal.”

4. Neurofeedback: Also known as EEG (electroencephalogram) biofeedback, neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback therapy focused on the brain. The core idea behind neurofeedback is to provide real-time data about brainwave activity, allowing individuals to learn how to modify their own brain waves. Research from the Journal of Neural Engineering has shown positive results, especially concerning mood regulation.

5. Get Moving: A review in Health Psychology Review indicated that movement can have a positive effect on mood by releasing neurotransmitters like endorphins. The next time you feel stuck in a loop of negative thoughts, consider taking a short walk or doing a quick workout.

Use neuroscience to tame negative self-talk

Along your health journey, remember that evidence-based techniques are at your fingertips to combat negative self-talk – whether you have a perfectionist personality or tend to focus on what you don’t like about your perfectly imperfect body. Start with one and let the momentum build. Embrace the intersection of your own determination and the wonders of neuroscience, and trust that every step forward is progress backed by science.

Want some support to take your mind body health to the next level (no matter where you’re starting at)? Shoot me an email and tell me about yourself and your vision for your Best Self. ✨ Coach Tanya

Reduce the Impact of Stress with Micro-resilience

Posted on August 10, 2022August 11, 2022 by tmAdmin

What’s micro-resilience and how can it help you minimize the impacts of daily stress?

Let’s think of micro-resilience this way: What’s the normal way you live your life?

Do you power through your emotions, fatigue and stress?
Do you end up collapsing at the end of the day?
Do you believe in pushing yourself to prove yourself and validate your self-worth?

The pushing through and feeling completely “spent” can lead to us feeling like it’s too big a hole to climb out of. We feel completely deflated and don’t know how to come back. Thus, we remain stuck in this vicious cycle.

Inevitably, our bodies start screaming for quick ways to feel better thus we reach for the glass of wine or comfort food despite not being truly hungry or thirsty. This is a very normal and natural response from the body. It wants to find the quickest way to feel better but these quick fixes don’t help our resilience, they’re just mental bandaids.

But what if we never reached this point and, instead, built in ways to micro-recover throughout our everyday lives?

All of this pushing through is super stressful to the body. It takes a long time for our bodies to bounce back from this prolonged, chronic, low-level stress. If we practice self-care, we may be focusing only on the bigger things (like weeklong tropical vacations, sleeping late on Saturdays, etc.) to recover and bounce back or give back to our minds and bodies.

Micro-resilience is about recharging your batteries while living your daily life.

It’s about weaving small recoveries into your daily routine. Instead of pushing through and needing to take serious downtime to recover, I’m encouraging you to incorporate small moments of relaxation in your daily life so you’re not so depleted by the end of your day and week.

7 Micro-resilience tips to break the chronic stress cycle:

Taking a 5-10 minute walk outside during your afternoon break to clear your head (and leave your phone behind)
Closing your office door to meditate for 5 minutes
Diffusing calming essential oils like lavender at your home or office
Eating lunch without distraction. Yes, do nothing but eat. Instead of answering emails while eating, use the time to relax and clear your mind. Did you know that “multi-tasking can effectively lower your IQ and make things take up to four times as long to accomplish?” (Source)
Standing in Amy Cuddy’s power pose. Harvard found that “…whether you are sitting or standing – opening up your arms, spreading your feet apart, and extending your posture, reduces cortisol (the fear hormone) and increases testosterone (giving more confidence to take risks). Once your body chemistry shifts from fearfulness to confidence, you can be more resilient about how you respond to what is happening around you.” (Source)
Create an emotional first-aid kit that you can tap into when you need a boost. Collect items – mementos, pictures, or pieces of music – that can trigger positive feelings and help you conquer negativity. Personally, I have notes of appreciation from clients posted and a picture of my dog that says “Make Time For Play” in my office. Taking a moment to “soak them in” can give me the boost I need to change my mindset. (Source)
Stop skipping meals or pushing past your typical meal times. To be and feel our best, our bodies thrive when they receive steady nourishment (energy) throughout our day.

The options are endless and very personal to each individual. The book The Sweet Spot by Christine Carter Ph.D. has lots of great ideas and information about building micro-resilience. Once you find a few easy recovery methods that work for you, you’ll notice what a difference it makes in your day.

Want to learn more? Check out Dr. Jim’s scientific research with elite tennis players and how micro-resilience habits during a long tennis match were able to bring their heart rates down to an ideal more quickly and perform overall better. We can apply this same habit to our everyday lives.

Let’s recharge our batteries along the way so we can be and feel our best, all day, every day.
Tanya

Stress Relief Tips to Stop Living Life Like It’s an Emergency

Posted on November 5, 2023November 13, 2023 by tmAdmin

Could you use some stress relief tips to rest, recover and relax?

I once was in urgent need of slowing down too.

I had an ah-ha moment at the grocery store one day while I was rushing around like a madwoman. Out of nowhere, I had this moment of clarity and said to myself, “What am I doing!?” I couldn’t believe the tizzy I was in! I thought, “If I just slowed down and it took me one extra minute to get from the parking lot to the produce section, what effect could that have on my overall well-being?”

You see I had been stuck in this chronic cycle of “there’s not enough time.”

From the moment I woke up in the morning to the time I finally calmed down and got to bed, I never stopped living life like an emergency. And I could feel the nasty effects throughout my entire body. I was irritable and burnout.

We all need downtime to let our bodies and minds rest and heal from all the stress we experience daily. Low-level stress accumulates in our bodies over time and compounds to become dis-ease.

So, what can you do about it?

How do you start to slow down and create that sense of “presence” your body and mind needs?

Build in breaks to relieve stress.

Stress relief tips to build stress resilience

1. Create a morning relaxation break

The ultimate game-changer for me was learning to set my mornings up for success.

How you start your day sets the tone for the rest of your day.

Before you get ready for your day, try taking 5 minutes to yourself.

During that short period of time, do some deep breathing, listen to gentle music, or repeat an uplifting mantra. Any of these simple activities will help set the tone of your day.

Are you thinking, “But I don’t have time in the morning for that?” I hear you. I felt the same way. But then I realized that my poor relationship with time was keeping me stuck in a vicious stress cycle.

What helped me conquer my morning frenzy was going to bed and getting up an extra 15 minutes early.

2. Go to bed 15 minutes earlier to relieve stress

In order to make that happen, I needed to reverse engineer a positive start to my day by going to bed earlier.

Just 15 minutes. That’s not much right? But it can make a huge impact on your day. By getting up 15 minutes early, I was able to have some vital me-time that helped me feel grounded and centered, instead of rushed and stressed out.

Try setting a reminder on your phone to “wind down” to prepare for bed earlier.

And once these two habits become an established part of your routine, then try adding in a mid-day mini breaks to prevent stress from building up…and overflowing.

3. Add in mid-day stress relief breaks

If you sit at a computer day-in, day-out, try setting a timer every 25 minutes.

When that timer goes off, take 5 minutes to stand up, stretch, drink some water, close your office door and listen to some relaxing music and/or take a walk around the building, or get outside and breathe in some fresh air.

Practice these three stress relief tips and take breaks throughout you day for some “me-time” to stop chronic stress in its tracks, and help ward off future dis-ease.

Tanya

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