True & Personal Holiday "Tail"

My gift to you is this True & Personal Holiday "Tail" affirming the powerful love we share with our pets. I hope you take the time to read and enjoy its inspiring message. Happy Holidays from Dr. Jay Kumar.

As many of you know, I recently lost a very special and amazing soul in my life. Pico and I have spent so many Holidays together that his furry loving presence will be all the more painfully missed this year. I was recently and beautifully reminded that even personal grief and sadness can have a happy and heart-warming outcome. Here is why: The street next to the parking lot of my gym in Venice, CA is a haven for numerous homeless people. While it breaks my heart knowing that our society largely ignores these folks, I am even more disheartened seeing how many loyal canine companions faithfully stand by their side. 

A few days ago walking from my car to the gym a homeless man, Jeff, randomly smiled at me and said hello, while his sweet and adorable German Shepherd, Mandy, playfully wagged her tail. Jeff asked for no money, nor did it seem that he was angry about the circumstances that life gave him. I've probably driven by Jeff and countless other of nameless faces of the homeless a hundred times this year on my way to the gym, but for some reason, Jeff's disarmingly friendly smile and Mandy's warm eyes kept gnawing at me. Yesterday evening, the Holiday Spirit came over me in a way that I never knew possible. I happened to find Jeff and surprised him with a 50 lb bag of Pico's favorite dog food and a handful of favorite doggie treats that I would buy for Pico every Holiday. I gifted them to Jeff for Mandy and all the other homeless dog companions on the street. 

Needless to say it was a very emotional scene for everyone. I told them the grief of recently losing Pico, and they all shared stories about their own dogs. Many of the homeless people there said that what I did for their dogs was the best Holiday gift they ever could have received. It turns out, many of these homeless folks actually will feed their dogs first before even feeding themselves. When I heard that, my tears just flowed. I share this Holiday story letting you know that the loving intimate bond that we have with our animal companions is universal. The greatest Holiday gift this event has given me is knowing that out of every personal loss there is always the potential for compassion and love. I know that somewhere in doggie heaven Pico is wagging his tail and smiling in agreement! Happy Holidays to you all! 

Dr. Jay Kumar

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"Happiness Is What You CHOOSE to Be" (Awake with Dr. Jay Kumar Dec. 13, 2012)

Holidays already got you stressed out? Need to put the "Happy" back in Happy Holidays? If so, you'll def. want to hear the recent podcast by Dr. Jay Kumar on the Doug Stephan Good Day Show, as we share with you helpful "Tips for Staying HAPPY During the Holidays!" Wishing you all a genuinely HAPPY HOLIDAYS! 

 

Dr. Jay Kumar

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Tips for Staying HAPPY during the Holidays

“It’s not HOW much is in your life, but WHO is in your life!”

 HAPPY HOLIDAYS! As you enjoy and celebrate the exuberance and merriment of the Holiday Season, let’s face it the Holidays for many can also bring about the unwanted burden of stress and anxiety. Even the most calm, relaxed, organized, and centered of us can find it challenging to cope with all the family responsibilities, social obligations, and gift expectations of the season. We all could use a little extra help to maintain the Holiday cheer. Below are some helpful suggestions that I’ve shared over the years with my private clients and have taught to my college students as ways to experience greater joy and wellbeing in life. These proven and insightful tips from the growing fields of social neuroscience and positive psychology can help you continue that inner sense of Holiday joy and cheer in brain, body, and being! 

Do you know what the number one Holiday stressor is? According to a study by Mental Health America, the number one stressor during the Holidays is money. It probably comes as no surprise to you that with the emphasis during the Holidays on buying gifts and the pressure to get that perfect present for a loved one, an extra dimension of stress can become compounded onto your already hectic life. During the Holidays 40% of Americans feel the extra financial burden and experience greater psychological and emotional stress. It is during these tough economic times that you might be additionally burdened with lack of means to celebrate the Holidays, as you once were accustomed. For some of you, this could mean cutting back on gifts for the kids, not having the money to visit your relatives, or quite possibly spending the Holidays literally without a home. All of these factors can make us feel unworthy or ashamed for not having enough. In turn, these feelings of unworthiness, guilt, and shame when left unchecked can lead to stress, anxiety, and depression!

The key to alleviating this financial Holiday stressor is to understand that generating happiness for self and others isn’t measured by higher price tags on a present or desiring more material objects. Instead, studies in neuroscience and psychology indicate that genuine, deep, and long-lasting happiness results not from buying more, but from being more!” While we all agree that money has its purpose, more studies reveal that true wealth is not always monetary. In fact, economists who study the economics of happiness and quality of life point that better indicators to determine happiness might actually be psychologically, spiritually, and emotionally measured by the quality of your relationships, the richness of social bonds, and your greater purpose in life.

The reason why this might be the case has to do with recent findings in the brain that happiness actually comes in two distinct forms. This concept, now being backed by neuroscience, states that your brain distinguishes between what I call short-term versus long-term happiness. We now know that different parts of the brain are responsible for short versus long-term memory. In that same manner, recent discoveries into the structure and function of the human brain advance a similar notion between short-term versus long-term happiness.

Let’s put this in context of the traditional Holiday gift giving. Think about the time you received a beautiful piece of jewelry, the latest new tech gadget, or the trendiest popular video game. The moment you receive the new gift, your brain releases an immediate rush of the pleasure neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. You probably are aware, however, that the emotional rush and immediate feeling of euphoria you feel disappears rather quickly. Receiving Holiday gifts and experiencing that temporary and fleeting sense of joy is an aspect of your brain’s short-term happiness mechanism. While I’m not advocating in any way for you not to buy gifts for your family, friends, and loved ones, doing so doesn’t appear to achieve the deeper and more permanent state of long-term happiness.

There is, however, some good news. Amazing new research into mapping happiness in the brain indicates that another important neurotransmitter, oxytocin, is what neuroscientists suggest account for us to experience gratitude, compassion, empathy, trust, nurture, and genuine happiness. These studies suggest that one of the easiest ways to experience the release of oxytocin and to generate long-term happiness is through all aspects of social bonding. Some of the simplest and cost-free ways to generate the brain to release oxytocin is through laughing, singing, hugging, loving, and smiling, which pretty much sums up what the Holidays are all about, don’t you think?

So even if financial constraints don’t allow you to buy the perfect presents for everyone on your Holiday list this year, it turns out that the best and most precious gifts that create long-term happiness don’t cost a dime! Learn more helpful tips on how to stay happy and healthy these Holidays in my article How to Be Happy During the Happy Holidays” or hear my recent podcast on the Doug Stephan Good Day Show on “Keeping the HAPPY in Happy Holidays”

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hannukah, or simply revel in the Holiday Spirit, a phrase to remember is that “happiness is not something that happens to you, but rather it is something you create.” I hope you enjoy integrating these tips for happiness and wellbeing into your Holiday season. 

Dr. Jay Kumar
www.drjaykumar.com
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How Gratitude Heals Your Brain, Body, & Being

With Thanksgiving nearly here and the Holiday season approaching, it's easy to forget the true meaning and purpose of this time of year. For those readers not familiar with Thanksgiving, it originally was a Native American annual feast that honored the bounty of the autumn harvest and celebrated the abundance that nature provides. Eventually the European and Native American traditions merged into what we now know as Thanksgiving. In essence, Thanksgiving is truly much more than an American holiday, as it is a way for anyone to "give thanks" and express gratitude for all that we have in life–our health, abundance, love, family, friends, and, of course, the traditional Thanksgiving feast. In this sense, Thanksgiving can be viewed as a universal celebration that everyone can enjoy and honor regardless of your nationality, spiritual faith, or cultural belief. 

However you ultimately choose to mark and honor Thanksgiving and the upcoming Holidays, I invite you to remember their original significance–that is to give thanks and cultivate an attitude of gratitude for all the abundance in your life. In fact, researchers in neuropsychology, who study the intimate connection between the brain and emotions, state that gratitude is one of the easiest and healthiest ways to experience overall wellbeing in brain, body, and being. In the past few years, neuroscientists have now begun to recognize that gratitude and compassion are among the most powerful and healthiest of human emotions. Studies at Stanford University and other universities successfully demonstrate that embodying compassion and remembering to be grateful for what we have in life can greatly outweigh any sadness, stress, or challenges we might currently experience. 

 

The reason why expressing gratitude has such a strong effect is its ability to connect you to other people. Generally, when you express thanks you acknowledge the actions of others. Being grateful enables you momentarily to expand your thoughts away from your own individual concerns so that you remember the joy and happiness that others provide. You can learn more about the Neuroscience of Health & Happiness here. Basically, when you experience gratitude or express compassion you hit the proverbial “pause button” in your mind. You shift away from your repetitive thoughts, your worries, and anxiety and begin to focus on authentic happiness, joy, and love. From the perspective of neuroscience, the part of your brain that fires when you give thanks is the left prefrontal cortex, a region just above your left eye that brain scans appear to correlate with feelings of love, compassion, and self-worth. In addition to boosting your emotional and psychological health, cultivating an attitude of gratitude has physical benefits. As you experience greater levels of gratitude, studies show that neurotransmitters in the brain release chemicals to stave off stress, depression, and anxiety.

 

One of the easiest ways that I find to generate feelings of gratitude is to make a list of all that you’re grateful for in life. Your list might include your family, spouse, partner, children, pet, or possibly even your health, the beauty of nature, and the very fact of being alive. Make copies of this list and place them by your bed, on your office desk, or on the fridge, or places where they are most visible to you. Every time you look at this list, repeat out loud to yourself one thing on your list that you are grateful for in life. Not only verbalize the statement, but truly feel it! Envision that person, place, or idea in your thoughts and connect to the emotion of gratitude and joy that accompany the memory. Like with your body, neuroscience also states that your brain is also a muscle that can be trained and developed. As you cultivate greater gratitude for what you have in life, you automatically experience a healthy attitude toward life!

 

As you enjoy and commemorate this Thanksgiving always remember all that you have to be grateful. Never forget that the greatest gift is actually your presence in the world. In the beautiful and timely worrds of Melody Beattie: "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

 

Keep on Living Your Light® as you enjoy Thanksgiving in gratitude, abundance, joy, and wellbeing.

 

Dr. Jay Kumar
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Why Your Brain Is Wired for Compassion (Awake with Dr. Jay Kumar on Doug Stephan Good Day Show 11_8_12)

Ever wonder why you feel such sadness when watching a national tragedy on TV or why you feel so happy when seeing someone smile or laugh? The answer is MIRROR NEURONS! These neurons in your brain account for why humans feel empathy and compassion. The most amazing thing is that mirror neurons can also be developed and enhanced in the brain, which means that empathy and compassion are skills that can be acquired. Learn more in the recent podcast with Dr. Jay Kumar on the Doug Stephan Good Day Show

Dr. Jay Kumar
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 docjaykumar

Your Brain, Breath, & Health (Awake w/ Dr. Jay Kumar 9_13_12)

"How you choose to breathe determines how you choose to heal, to be, and live!" Learn what medical research affirmingly shows that shifting something as simple as your breath can transform your brain, heal your body, and create genuine happiness. Learn more in the latest podcast with Dr. Jay Kumar on the Doug Stephan Good Day Show. 

Catch all podcasts on my BLOG

Dr. Jay Kumar
www.drjaykumar.com
Facebook – Dr. Jay Kumar
Twitter - docjaykumar  
 

Your Brain, Breath, & Health (Awake w/ Dr. Jay Kumar 9_13_12)

"How you choose to breathe determines how you choose to heal, to be, and live!" Learn what medical research affirmingly shows that shifting something as simple as your breath can transform your brain, heal your body, and create genuine happiness. Learn more in the latest podcast with Dr. Jay Kumar on the Doug Stephan Good Day Show. 

Catch all podcasts on my BLOG

Dr. Jay Kumar
www.drjaykumar.com
Facebook – Dr. Jay Kumar
Twitter - docjaykumar  
 

AWAKE with Dr. Jay Kumar 3-15-12 Podcast- "Breathe Your Way to Health & Happiness""

The key to authentic health and happiness may actualy be in how you choose to breathe. Enjoy the latest podcast by Dr. Jay Kumar on the Doug Stephan Good Day Show explaining the science, spirituality, and the healing power of the breath!

Remember to BREATHE!

Dr. Jay Kumar

www.drjaykumar.com
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"Finding Value Within" AWAKE with Dr. Jay Kumar podcast 2/16/2012

"Seeking your sense of value from others and from society only leads to pain and suffering. Discovering the value of your own inner truth and genuine power is the source of your authentic and everlasting happiness." Dr. Jay Kumar

On the recent AWAKE with Dr. Jay Kumar on the Doug Stephan Good Day Show we discussed the tragic loss of Whitney Houston and the heavy price we pay when we fail to find the value within each of us. A really great show that will leave you empowered, awakened and aware that the greatest love of all comes from within. In the immortal words of the beautiful and divine Whitney Houston:

I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadow 
If I fail, if I succeed 
At least I live as I believe 
No matter what they take from me 
They can't take away my dignity 
Because the greatest love of all 
Is happening to me 
I found the greatest love of all 
Inside of me 
The greatest love of all 
Is easy to achieve 
Learning to love yourself 
It is the greatest love of all

Always remember how beautiful, joyous and amazing you are. Never be afraid to let your light shine fully and brightly, for the world would be a much dimmer place without you in it!

Dr. Jay Kumar
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Living Your Light® Valentine's Day "Love" Issue

The Living Your Light® Valentine's Day "Love" newsletter by Dr. Jay Kumar is now available online! This issue is dedicated to YOU and the many ways you can express and receive greater love in life. Enjoy a number of great articles and videos exploring both the science and spirituality behind the healing power of love. ENJOY!
Dr. Jay Kumar

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