The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly." Buddha. Enjoy the latest podcast by Dr. Jay Kumar on the Doug Stephan Good Day Show sharing inightful tools from brain research for how to turn your worries into NO WORRIES!
Dr. Jay Kumar
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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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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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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
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Happy Holidays to All!
Dr. Jay Kumar
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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
www.drjaykumar.com
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As we celebrate the long Thanksgiving weekend and the beginning of the Holiday season, it's easy to forget the true meaning and purpose of this time of year. Even though Thanksgiving is a North American holiday, its significance is universal regardless of your nationality, spiritual faith, or cultural believes.
For those not familiar with the holiday, Thanksgiving is an annual feast that honors the bounty of the autumn harvest and celebrates the abundance that nature provides. For millennia, both the European and Native American cultures marked the harvest time by giving thanks to the plentitude and nourishment that the earth gives for our livelihood. Eventually the European and Native American traditions merged into what we now know as Thanksgiving. In essence, Thanksgiving is truly much more than a North American holiday, as it is a way for all of us to "give thanks" and to express gratitude for all that we have in life–health, abundance, love, family, friends, and, of course, the traditional Thanksgiving feast.
In our modern culture, Thanksgiving sadly also has become synonymous with shopping and consumerism. Contrary to what we hear and see on TV, billboards, and internet, the essence of the Thanksgiving holiday is not about getting the best deals on Black Friday or to be swept up in the shopping frenzy of the Holidays. Rather, it is a time to pause and reflect on all that truly is of value in life. As I like to say the key to happiness and true joy is, "Not Buy More, Be More!”
However you ultimately choose to mark and honor this Thanksgiving weekend 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 our life. In fact, new studies of the brain from neuropsychology state that gratitude is one of the easiest and healthiest ways to experience overall wellbeing in body, mind, and spirit. In the past few years, scientists now recognize that gratitude is one of the most powerful and healthiest of human emotions. Studies at University of Miami, UC Davis, and other universities successfully demonstrate that 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 us to other people. Generally, when we express thanks we acknowledge the actions of others. Being grateful enables us to expand our thoughts away from our own individual concerns so that we remember the joy and happiness that others provide. You can learn more about the Neuroscience of Health & Happiness here.
Basically, when we experience gratitude we hit the proverbial “pause button” in our mind. We shift away from our repetitive thoughts, our worries, and anxiety and begin to focus on happiness, joy, and love. From the perspective of neuroscience, the part of our brain that fires when we give thanks is the left pre-frontal cortex, the same area responsible for feeling love and compassion. In addition to boosting your emotional and psychological health, cultivating an attitude of gratitude has physical benefits. As we experience greater levels of gratitude, 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 that 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 our body, neuroscience also states that our mind is also a muscle that can be trained and developed. As we cultivate greater gratitude for what we have in life, we automatically experience a healthy attitude toward life! Read full article on the neuroscience and psychology of gratitude here.
As you enjoy and commemorate this Thanksgiving weekend always remember all that you're grateful for in life. Never forget that the greatest gift is actually your presence in the world. According to the eloquent words 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 this Thanksgiving weekend in gratitude, abundance, joy, and wellbeing.
Dr. Jay Kumar
www.drjaykumar.com
Facebook – Dr. Jay Kumar
Twitter – docjaykumar