How to Break the Code of Positive Energy to Handle Stress

I've learned in my own experience that one of the keys to establishing resilience and stress management is to break the code of positive energy - learning how to hack our built-in "feel good and strong" neurochemicals that our brain releases into our body system.

Here's a list I came across of those chemicals and some simple activities you can engage in to experience their release throughout your brain and body.

Keep this list handy. Resilience and managing stress don't appear magically. We need to be intentional about accessing them via strategic stops in our busy lives. 😀

For example, one of my energy boosts is completing a task on my To Do list - when I check that "baby" off as Done I get a shot of dopamine feel good energy. And even if, upon review of my list, I realize that I completed something that wasn't on my list, I add it and then check it off. It always shoots me some dopamine. Love it!

For another example, I had a reader write me about this list, asking the question, “Where does playing a musical instrument fit into these four categories?” Great question!

If I’m practicing my piano I’m getting dopamine (being rewarded for my practice) or endorphin (the pain killer boost). If I’m playing for my mood I’m getting seratonin (the mood stabilizer). If I’m singing to my wife I’m getting oxytocin (the love hormone) and giving her an oxy boost too! Who knew music could be an all-encompassing chemical shot in the arm.

Have you noticed how any of these activities listed in the four categories have made you feel? Experiment to see what happens to your positive energy? What kind of a boost do you get? How does that activity make you feel? Are there other activities not on this list that might even combine all four neurochemicals as a boost to you?

Have fun with this chart! Remember, resilience and stress management, as well as happiness, don’t happen magically. You have the opportunity to be intentional about accessing those built-in boosts. So take some strategic stops away from the nonstop busyness and stresses of your life to give yourself a shot of “feel good” energy. You deserve a break today!

How To Stay Centered and Grounded in a Time of Upheaval, Stress and Anxiety

We are living in such high emotion and intense feeling times! I read today that crises go through three stages: emergency phase, regression phase, and recovery phase. Specific emotions are involved with each phase; and we all tend to go through the phases sometimes at different times. No wonder it's so challenging to navigate our relationships not just with the people we know but with people we meet along the way, whether on Facebook and social media or beyond. Tempers rise, anger increases, anxiety and uncertainty increase our stress, and we can invariably lash out - we're feeling caged in, sometimes attacked by others, feeling misunderstood by some, violated or judged or diminished. Our feelings these days are intensified! We're all experiencing this.

We have to make use of the tools at our disposal in order to manage our stress, anxiety, and big feelings! If we don't manage, we will be managed. Just look around our society these days and see the glaring results. 

I've been thinking a lot the last few months about what practices and tools we can access to help us manage our feelings proactively and effectively. I put together a playlist in my youtube channel of 5 simple practices we can leverage - breathing, body movement, gratitude, meditation, and taking one day at a time. I'm getting good response from people about these short videos. These are really useful, scientifically-proven ways to manage our stress and anxiety. I'd love to have you access them and let me know what you think and feel with them. Hope you enjoy it!

And let's all be as intentional as we can to lower the emotional temperature all round us, including inside of us. We can do it. And we can encourage each other toward that place of groundedness in more peace and calm.