Day 22: Attention is a Limited Resource

RECONNECT (WEEK 4)

DAY 22: SELF REFLECTION

On Day 22 on your workbook, identify your sources of support and whether you’re using them to their full potential.

WEEK 1

Redesign

WEEK 2

Rebuild

WEEK 3

Reclaim

DAY 22 MICRO-SCIENCE

Causes of Depression

Whenever anyone gets depressed we often tell them “no one but you can turn this thing around.” However true this may be, this statement indirectly portrays depression as the individual’s fault and fails to recognize the multiple ways modern society helps make them sick. Depression is growing at alarming rates. There are many different ways that depression can happen and I wonder if many of them have to do with our society being sick as opposed to the individual. Think of the lack of social support that comes from staring at screens all day instead of each other. Or how easily it is to think that your life doesn’t matter if you’re stuck at a dead end job, feeling that what you do doesn’t matter. So yes, individuals have to take responsibility for their lives but maybe while they are fighting for their self-esteem we could also fight to make our world a better place. Check out the video below that better explains what I’m awkwardly trying to explain.

DAY 22 MEDITATION

Meditation Injections

Busy schedules make most of us believe that we don’t have any time to meditate during the hussle and bussle of the day. Well… good thing evolution helped us out with some quick and easy tricks to calm us down without needing to find the closest open field to cross our legs in and zone out. Our biology often works against us, making us freak out at any sign of danger, but in some ways we can hack into those same programs in order to calm us down. Meditation injections are just small little ways we can convince our brains that the outside world is all good, hence creating a biological domino system that calms us down. For instance, yawning, smiling, and licking our upper lips are all great ways to stop the flow of stress from taking over and moving our bodies into “rest and digest” mode.

FACT: When you smile, even if its fake, your peripheral vision increases by 40%.
TAKEAWAY: When you’re in fight or flight response you get tunnel vision to focus on the threat in front of you. When you smile you feel safer and able to look around you more freely. Therefore, you are able to see other options for as a response.

DAY 22 MEDITATION

For today’s meditation we’re going to practice some lifehacks that could help save your day by activating your parasympathetic nervous system. The trick is to convince your brain that the outside world is safe by giving it some biological signals to indicate safety. So to start out we are gonna get five yawns out of the way to increase your vagal tone (liason between brake and gas in nervous sytem). Next up, lick your upper lip five times to increase salivation in your mouth, indicating to your brain that you’re about to eat and the world around you is ok. Last but not least, smile for thirty seconds convincing your brain that life is all good.

DAY 22 MOVEMENT

High Quality Interactions

Most of us zombie walk through the majority of your daily interactions, treating those around us as “products or roles” and not “people.” We get stuck in transactional aspects of our interactions, swiping our credit card at the grocery store without looking the cashier in the eye or breezing past the receptionist because they can’t offer us anything of value in that moment. We see people only as objects for our gain, instead of people with a story and feelings that should be acknowledged. We also end up having so many low quality interactions towards others because there have been so many low quality interactions towards us in our past. However, every second is a chance to turn it all around.

FACT: Hugging a person for twenty seconds releases a chemical called oxytocin (love chemical) in your system.
TAKEAWAY: So often we give an obligatory hello, hug, or how are you without taking the time to give authentic attention. Only when we mean it does nature truly reward us with the good stuff.

DAY 22 MOVEMENT

For today’s action task see how many high quality interactions you can have today. They could be quick hellos with an authentic smile or conversations of depth with a friend. The task is to be aware of what your interactions feel like today, trying your best to make every interaction the best it can be.

DAY 22