A few weeks ago, I had planned ahead of time to go on a girls night out with my friend Cindy. I had been looking forward to it the whole week. That Friday morning, I started counting down the hours of work left before my weekend started and I we could have fun, and I did a little happy dance before I started working. The day was still packed with one thing after another at work, but I felt less stressed about it than I usually do.
A few days later, I was listening to a LinkedIn Learning audio
course that mentioned that anticipating a good event releases dopamine (one of the happy chemicals our bodies can make) just like experiencing the good event does. (I can't remember which course it was so I could cite it.) That made me remember how happy I was anticipating catching up with my friend, having yummy food, and listening to good music.
I have been worried for quite some time about my chronic stress
and the health effects of all the cortisol constantly pumping through my body.
I've tried to find ways to reduce stress, but most things I've tried don't
seem to help me. After hearing how looking forward to something fun releases
dopamine, I decided that I need to spend more time thinking about even the
little things I have planned.
Since then, I’ve been getting happier about a warm day coming up,
getting to go on a lunch walk, going out to a new restaurant with all three of my children, and a lecture I was attending. I’m
spending a little bit of time envisioning me in that situation and what I like
about it. I’ve felt like it has helped me be happier overall and even to enjoy
the events more than I might have if I hadn’t deliberately been thinking about
good things to look forward to. It hasn’t taken away my stressful situations,
and it wasn’t something huge and magical, but I’ll take it.
From now on, I’m gonna choose to exaggerate the good and
Hype
It
Up!
Here are two of the articles related to this that I’ve read in
case you’d like to read them:
Dopamine:
More Than Pleasure, The Secret is the Anticipation of a Reward (This one also talks about how music can help our
brain produce more dopamine, which is interesting to read about too.)
