stress
4 Natural Boosters of Serotonin, our Emotional Fluid
Can you imagine your life without emotional peaks and valleys? Sounds impossible, right? What’s possible is to increase your emotional control through enduring changes in lifestyle.
When you wake up relaxed and energized from a good night’s sleep, ready to take on the day – that’s serotonin kicking in.
When you feel depressed, overwhelmed by your daily responsibilities and challenges, you may have a deficit of serotonin.
What is serotonin?
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that carries messages between neurons. It plays an important role in regulating your mood, controlling your appetite, helping your blood clot, helping you concentrate, regulating your body temperature, and ensuring a good night’s sleep. As a result, when we have normal levels of serotonin, we feel emotionally balanced and alert.
On the other hand, if we have low levels of serotonin, we may have trouble remembering things, feel depressed, crave sweet or starchy foods, feel anxious or irritable, have trouble sleeping or have feelings of low self-worth.
What is the link between serotonin and depression?
Researchers have linked low levels of serotonin in the brain with depression. Back in the 1960s, researchers hypothesized that low levels of serotonin in the brain led to depression. However, this hypothesis has now been debunked.
Instead, it appears that several other factors are also involved in depression. These include:
- Having a family history of depression
- Having a hectic lifestyle and having a high level of stress in your life
- Your relationships at home and in the workplace
Nevertheless, if you have low levels of serotonin, you may be at increased risk of depression. This is where SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) may be helpful. SSRIs are medications which increase the uptake of serotonin in your brain.
Too much of a good thing is bad for us though. Serotonin syndrome is a potentially life-threatening condition that can occur if you take too much of an SSRI or if you take many SSRIs at the same time.
If you are looking to recharge your batteries, and need a little extra boost, here are 4 simple ways to naturally boost your serotonin levels:
Bask in bright light
When you go outside for a stretch or even just to gaze at nature, you may have noticed that you tend to come back recharged and better able to concentrate. This is because our brains produce more serotonin when we spend time in bright sunlight.
Is it cloudy outside? Still head outdoors! Even on a cloudy day, the light intensity is still typically brighter than your typical indoor lighting. Alternatively, invest in a high-intensity luxe lamp that simulates bright sunlight.
Eat a healthy diet
Adding more fruits, vegetables and legumes can contribute to a healthy gut. But did you know that having a healthy gut can also boost your serotonin levels?
More than 90% of our serotonin is produced in our digestive tract. Thus, by eating fiber-rich foods which promote gut health such as fruits, vegetables, and legumes we are naturally boosting our serotonin levels.
Foods that are high in tryptophan can also boost your serotonin levels. This is because tryptophan is converted to serotonin in your brain. What foods tend to be high in tryptophan? Protein containing foods such as nuts, lentils, tofu, chicken, fish and eggs.
However, boosting your serotonin levels is not as simple as incorporating protein-rich foods. This is because tryptophan has to compete with other amino acids, in particular the branched chain amino acids for access to our blood-brain barrier, before it can be converted to serotonin in our brain.
How can one overcome this obstacle? Eat more plant-based proteins such as seeds and nuts. Plant-based proteins contain less branched chain amino acids, hence they are better absorbed through the blood brain barrier.
Engage in regular exercise
It can be hard to get into exercise mode, particularly if you are down in the dumps. Everything seems like a struggle, particularly working up the motivation to break a sweat. When we exercise, both aerobic and strength, the activity of serotonin in the brain is revved up and the levels of tryptophan in our brain rise.
If fitting exercise into your daily routine seems too difficult, begin with baby steps. Commit to just 5 minutes of a vibrant walk a day for one week. Then the next week, increase it to 10 minutes. Before you know it, you will have built up to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a day, and reap not only increased serotonin levels but numerous health benefits as well.
Be mindful of your thoughts
Just like the saying goes “You are what you eat”, you also become what you think! In a study conducted on healthy participants, those who were told to recall happy memories showed increased serotonin production in their brains. On the other hand, those who were told to recall sad memories showed decreased serotonin production in their brains.
It can be very tempting to ruminate on sad events when we are suffering from depression. But by finding happy things to focus on, we may be able to achieve a happier state of mind.
To think happy thoughts, begin a gratitude journal, practice mindfulness, focus on your strengths rather than your perceived weaknesses, and reminisce about the good times in your life.
Life has its ups and downs. By naturally boosting your serotonin levels, you will be able to experience more “highs” than “lows”. Start right now on the path to feeling happier, more alert, and refreshed every day.
Stress-free Leaders Do 5 Things Every Day
Have you ever seen yourself as a leader, the boss of your life? Wouldn’t be great to coast stress-free through your personal, family and work responsibilities and goals?
Those who lead successfully their life and businesses rarely display stress despite everyday challenges and overwhelming agendas.
To become a truly effective leader with the right mindset, learn and practice how to control your time, actions and spaces.
Focus on one thing at a time
How can you efficiently concentrate on something when your phone is vibrating, and your e-mails are stockpiling?
The key is time blocking. To time block, you section your day into segments of activities. For instance, just between 8-9 am and 4-5 pm you might answer e-mails (then leave them untouched for the rest of the day).
This simple approach will substantially increase your available time for focused work without continually shifting gears, keeping you and your goals on track. Tomorrow will come, and the remaining messages will be answered.
Some benefits of time blocking include:
- Increased focus on tasks
- Balanced workload
- Task prioritization
- Bolstered sense of accomplishment
Work at your peak energy hours
Many people nowadays are able to have flexible work hours. If freedom of time is your case, it’s worth noting whether you are more productive in the morning, afternoon or evening.
Some people thrive when they dig in first thing upon rising. However, some may prefer to enjoy a workout, relaxed coffee, and breakfast with their family before answering calls and handle requests.
Be mindful of your life’s overall values and when you accomplish at your best.
Create and maintain boundaries
When you head home at the end of a long workday, it can be all too easy to stay in overdrive. Instead of indulging in a movie with your kids and being in the moment, you might be tempted to start worrying and acting on your to-do list.
See yourself as a leader who needs to get things done but with the ability to define when, where and with whom to accomplish them. Create boundaries for yourself and others, not just for focused work but also for well-deserved downtime. Often, if someone knows that you are not available after a specific time of day, respect for your boundaries will be formed.
When the space and time of everyone are acknowledged, teamwork and creativity improve. Some problems require solo work, while other tasks can only be achieved through cooperation and convergence of the minds. Let’s be surprised when closing and opening these gates of creativity.
Avoid wasting time
We want to please others, to help others, to work in teams, but we waste precious time without a well-defined purpose when meeting with someone to accomplish a task.
Have you ever sat through a meeting while you know that you would be more productive if you could get back to your desk?
Meetings are the prime example of a time-wasting activity. Meetings are helpful when there is a powerfully clear agenda with an eagle-eye focus on targets. But in reality, meetings can often pull people off track with conflicting agendas, either behind the scenes or in the open.
If you do have a meeting, do your best to keep it short and sweet. In essence, you want to get in, express crucial points, get feedback and decide next steps.
Say ‘no’ often
“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” Warren Buffet
See yourself as a leader, a natural born achiever. But control your desire to be everywhere and everything to everyone because it will not help you attain quality leadership.
Remember, it’s okay to opt out. American hedge fund manager, James Altucher, gave this golden piece of advice, “If something is not a ‘Hell Yeah!’ then it’s a no.”
Give yourself permission to prioritize and stick to only that which will serve you best. Keep in mind, you can only give and be productive if your energy is not depleted.
Only if you are in control of your life you will be able to avoid unnecessary stress. A highly effective leader values time, defines boundaries and acts when the iron’s hot. Keep your mind sharp and focused but find time to go home and discover the smoothness and refreshing feeling of a cool iron.
Integrating, instead of balancing, your work and life
You hear it all the time – to be happier and more productive you should balance your work and life. But in practical terms, what does this mean?
Take a moment to picture an average day in your work and personal life. Let’s imagine you are a parent who works from 9-5 and still manages to find time for healthy meals and downtime with your children. Work and life seem to be clearly separated by the time allocated to each activity. Right?
Wrong. Interconnectivity and the way our brains are wired make this separation impossible. This parent cannot simply forget the kids from 9-5 or ignore work responsibilities after 5.
For many, a thriving career serves as a powerful motivating force that provides life’s meaning through goals and satisfaction. For others, work provides the means to pursue personal goals.
There is a middle ground. Rather than striving to separate work and life, an effort that can lead to anxiety and stress, why not weaving them together? Follow these 3 rules for a seamless work-life integration.
Reconsider your occupation
It’s a given that no matter what’s your profession, there will be always be pros and cons for your chosen career, ups and downs in your workplace.
Wouldn’t be amazing if most people could enjoy the profession they chose and their current workplace? Moreover, wouldn’t it be nice to feel a natural inclination or urge to complete the tasks at hand – instead of dreading every assignment.
Start by taking a look at your profession and career path to see if it feeds and nourishes your passion for excelling and expanding. Let’s imagine you work in a publishing house as a staff writer, if you love your work you may be naturally inclined to wake up and write.
On the other hand, you may hate sitting in front of a white screen ready to write a new piece. This doesn’t mean you need to start thinking about a career change, just take some time to evaluate what your honest heart’s desires and potentially refocus towards a new path.
With renewed motivation, you can certainly begin writing and publishing daily. Small steps everyday go a long way when changing the course of your career’s direction.
When you are satisfied with what you do, it’s a joyful process to incorporate work into your life with ease.
Realize that it’s okay to love what you do
At times, we feel an urge to work in an exciting project in our personal time, even sacrificing a well-deserved weekend or vacation time. We need breaks, but we also need to feed our desires to excel and achieve. Sometimes you will feel a strong momentum and sense a powerful life force that requires our full attention and effort. Go for it!
There are also times when our personal life should be a priority. For instance when a family member needs support or we need to take care of our health.
Integration means not feeling guilty when answering emails late at night and tying up loose ends from work after spending a time with your family or unwinding. These few minutes will make your next day more streamlined and efficient. It’s okay to work your job into your home life and to consider personal matters while at work.
Modulate your energy
It takes a lot of effort and stress trying to draw a distinct line in the sand between work and life. The two mingle together often, so rather than creating unrealistic expectations, why not finding ways to recharge your energy throughout your day?
Every single one of us has energy spikes, dips, and times when we coast. It’s entirely fine to feel down and without motivation. It will pass.
Being aware of our energetic mood helps us to realize where we are at emotionally, physically and mentally.
In an article from McKinsey & Co, Gila Vadnai-Tolub explains that we have different energy modes: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Each type of energy offers us a unique form of fulfillment, but we can’t expect to be highly functioning for all of them every moment.
It’s okay to realize that during work, you might need a moment to watch a fun YouTube video so your brain relaxes. And at home, your may want to spend time thinking on a new project from work.
Being aware of what we need in each moment to achieve emotional and energetic satisfaction helps us to meld both work and life together.
Vadnai-Tolub suggest 3 approaches to leverage our energy levels:
- Allow yourself the time and space to not always be in high energy mode. It’s okay and desirable to find time to slow down and relax. Be lazy some times!
- Choose to see the good. Remain attentive toward what is going right in your life and work. We all have room for improvement. Take it with a grain of salt, improve when you can, and keep moving toward goals with optimism.
- Boost your energy. If you work at a desk all day, maybe you can go outside during lunch hour and appreciate the fresh air, even dedicating some time to thinking or resolving personal matters. Also, you can find moments of inspiration by letting your mind wander towards what you appreciate and love in life.
Life doesn’t have to be cut and dry. Our modern lives call for modern solutions. This may mean that it’s time to stop trying to draw lines and create compartments in our lives. Let’s discover what we love to do… and do it!
Interview at the LA Times Book Festival – April 2019
4 Infallible Ways to Handle Anxiety at Work
Have you ever spent a day feeling completely scared at work, but you’re not sure why?
We all experience anxiety at work from time to time, but a heightened sense of fear that occurs daily and on an ongoing basis can have a highly uncomfortable impact in the workplace.
Linda Geddes, explains in New Scientist Magazine two different cases of anxiety:
The first case is about a man who withdrew from answering phone calls at work. He feared that his words would be incoherent, and he might mess up his sentences. This type of anxiety is driven by true insecurity and lack of practice speaking on the phone.
In the second case, a woman had such intense fear that she felt agitated and lightheaded every morning right after waking up. Her anxiety had her thoughts swinging in a pendulum between two choices: What accidents could happen while traveling to work? And, what horrible unplanned consequences might happen if she stayed at home? There is no rationale for these beliefs, there is an underlying anxiety that may require a therapeutic intervention.
Sound familiar? While you may not experience anxiety to the degree described in these examples, anxiety isn’t fun and can massively impact your work life.
Is anxiety always bad?
Believe it or not, anxiety does serve a purpose. In reasonable amounts, feeling the sensation of anxiety can alert you to danger and will keep you vigilant and aware, more productive at work.
But if you find that feeling anxiety influences and interferes with your day-to-day life, then you may be experiencing too much anxiety and should seek the help of a trusted medical professional, explains Nick Grey, Clinical Psychologist at King’s College in London.
What causes anxiety?
Maladaptive Beliefs. According to Grey, maladaptive beliefs can cause anxiety. They are beliefs that work against you and are not accurate representations of how a situation will pan out. For instance, let’s say you take a ride on a roller coaster; you may fear that your heart’s increased rate will cause a heart attack.
While a heart attack is a possibility for someone with a heart condition, for most, believing that you will have a heart attack is a maladaptive belief that hinders your ability to appreciate the moment.
Chronic Worrying. Maladaptive beliefs can spiral into chronic worrying about various events or activities for about six months, explains Grey. Two chronic worry examples caused by maladaptive beliefs might look something like:
- Feeling you are responsible for everyone around you, all your colleagues.
- Feeling that your responsibilities at work matter more than your health and emotional wellbeing.
With all of this in mind, what causes the symptoms of anxiety?
When severe unease takes over, you can feel as though there is no way out. And this debilitating fear is linked to the amygdala, an anatomical part of our brain.
Our amygdala has two main roles:
- Processes emotions
- Triggers the release of hormones and neurotransmitters responsible for our fight-flight-or-freeze responses
Imagine you are in a meeting and your boss opens the door and asks you to step out. Most people will feel some response in this situation. You could feel intrigued waiting for unforeseen news, or the sight of your boss could trigger a powerful fear.
You might be tempted to leave the meeting and confront your boss (fight). Or stay seated and tell your boss to wait until the meeting is over (freeze).
In either case, your body is receiving stimuli and signals from a place of stress.
Studies suggest that those with post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, store fearful memories within the amygdala and can bring an exaggerated response to stimuli.
However, for a person who functions in an usual fashion, when fear arises, he or she can temper a learned response with new memories, explains Geddes.
How can you tackle anxiety?
Exercise. It turns out that going for a walk, biking, doing yoga, or any other physical activity that you enjoy can be extremely helpful in battling anxiety.
Have you ever felt emotionally ‘off’ and gone for a long walk through your favorite park? You are sure to experience the calming effects from being in nature, breathing more deeply, and a general lift in mood.
When you exercise, the experience releases mood-boosting endorphins that help you feel happier. Concentrating on a physical activity removes your focus from fear and allows your mind to zero in on the task at hand.
Remember, you don’t need to start a new or expensive sport. Yes, surfing or joining a posh gym can help, but start with something that feels approachable and affordable.
Diet. A study led by Phil Burnet (at the University of Oxford) found that increasing fiber intake encouraged the growth of beneficial gut bacteria which helped people pay increased attention to positive messages on computers (and less to negative ones).
When the volunteers of the study woke in the morning, they had lower levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) in their blood.
The study showed that the volunteers experienced seemingly small, but significant effects on the underlying psychological conditions that contributed to anxiety, notes Burnet.
Between full-time jobs, maintaining various relationships, and balancing health, modern life has us busier than ever.
Therapies. Certain medications given to a person with severe anxiety (and under the care of a professional) can reduce the perceived threats in a person’s experiences.
Benzodiazepines, for example, includes medications such as Valium. These treatments can filter out unthreatening stimuli. However, it’s worth noting that benzodiazepines can be highly addictive and should be given and observed under the care of a doctor.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy tends to be the golden go-to standard in anxiety treatment because its focus is to address the hindrance caused by maladaptive beliefs.
Once someone’s maladaptive beliefs are determined, CBT seeks to challenge them so that fears can be overcome.
Self reflection. Spending a few minutes each day reviewing the triggers of your anxiety and focusing on the present moment through mindfulness or mindful framing, will serve several purposes:
- Develop a framework to assess unexpected experiences and thoughts
- Develop natural routines and habits that will impact your mental wellbeing
- Develop emotional intelligence and empathy towards yourself and others
- Develop a comprehensive approach towards physical wellbeing
If you suffer from anxiety, be brave and tackle your anxiety head on, seek help inside and outside. Your mind has the key to a top-notch hospital and fully stocked pharmacy with safe and efficacious solutions. Anxiety can be transformed into vital energy.
