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Mindfulness Newsletter - January 2023
Mindfulness Newsletter - January 2023
Mindfulness Newsletter
we're so glad you're here!
It’s the same story every new year, if you are a student you probably distilled your hopes and dreams for
self-improvement into a gleaming set of new year resolutions. These goals range from simple ambitions
to unrealistic pursuits of perfection. However, if you have experienced this phenomenon you probably
know that eventually after a short period of time you would sweep those resolutions under the rug and
forget all about them until the next year. Nevertheless, despite our best intentions, why is it so difficult to
stick to resolutions?
2) Overlooking the importance of planning: Failing to plan is planning to fail. Plan the action steps
around the resolution, break them down into smaller pieces, and schedule them on the calendar.
Weekly or daily objectives and plans that are bite-sized create a sense of accomplishment rather
than spending the entire year saying “Oh, I will start tomorrow or next week, or next month."
Planning ensures that all necessary adjustments are sketched out ahead of time, along with an
understanding of potential challenges. This boosts your chances of success.
Remember to consider resolutions as a marathon, not a sprint: People most often uphold an “all-
or-nothing” mentality, which new year resolutions tend to encourage and that success is
measured as either a complete win or a complete failure. The problem with this is that it doesn't
accommodate for even the slightest slip-ups, which makes it easy to get discouraged and give up
entirely.
HOW TO MAKE RESOLUTIONS THAT WORK
In order to create resolutions that work, an individual must avoid making the mistakes
mentioned above. In addition, a person must make meaningful, value-driven resolutions,
sticking to a resolution is far easier when it aligns with your priorities. While you might have a
long list of potential New Year's resolutions, it's easier to focus on one goal at a time, achieving
even one small goal can boost your belief in yourself. For larger goals, consider breaking them
down into manageable chunks to work on one at a time. Taking on too much all at once can
be daunting. It can be particularly difficult because establishing new behavioral patterns
takes time and sustained effort. Focusing on one specific goal makes keeping a resolution
much more achievable. This is also why it’s easier to start with small steps, taking on too much
too quickly is a common reason why so many New Year's resolutions fail. The most important
part is to remember that change is a process, it's important to be patient with yourself.
Understand that working toward your resolution is a process. Even if you make a misstep or two,
you can restart and continue on your journey towards your goal.
Have you ever noticed that you don’t have a hard time spending hours doing something that you
enjoy? Whether it was browsing social media, playing video games, watching television…I have no
doubt that you could do these activities for hours without breaking your concentration, but what
about doing more productive activities such as studying, working out, cleaning…you probably found
difficulty concentrating while doing these tasks or finding the motivation to do them. Let’s face it,
nobody enjoys doing boring activities. There is a reason you despise studying a particular subject in
school, sit through a 'boring' session or meeting at work or for that matter follow a healthy activity,
such as exercising or dieting. So why is it difficult to do boring activities? It turns out that it greatly
depends on something called dopamine.
Dopamine is a chemical messenger produced in the brain that helps nerve cells to send messages
to each other. It is responsible and essential for the experience of pleasure, reward, and motivation.
When you feel good that you have achieved something, you have a surge of dopamine in the brain.
When you come to associate a certain activity with pleasure, mere anticipation may be enough
to raise dopamine levels, and it's that desire and anticipation that gives us the motivation to get
up and do it. This is why you could spend hours browsing social media, playing video games,
watching television…without breaking your concentration, because these activities are stimulating
and release large amounts of dopamine so you come to anticipate doing them. While it is hard to
find the motivation to do boring or tasking activities because they release little amounts of
dopamine. In today’s digital society, everything is made to give you a boost of dopamine, but
because of that your brain gets used to having high levels of dopamine and those levels become
your new normal, essentially making it harder for you to feel the effects of small releases of
dopamine making you seek activities that release high level of dopamine. This makes you less
motivated to do boring activities.
So Is there a way to trick yourself into making a boring activity 'fun'?
The answer to this question is dopamine detox or dopamine fasting. It is essentially a way to trick
dopamine levels in your body, this happens when you stop flooding your brain with high amounts
of dopamine and letting your dopamine receptors recover. Set aside a day where you're going to
avoid all the highly stimulating activities, the most common being emotional eating, excessive
internet usage or gaming, socializing, thrill seeking, listening to music…or anything that you enjoy
doing. Essentially, embrace boredom. You can however to go for a walk, meditate, and be alone
with your thoughts, reflect on your life. Now how will this work? Dopamine detox starves you of all
the pleasure you usually get from the unproductive tasks and in turn makes those less satisfying
activities more desirable, in other words you become so bored that boring stuff becomes more fun.
Give it a try!