EXCELLING FROM WITHIN
EXCELLING FROM WITHIN
Each Tuesday I will deliver things that are relevant to wellness.
1. Brain Wellness – Mel Robbins recently interviewed Dr. Amen on her podcast. So many great takeaways in this issue on “Optimizing Your Brain”. Take a listen and then take advantage of the offer from Dr. Amen to make use of his free Brain Health Assessment. Here are a few new takeaways for me. One habit to protect your brain, is to consistently ask yourself “Is this good for my brain”. No, the fourth cup of coffee or glass of wine is not good for my brain, LOL. He also talked about the two most important vitamins and the importance of a good quality multivitamin. But my favourite part of the episode is his description of his evening Healthy Hot Chocolate that is made with cacao nibs. Check out his tik-tok. I use cacao nibs as part of my snack bags that include sour cherries, dried California apricots and dried cranberries.
2. Glimmers – I have seen quite a few posts recently from a variety of people about glimmers. This article from www.verywellmind.com says:
“The concept of glimmers is part of Polyvagal theory. Coined by behavioral neuroscientist Stephen Porges and introduced in 1995,1 the theory describes how our autonomic nervous system (which controls involuntary actions like breathing) is searching for and reading cues to determine if they are dangerous.”
The process is called neuroception. Neuroception plays a crucial role in regulating our physiological and emotional responses. The autonomic nervous system has two branches: the sympathetic nervous system, often referred to as the “fight or flight” response, and the parasympathetic nervous system, which governs the “rest and digest” response. Depending on the neuroception of safety or threat, these branches can activate and influence our heart rate, respiration, digestion, and emotional states.
Porges introduced the concept of neuroception to highlight that our nervous system is constantly assessing the environment for cues of safety or danger, and these assessments can occur without our conscious awareness. It’s particularly relevant in understanding how trauma, stress, and certain mental health conditions can dysregulate this process, leading to heightened states of arousal or shutdown responses. This is where the research came from that explains how gut reactions are actually scientifically explained.
Recently Dr Nicole LePera (the.holistic.psychologist) posted on Instagram about Glimmers. In her post she gave some tips on how to train yourself to have glimmers. A few from her post and the VeryWell Mind article that resonate with me are:
I challenge you to train yourself to look for your glimmers, it will lower your blood pressure, heart rate and most importantly it will lower your cortisol levels.
What are your favourite glimmers?