Hi!
Wherever you live, it’s June. And for most of the world, that means a bit of change. In schedule, in weather, in daylight hours, in expectations. What are all of those changes making you feel? Excitement? Optimism? Overwhelm? FOMO? Pressure? Discomfort?
As we’ve talked about here a lot, change causes our brains to release stress chemicals. The amygdala (one of our emotion centers) fires up and tries to get us to focus on fear or distrust or frustration as it strives to protect us from any possible threats.
How do you hush up your amygdala? With choice.
Your amygdala, like most fussy toddlers, rarely gets entirely quiet. But it can turn down the intensity and let other parts of your brain work better – like reason, thoughtfulness, creativity. All you have to do is ask yourself one question:
“What choices do I have?”
The summer – with its differences – is an opportunity for something. YOU get to decide for what. If an answer comes quickly to mind, hit reply and let me know what it is. If you’re at a loss, try answering these:
- What is a goal you have that is really important to you?
- What’s one thing you could do this summer (because of the different schedule, people, weather, whatever) that would move you towards that goal?
- When would you do it?
Now go put that in your calendar, and tell one person in your life about it.
For me, I’d like to feel really connected to each of my boys before the end of the summer, when all but one of them scatter to new adventures. That’s really important to me. So I’m going to plan one or two times with each of them to spend some time alone doing something they really enjoy. I’m going to put those on my calendar by the end of this week. Somebody ask me if I really did it, ok?
Your turn – Comment and tell me what you’d like to do, and when. Because summer offers us some opportunity.
All my best,
Dr. G
