In this podcast, Happy Brain Trainers Kay Cooke and Tracey Hutchinson discuss the integration of Happy Brain techniques with equestrian coaching. Tracey, a British Horse Society coach, explains how Happy Brain principles enhance rider-horse relationships by focusing on mutual understanding and connection. They highlight the shift towards a more compassionate and horse-centred approach in equestrian training, driven by social media and public scrutiny. Tracey emphasises the importance of self-awareness, body awareness, and emotional regulation for both riders and horses. They also touch on the Foundations for Excellence in Equestrian Coaching (FEEC) program, which enhances the skills for simplicity, fun, and behavioural flexibility in coaching.
A busy and fruitful month of May has passed, and I am excited to share with you some key reflections that may resonate with and inspire your personal wellbeing journey.
**Like Attracts Like**
In mid-May, I had the pleasure of assisting in a Neuro Hypnotic Repatterning program in Italy with Dr. Richard Bandler. This program delves into immersing the mind-body in positive chemistry, unlocking the brain’s creative solutions centre. This experience of being part of a super high-calibre team, highlights the importance of surrounding oneself with excellence and raising personal standards of responsibility.
*Reflection:*How can you seek out and integrate systems of excellence in your daily life?
**Feedback to Feedforward**
Throughout May, I delved into personal metrics to assess my growth, including staying grounded in chaotic environments, embodying calm and confident states, and maintaining centeredness. Taking responsibility for the feedback loop of my mind-body connections has significantly improved my life.
*Reflection:* What personal metrics are you using to enhance your well-being and growth?
**Calibrating**
Whilst engaged in seminars in Italy and London during May, many discussions centred around techniques for family stability. We believe and teach that true flourishing requires the understanding of family dynamics, rather than simply managing symptoms. As a result, I’m excitedly making plans to reintroduce live workshops that support families in navigating their unique systems.
*Reflection:* How can you deepen your understanding of your family system to foster growth and stability?
**Collaborating**
The theme of collaboration resonated strongly among my peers in May, emphasising the value of authentic partnerships driven by shared values and skills. In times of rising consciousness, genuine connections and alliances are most definitely key to fostering growth and success. That means less shallow partnerships for economic or glamour gains.
*Reflection:*Since none of us are as smart as all of us, how do you align with others on or above your wavelength, to incubate and propagate mutual growth and success?
May has been a month of growth, reflection, and connection. Perhaps my insights have tickled yours? If so, please share what you apply to your personal journey for enhancing well-being and happiness. Kx
This month’s focus is more on the neurotransmitter Serotonin, with an anecdote is about a 12-year-old client who set up his own empirical study of the effects of boosting serotonin.
Having taught Balloon Breathing to 12-year-old Jake, he still wasn’t convinced that he could reproduce the ‘in the moment relaxation’ I had induced in him.
You see his daily stress around homework and revision was grinding him down and generalising in other areas of life.
So, we made a plan for him to set up his own trial of the effects of both ‘preparing’ and ‘not preparing’ his body and mind for the tasks of homework and revision.
He was blown away with the results of Balloon Breathing and Body Balance (two techniques from our Calm Confidence Kit). Not only did he feel more relaxed while on task, but his grades improved AND he chose to practice these techniques during school tests. What impressed me most was his use of an Excel sheet to plot his own evidence!
Because that’s the secret to happy living – setting up your own bio-feedback system for self-improvement success. After that, it doesn’t take long for the mind to start trusting the positive direction of thrive sensations.
Jake boosted his serotonin levels. And to me that’s literally Sunshine Thinking because he learned to make a better decision about ways to brighten his days!
You probably know that serotonin is often referred to as the happiness molecule and is a neurotransmitter that can be boosted by relaxation, exercise, diaphragm breathing, and many other things, including diet. Did you know that 90% of your body’s serotonin is created and stored in your gut, reinforcing the importance of good gut health!
Here’s a short exercise that helps your neuro-bio-physiology relax. Do your own calibration and feel the effects of doing this and remember that it is easily teachable to young ones (e.g. preparing their brains for doing homework or tests).
Hold up your non-dominant hand (NDH) palm facing you.
Point to it with the other hand.
Place your pointing finger on the base of your NDH wrist.
Slowly trace up and down each of your fingers, noticing the sensations of skin on skin, in both directions.
Swap hands and calibrate any difference.
Tune into the physical sensations that your nervous system is providing you with.
Continue very slowly until you feel more relaxed.
To deepen the practice, you can bring awareness to your breath and keep doing the finger slide while coordinating a slow in-breath as you ascend each finger and a long out-breath with each descent. Hopefully you have now mindfully engaged your Parasympathetic Nervous System!
Note: this exercise activates both right and left brain hemispheres, boosts THRIVE neuro-chemicals like serotonin and oxytocin, and helps bring brain waves into Alpha wave coherence.
“We need 4 hugs a day for survival, 8 hugs a day for maintenance, and 12 hugs a day for growth” Virginia Satir
World-renowned family therapist.
This quote emphasises the importance of physical touch to help us feel safe, belonging, calm, connected and trusting. All of which boost individual immune systems and support community wellbeing. Hugs help release a cascade of thrive neuro-chemistry, especially oxytocin.
Hugs are fuel for better family and social systems; a great investment for our children’s children’s children …
But what about people who are hug deficient, socially isolated, emotionally lonely? What can we do to boost this neuro-chemical that is so essential for wellbeing?
Can we bio-hack an oxytocin boost?
Yes, we can.
6 tips to optimise oxytocin levels for yourself and for others:
Come Find Me
Resonating
Gifting
Petting
H-Art
H-Artifacts
Come Find Me Check out the work of neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor who, upon regaining consciousness after a stroke, observed that medical staff and visitors were functional but detached. She describes feelings of being trapped inside her mind and body and yearning to plead: ‘Here I am, I’m in here, come find me…’
I’ve heard this yearning from many clients.
You can do that for someone (go find them…) by taking off your critical lens, your analytical thoughts and judgements and simply being present with the wonderful specimen of a human being who is being alive right in front of you.
Resonating
Whether you’re talking to someone face to face, over the garden fence or through social media, giving your full, undivided attention is a gift for both parties. This boosts a mind-body sensation where you feel a powerful energetic plug-in to another human.
Learn to tune up ALL your senses to be present with and for a significant other person, with your own whole being. It may take a bit of practice to let go of thoughts that try to convince you that your inside world is more valid than what’s occurring in the space between you, but try it. And feel the difference.
Gifting
Boost your neurochemistry of connection to and with others when you do things without the need for recognition. Make the art of authentic giving your new superpower. It can be:
A bloom from the garden, a special meal, a heartfelt gesture.
A gesture, hug, cuddle, caress, hand hold.
A compliment, giggle, smile.
A helping hand with chores or running a bath for someone.
Petting
Pets mirror our moods and petting them soothes stress levels in both parties by lowering cortisol and blood pressure while boosting oxytocin. Look up the data on Pets As Therapy! Soft, smooth rhythmic petting – especially skin-on-skin – stimulates calming neurochemistry and slower brain waves.
H-Artful
Draw, paint or colour heart shapes on stones, on paper, on anything! You are (re)setting your sub-conscious mind to loving associations. Kids do this naturally –when did you stop?!
Visualise your heart as a personal space for your loved ones to nestle, where you keep them cozy, warm and wrapped up in your purest love.
Play a game with your where you roll a dice and describe the sensations of feeling love in that number of words. For example, rolling the number 3 would lead to describing some sensations of love in three words, such as warm, rising, pink.
H-Artifacts
Look at your household artefacts and subjectively measure the level of associated emotional that your brain has anchored. Based on this ‘audit’ you can re-arrange common areas so that your daily view of pictures, photos, ornaments etc, maximise your happy chemicals. What’s the first and last thing you look at each day?
Dedicate time to looking through photos that bring back happy memories of times shared with loved ones. Celebrate these feelings.
Happy New Year! And while many people shift gears into their new year resolutions for a brighter year ahead, some of us in the northern hemisphere can feel a little low as vitamin D levels drop and the days are long, and dark.
Around 2 million people in the UK experience the January Blues, also known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). General recommendations for self-help include:
Staying active with whole body movements (walk, swim, yoga)
Making the most of natural light and being in nature
Doing something creative (draw, paint, write)
Taking time for self-nurture (bath, massage, reading)
Keeping in contact with family and friends (shared experiences)
Eating a healthy, balanced diet and staying hydrated
Trying something new, novel and building new brain patterns
Seeking professional help if symptoms are severe
Let’s deeper dive into ways you can help yourself and your loved ones, by focussing on a specific neuro-transmitters that is key to a happier brain:
SEROTONIN
Often referred to as the ‘happiness molecule’, serotonin is essential for self-esteem and feeling calm. You can boost serotonin through deep breathing, meditation, relaxing bath soaks and diet: chocolate (+85% cacao) , oats, dates, dairy products, eggs, fish, poultry, sesame, chickpeas, almonds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds…
NOTE: Serotonin is depleted by sugar, smoking and alcohol.
Read on for six tips that will support your family’s serotonin levels:
Lighten Up!
As your eyes perceive light, serotonin levels naturally rise, and mood is boosted. The benefits of being immersed in nature are well documented but in the depths of winter, chasing light can feel impossible. However, you can pay attention to sunlight reflections that bounce from rivers, lakes, the ocean, waxy leaves or other reflective surfaces.
Can’t get outside? Take a glass of water and place it near a window or any reflective surface (many people suspend ‘light catchers’ in their windows and watch the mesmerizing ‘fairies’ dance across the room). Please be careful and wise about placing anything that magnifies the sun’s power as a source of fire starting!
Move!
Physical movement fires up serotonin neurons. Any movement – it doesn’t have to be classed as exercise. Routine housework chores move these signals through your body, and novel chores, e.g., clearing out a cupboard, will boost dopamine reward circuits too.
Visualise!
Switch out of your worry-brain by engaging your creative right hemisphere. For example, imagine serotonin as a trillion golden stars bathing each and every cell of your whole anatomy while glistening, shimmering and shining.
Star Breath!
Combining right hemisphere imagination with breathwork, allows you to imagine yourself breathing in (so deep it feels like your belly is expanding) ALL the shimmers into that space just below your diaphragm. Then with a slow and full outbreath, visualise photons of light flowing into the space around you. Repeat this breathing exercise until it becomes effortless, and you feel the sensations of calm.
Sharing Stars!
Have the family form a circle around one person. That person is called the Super Star. Once Super Star is ready to whoosh out their star breath into the space around them (using a long sustained out-breath), the others close their eyes, open their hands and visualise receiving the ‘shared stars’. Kids love to tune into sensations of sharing stars. This also boosts connection and cooperation (oxytocin), imagination (needed for problem solving), and attention training.
Get Creative!
Staying with the creative brain centres, why not make an indoor garden or help your kids to do this? All you need is:
• A large plate to contain the ‘garden’
• A small mirror or tin foil to represent reflections from water
• Some soil, stones or sand to represent the terrain (or use something out of date from the pantry, like lentils, coffee etc.)
• Either real plant cuttings, or artificial vegetation – Play Doh, plasticine, cardboard, pipe cleaners are starting points, but you are only limited by your imagination!
PS. Measuring the shadow and light would be a cool science experiment.
Or draw freestyle, paint while holding the brush with your non-dominant hand, or colour golden sunshine patterns on stones. All of the above helps align your sub-conscious mind with self-managed wellbeing. And this theme involves the power of the light. No wonder the ancients worshipped the sun!
PS…
FACT! Your body and mind make up one amazing system that communicates within itself and also with the outside world.
FACT! imagination stimulates electro-chemical signals that cascade throughout your nervous system.
FACT! Your body and mind in stress (real or imagined) depletes nourishing brain chemistry.
FACT! Your body and mind’s THRIVE DRIVE is something you can influence.
Do practice these simple skills to boost your Happy Brain, on purpose, with purpose and for a purpose! Make your purpose to shine!
This FREE 20 minute mind-magic-meditation will entrance your inner worlds.
This journey is designed to gradually induce deep altered states of consciousness and therefore you should only listen to it while in a quiet and safe environment where you will not be disturbed. You must not be driving or operating machinery!
Connect to your deeper wisdoms, guided by light and love, and at times, by archetypes and beings who are in service of your soul’s flourishing. After returning to your waking consciousness, you will feel a renewed sense of well-being, higher purpose, and connection to all life.
Whilst many people find the effects of these mind-magic mediations therapeutic, they are not a substitute for medical or psychiatric interventions.
Content of this session includes: Tuning in Breath & Body Grounding in Gaia Entering the quantum field Embracing Circular Time Connecting with the Cosmos Embracing Wisdom and Balance Being Divine Web of Consciousness Luminous Energy Field Healing and Integration Closing the Session
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