I am known world-wide for my weekly celebrations - typically me jumping and dancing around, clapping my hands and woohoo-ing as I share some of the things I am celebrating from the past week.
It’s loud and public - on Instagram for the world to see… and I am delighted by messages from friends and followers sharing their celebrations and singing my celebration song "It's time to celebrate! It's time to celebrate!..."
I was asked recently: “How can we celebrate in our own privacy?”
Coz let’s be real - dancing around and declaring personal and private wins to the world is not everyone’s style (I do keep some private too), nor is it the only way to celebrate or reap the rewards of celebration. Before I share with you some ways that you can celebrate and reap the rewards privately, I want to share with you why I celebrate.
Reasons to celebrate:
1. Elevating DOSE Studies have shown that it releases dopamine, serotonin and depending on how we celebrate, we can release oxytocin too. Celebrating, appreciating and loving things in our lives FEELS GOOD and helps to build strong positive neural pathways and perspectives. The release of dopamine (the reward chemical)has us then crave the experience again, allowing us to build a positive habit loop of celebration (we’ll get to why that’s important soon). 2. Breaking the norms Unfortunately, we live in cultures that are built on striving and not-enoughness. We hit one goal and shove it aside, marking it “done” as we strive for the next thing. HOLD ON - HOW AWESOME IS IT THAT YOU ACCOMPLISHED THAT?!
I believe that we need more acknowledgement, more pride and self-love (not boastfulness), more appreciation in our worlds and day to day lives. I also believe leading by example is the best way. Another norm I like to break is the “rule” for what we can, "should" and will celebrate. We can break the labelling of “good” and “bad”. I will celebrate the sun, and I will also celebrate the rain, as it plays an important role in the world. I celebrate when a potential client says “no”, because I trust that they made the right decision for where they are at. Many may see this as “bad”, as “losing the sale” or think that they have been rejected. We can also celebrate big and small things. Small examples - “yay! I had a nice breakfast”, “Woohoo, the sun is up”, “YESSSSS! I have fresh, clean water coming out of the tap, and all I have to do is turn it on”.
3. Our perspective creates our reality
You may have heard “what you focus on grows” or something along those lines - and as a brain retainer, you get that it’s TRUE. The more we use a neural pathway, the easier it is to think, feel and behave in certain ways. Our Reticular Activating System (in the brain stem) is a filter that siphons through billions of bits of information and chooses what we are consciously aware of in any given moment. What is relevant and important to us gets through, all else goes unnoticed. Through regularly noticing and celebrating the good, we are elevating our emotions and our brain pays attention to that! Our reticular activating system helps you to start noticing more and more good in the world around you and this loop helps us to build beliefs like “the world is supporting me”, “things always work out for the best” and “I am doing great!”.
Ways to celebrate (without jumping around on social media):
Easy and in the moment: - clapping your hands - humming or singing a happy tune - congratulating yourself for an achievement aloud (eg. “well done”... “YES - you did it!”) - patting yourself on the back (I like to team this with the congratulations) - throwing your hands up in the air or doing a fist pump - exclaiming / shouting “Yes!”, “Woohoo”, “Awesome”, “Yay”! etc. aloud - doing a happy dance
- high tens with someone you live with (or in the mirror to yourself), high five to yourself
- laughing (I tend to do this while dancing, fist pumping etc).
As a focused practice: - Hourly This is a really great way to get your brain in the celebration zone, and you can move to a daily/weekly practice from here. Set a reminder every hour you’re awake (for 5 days) and celebrating at least one thing from that hour when your alarm chimes - make it a happy alarm sound! There may be times that you simply celebrate that you are alive and can choose to celebrate - even if it’s small or basic, celebrate it!
- Daily Write down 3 wins from each day before you go to bed and celebrate them using one or more of the ways listed above (you can gently and quietly celebrate, you don’t have to get hyped up before bed). You can also do this in the morning, reflecting on the day before. Allow yourself to build upon this same list daily so that your list grows!
- Weekly Create a “weekly wins” type celebration like I do, and throw a mini party reflecting on and celebrating wins from your week. You can keep it simple or light candles, get dressed up, bring out the party hats and celebrate with others - your celebration is YOURS! This could also be a weekly list that you create and celebrate in your own way.
While some of the benefits are pretty instant, I recommend:
- doing these for 30 secs or more to really get the DOSE running!
- doing a few at the same time (eg. smiling and dancing and clapping)...
If you want to celebrate more of your journey, more of your authentic self and learn to work with your values, beliefs and dreams as you rewire, ELEVATE Brain Retraining 2.0 is a great place to do that.
If you want to celebrate with me on Insta each week - LET'S GO! Feel free to connect here.
Happy Celebrating!! B :)
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ELEVATE Brain retraining 2.0 Want to refresh your brain retraining practice, uncover the essence of you and start living into dreams and goals as you rewire? Elevate Brain Retraining 2.0 is a six week program I created with Lindsay Mitchell (founder of Vital-Side) to help brain retrainers to boost and bolster their brain retraining practice. Find out more or get started here. Youtube You can laugh along with my videos any day, any time on my Youtube channel Join me for my 7 day "Start Your Day Shining" Challenge here.
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