Funny Motivational Speaker Amy Dee’s blog,
You know how when you are self quarantined with someone for days and suddenly everything they do bugs you?
They repeat the same dumb joke about the two tomatoes crossing the street, then laugh and snort breathlessly for 7.5 minutes until you consider throat punching them to shut their pie hole?
You ask for a simple explanation of disc golf. (Simple, PLEASE) Instead, they go B.C. on you, back to Moses hurling tablets. You whip off a thousand Kegels just to disconnect from the agony of hearing them drone on and on?
They grab the channel changer and flip through 3,743 options on Netflix, Hulu, and HBO so fast you get dizzy, throw up in your mouth, and fall off the ottoman? For a mere second, you wonder how much rat poison would do the trick?
Disclaimer: this is not about anyone I know specifically, I just wonder if you know the feeling. (wink, wink)
Anyway, during self-quarantine, I’ve had moments of being crabby and worried. Worried about the coronavirus. Will I get it, or will my friends and family get sick? How long before life returns to normal? What will our new normal will be?
When worried and snarky, I walk around with a big crankxious frown, collecting things to be concerned and irritated about.
Well, here’s a quick fix that really works.
Smile!
Fake it!
I mean it, sincerity doesn’t matter. Just crank out a smile because the act of smiling lights up the feel-good part of your brain.
Turning that frown upside down spurs a chemical reaction in your brain that releases the happy hormones, dopamine and serotonin.
Dopamine and serotonin are neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) that help regulate many bodily functions, including emotional wellbeing.
Dopamine increases our feelings of happiness, and low levels of dopamine are linked to depression.
Serotonin helps reduce stress, and low levels of serotonin are linked to depression and aggression.
So when you finally land on a movie, and popcorn arrives, beginning a chomp, chaw, gnaw experience more jarring than a first 5th-grade band recital:
Smile. You’ll feel better, and it may save a life.
