Good Life Project - The Gratitude Visit | Nuts on the Brain

Episode Date: November 30, 2017

Good Life Riff: We've all heard a lot about gratitude, how it's a powerful reset for the mind. Especially at a time of year when many of us find ourselves swept into a whirlwind of stress and social strife.So, today, we're talking about a bit of a different gratitude intervention called the "gratitude visit," which has been researched and proven of have an astonishingly powerful and lasting impact on your state of mind and wellbeing.This moving gratitude experience has the added benefit of filling both your Vitality Bucket (by enhancing your state of mind) and also your Connection Bucket (by deepening your relationship with another person).Good Life Science: And, in our Good Life Science segment, we're diving into some fascinating new research on, well, nuts and your brain. We've all heard that nuts have lots of health benefits, from disease prevention to inflammation reduction and more.But, some cool new research show that eating certain nuts actually generates different brainwaves, which raises the possibility of dialing in your "nut-prescription" as a way to help drop into anything from a hyper-focused to Zenned-out state of mind. Full disclosure, the study also includes many people's favorite "non-nut" nut, that'd be the peanut, which is actually a legume. And, as always, for those want to go to the source, here's a link to the full study.+--------------------------+Our Podcast Partners: ZipRecruiter: Post jobs for FREE, go to ZipRecruiter.com/good.Thrive Market: $60 of FREE organic groceries, free shipping and 30-day trial at thrivemarket.com/goodlife.Freshbooks: Cloud accounting, 1-month free trial, no credit card required, at FreshBooks.com/goodlife.ShipStation: Manage and ship your orders. FREE for 30 days, plus a bonus. Visit ShipStation.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in GOODLIFE.Casper: Get $50 toward any mattress purchase at casper.com/GOODLIFE and enter GOODLIFE at checkout. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey there, it's Jonathan, welcoming you to this week's Good Life Update. If you're listening in real time and in the United States, which a solid chunk of our listeners are, although we have a pretty international audience, we're coming off of the week known as Thanksgiving. And there are variations of this across different countries and places in the world. It's basically about reflecting, hitting pause, reflecting, and thinking about what you're grateful for. And I thought this would also be a good week to tap back into a little bit more granularly how we explore gratitude. And I'm going to share something actually from my last book.

And in our science update this week, some pretty interesting information on research that shows how specific nuts affect your brain waves. Literally, eating different kinds of nuts actually leads to an increase in different brainwave states in your brain, which are associated with different moods and capabilities and things like that. So it's going to be fun to dive into those two topics with you. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun. On January 24th Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're gonna die. Don't shoot him! We need him!

Y'all need a pilot? Flight Risk. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming,

or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. There's a whole lot of talk on this thing called gratitude these days. And coming out of the beginnings of the holiday season for many and heading into what will be a much more involved holiday season where we have a lot of reflection going on and a lot of the anticipation of being around, socializing with colleagues, friends, and family that lands with people in very different ways. The idea of gratitude and being thankful,

that's kind of floating around. And I actually have a short and sweet chapter on the topic of gratitude in my last book, which is entitled How to Live a Good Life, Soulful Stories, Surprising Science, and Practical Wisdom. It's only a couple of pages. And I thought, you know what, why don't I actually do a little bit of a live read? Because there's one particular exercise that is rarely explored that I share with you. And that I think might be kind of an interesting and fun thing for you to do and think about doing between now and the end of the year. So here we go. It's called Get Your Gratitude On, and I'm going to share a couple of pages from that book with you.

So tell me if this has ever happened to you. You work really hard on something. Maybe it's a project or an idea, a beautiful offering, event, or gathering. It's something you've created and put your heart and soul into. It's all done. And then you stand back to take it in. If it involves others, you invite them in or give it to them. Then it hits you for the first time. You notice the glaring typo, the aberrant brush stroke, the missed stitch, the burned dish, the off comment, the weird glitch that leads to an unkind review or mark. You wish you could unsee or undo it, but you can't. And now, even though everything is amazing,

you can't stop thinking about that one bad thing. People thank you, compliment you, offer gratitude for what you've done, and still you don't hear it. Your brain is trapped in a sea of negativity. As someone who is constantly creating things and putting them into the world, I come face to face with this all day, every day. One-star book reviews, misunderstood comments, people who just don't get me, those with completely different styles or tastes, desires, or interests. And then there are the times when I've just plain screwed up.

These moments and experiences aren't fun. For a long time, they would weigh heavily on me, but that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that they would so consume me, I would have trouble seeing and taking in the 99% that was amazing. And it turns out I'm not alone here. So through an ironic quirk of evolution, our brains have developed in a way that on the one hand keeps us alive, but on the other

makes us just a tad downbeat and neurotic. Not all of us, but many of us. We're wired to focus on the sucky side of life. Scientists call it the negativity bias. We latch onto the stuff that goes wrong and refuse to let go, sometimes for years. Meanwhile, the stuff that goes right, we barely acknowledge. And this can lead to a pretty warped situation. From the outside looking in, we're living awesome lives and everything seems to be going right. But from the inside looking out, all we see are stumbles or negative experiences. And the drag can become obsessive and even poorly handled,

pull us towards not just pessimism and compulsion, but anxiety and depression. So what can we do? How do we battle this wiring? Well, one way is to proactively bring so many more positive experiences into each day that it becomes harder and harder to ignore how good things really are. And that can help tip the mindset from down and out to upbeat and optimistic. For many though, it's still not enough. That nasty little negativity bias compounded by everyday challenges that life throws our way, well, it keeps us from seeing the good, no matter how much there is.

Professor Martin Seligman, known as the father of positive psychology, wondered whether there was a way to rewire our brains for positivity and pull them out of the downward spiral. Turns out, there is. Actually, there are many ways, but as Seligman discovered, one of the most powerful mood elevators is so simple, it's easy to write off as fluff. Just some pop psychology quackery, except it's not. So what's the key? Gratitude. Seligman realized that often negativity came from an inability to see and be grateful for what was right in life. And he wondered what might happen if specific exercises

forced you to acknowledge the awesome side of life and then express your gratitude for it. Would that counter the pull of negativity? Turns out it would, and it does. So over the past 10 years, gratitude has been hailed as one of the most universally effective mindset boosters and happiness enhancers on the planet. It's also been heavily researched and validated beyond the realm of anecdotal self-help. But that still leaves us with a question. How do we build gratitude? How do we break out from the doom and gloom cocoon and see more of what's right in life? Well, one of the most popular gratitude building exercises is the gratitude journal. The idea is to regularly write down what you're grateful for. And there are many variations.

In his book, Flourish, a visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being, Seligman offers his own research-backed approach, which he calls the three blessings. I'll describe the process in detail in just a minute. It'll be the first option in our exploration today. The blessings are actually fun to do, and they don't take much time. And a quick note on how often to do them. Seligman suggests a daily approach. Sonja Lubomirsky, another leading voice in positive psychology, believes that instead of doing them daily, you should test what feels right to you. In her book, The How of Happiness, A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want, she suggests that a daily practice may start to feel forced and

repetitive and cause the exercise to actually lose its power. In her research, once a week kind of seemed to be the sweet spot for most people. So play with it. If it starts to feel like a rote or repetitive exercise that doesn't seem to be doing anything to lift your mood or change your view of life, then spread it out a bit. The second gratitude builder is talked about far less often, but has been shown in Seligman's research to be pretty much the thing that crushes almost every other happiness boosting exercise. And Seligman calls it the gratitude visit. And it's the second option in today's bucket filling exploration. So hang on to your hats. It's time to get our

gratitude on. And I'm going to share now these two different options with you and how to do them. Okay, so option number one, the three blessings. Seligman offers specific instructions to be followed every night for at least a week and for as long after as you like. First, write down three things that went well today. They can be big things, you know, I proposed, I love my life and they said yes, or simple everyday things like my kid told me that she loved me and gave me a hug and a kiss before leaving for school. Step two, for each of the three things, answer the question, why did this happen? So you can make tonight your first night if you want.

Keep track of how your lens on life and general mood change over time. And as Lubomirsky suggests, experiment a bit to find the perfect frequency for you. Start out daily for a week. If that feels good and it's moving your mindset needle, then keep it up. And if not, explore once a week, twice a month, whatever feels right to you. Okay, now for option two. And this is called the gratitude visit. The gratitude visit will take a bit more work, but it will also be worth the effort.

Seligman's research showed that a single experience can create changes in mindset that are still there a month later. So look back on your life and think of someone who made a difference to you. It could have been someone who helped you out when you were in need, someone who encouraged you or taught you something or any other person who did something that made your life better. And two other qualifiers. It should be someone you never thanked and someone who is close enough for you to visit in person. Now, write a letter to that person describing in specifics what they did for you and how it affected you. Share what you're up to now and let them know how often you revisit their kindness. It should be a full page.

Think about 300 words or so. You know, it doesn't have to be exactly. Now here's where it gets fun and also where it might challenge you a bit. Do this anyway. Call the person up and tell them you'd love to stop by and just say a quick hello. Don't tell them exactly why you're coming.

You want to keep it a surprise if you can. Then go visit your person and read your letter to them face to face. When you return home, spend a few minutes journaling about how that experience went and how it made you feel. This can be stunningly powerful when you do it. It can also be a bit nerve-wracking because this is you coming face to face with somebody who has done something that in some way made a difference in your life. And this is your moment to actually share how that mattered. It can be one of the most powerful things you will ever do. And the moment that you actually

spend just a few minutes reading what you've written to them can then become another secondary moment that stays with you when you see how that lands both with you and with them. And the effect on your mood and your state of mind, your positivity, your state of persistent gratitude, your ability to be more resilient in the face of all sorts of things that aren't going right in your life or in the world can be pretty profoundly changed when you reflect on this moment. So give it a shot, try it out. This also happens to be a really good time of year to think about doing something like this. So maybe as you head into December, this is something that you put on your plate to say, huh, let me try this with just a single person and see how it

feels for me and see how it feels for them. So that's my invitation as we sort of wrap up this week's riff on getting your gratitude on. Either explore the pretty easy, anybody can do this, three blessings. And if you're inclined and you want to try something really powerful that also fills your mindset bucket, your vitality bucket, and at the same time your connection bucket because this will be something that is interactive with someone else,

then think about doing a gratitude visit by handwriting that letter and then actually reading it to the person. It can be a really, really powerful moment. We will be heading into our science this week, and I'm kind of excited. This will be a bit of a short and sweet science update on how nuts affect your brain and your brainwaves. And this is kind of actually really super cool. Different nuts will lead to different brainwave and emotional states. So you can kind of play with eating different nuts to create different states in your brain. And that is what we're diving into in today's Good Life Science

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Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping.

And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. And we are back with this week's Good Life Science Update. For those of you who are new to the podcast, pretty much every week we sneak in a science update. I'm a bit of a geek citizen scientist, and I love diving into and keeping up on research that in any way, shape, or form affects your ability to

live a better life. Sometimes it's about health, environment, work, all sorts of different stuff. I also tend to geek out on stuff that affects our body and especially our brains. And I'm really fascinated with how the way we move our body and the things that we eat can affect our brains, our cognitive abilities, our state of mind. This week, we're bringing you a study that was done out of Loma Linda University and recently presented at Experimental Biology 2017 meetings in San Diego and published in FACIP Journal. Now, what does all that mean? Well, if you want to go into the details of this, we always include in the show notes, so check it out in the show notes,

a direct link to the Fuller study report for fellow geeks like me who want to actually look at the research, deconstruct it, see what the experimental design was and try and better understand what's going on. My job here is simply to share the simple realizations and awakenings from it. This week, we are talking about nuts and your brain.

So when we talk about nuts, the nuts that you eat, the nuts that grow from the ground and are part of your diet, you may be aware that there's been a fair amount of research done on how those may affect your physiology, your health, your inflammation, all sorts of different things. It turns out that, of course, barring any allergies or unique reactions that you may have, that very often nuts can be considered a very important part of a healthy diet. And they have a lot of benefits on you and your physiology, your disease risk, stuff like that. This study actually looked at whether eating nuts will affect your brain waves, literally the state of your brain, which also leads to the state of your mind from being active, focused, you know, critical to being relaxed, chill. So beyond sort of immunity and basic health and disease risk, it was really looking at what happens when you eat

nuts in the area of your brain. And does anything happen? Like, could you literally eat one type of nut and have that create a certain brainwave that would put you in a certain state that would be beneficial or not good for a particular task in front of you? And eat a different kind of nut that would shift that or reverse it or put you in an alternative state? And it turns out the answer to this question is yes. Nuts actually affect your brainwaves and different nuts affect them in different ways. So the study's lead investigator, Lee Burke, who is the associate dean for research at the Loma Linda University School of Applied Health Prof showed that when you eat different nuts, they will change the way you feel from the brain down. Pistachios, for example, when you eat them, they produce something or they produce the greatest amount of something called gamma waves in your brain. Now, gamma waves are really fascinating because research on very long-term

high-intensity meditators, very often monks who have come from Tibet and Nepal and spent something like 30,000 to 50,000 hours of practice meditating, have been found to be able to rapidly generate and even exist in a largely gamma wave state, which is associated with enhanced cognitive processing, learning, perception, rapid eye movement during sleep, but also a very deeply nourishing state. Interestingly, pistachios trigger this, and of all the nuts, they trigger the greatest increase in gamma waves. charging Apple Watch. Getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later

required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die.

Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. Also, interestingly, peanuts, which were tested in this particular study, which are not actually considered a nut, but a legume, more aligned with the sort of the bean family, they were found to produce a strong increase in delta waves in your brain. Now, if you know anything about sleep or chill or relaxation, you know that the deepest sort of levels of sleep

are delta sleep. That is when your brain goes into sort of like this really sort of deep nourishing restorative sleep. And peanuts actually increase the prominence of delta waves in your brain, which is associated with increasing immunity, with healing and with deep sleep. So calming. So if you scarf down a peanut butter, like a spoonful of peanut butter or something like that, and you feel this just gentle, you know, like nod towards wanting to just drop into deep sleep, that may help explain what's happening there. And in case you're wondering what other nuts were a part of this study, well, it turns out that not just pistachios

and peanuts, again, peanuts are not actually a real nut, they're a legume. But in addition to that, they measured almonds, cashews, pecans, and walnuts. And the way that they did it was they used EEGs to measure the strength of the brainwave signals in nine different areas of the brain that are associated with different types of brain functions, cerebral cortical function, and they saw how it changed them. So this is really fascinating. What's the takeaway from this? The takeaway is that we have known for years that nuts have all sorts of health benefits and really specific to the way that our body processes everything from anti-inflammatory,

anti-cancer, antioxidant, stuff like this. Now we may have another reason for eating particular nuts because it may affect the way that our brain functions and our brainwave states, which change the way we think and feel in a relatively short order. And we also know that particular nuts can create particular different states of being. It's kind of funny for me because I am a nut eater. I enjoy them. And I have also found I've been on a bit of a pistachio binge and not just because they're salty and yummy and good, but I found that they tend to be really good brain fuel when I need to get work done. And they just kind of keep me going. And I've just experienced this through sort of my own experimentation. And what've just experienced this through sort of my own experimentation.

And what's interesting is this science validates the fact that it may actually change my brainwave state and potentially function and capability, and that other things may make you drowsier or calm. So something to play with. And another reason to explore, again, as long as you don't have allergies and they're okay with you, integrating different nuts into your nutritional protocol. That's what I'm thinking about. And that is today's science update. As always, so much fun sharing these things with you. And I look forward to being back with you next week.

I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. Hey, thanks so much for listening. And thanks also to our fantastic sponsors who help make this show possible. You can check them out in the links we've included in today's show notes. And while you're at it, be sure to click on the subscribe button in your listening app so you never miss an episode. And then share the Good Life Project love with friends. Because when ideas become conversations that lead to action that's when real change takes hold see you next time

the apple watch series 10 is here it has the biggest display ever it's also the thinnest apple watch ever making it even more comfortable on your wrist whether you're running swimming X is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X.

Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary.