JOURNALING AND HEALTH BENEFITS

For every moment that you experience, you feel a different emotion, and you develop different thoughts which your mind catalogues as unique memories. Also, your body reacts to the emotions that you feel by responding to the level of stress or ease that you are experiencing. Every situation that you encounter in your life relates to your well-being. 

The action of writing your experiences, feelings, thoughts and reflections in a journal can add to your personal growth and even decode the mysteries of happiness. Furthermore, many studies reveal that writing is positively correlated with: healing chronic illnesses, reducing anxiety and depression, and treating stress and various disorders and addictions. For example, in a 1988 study led by psychologist, James W. Pennebaker, PhD and his colleagues asked 50 healthy undergraduate students to write about their traumatic experiences or superficial topics for four consecutive days. Six weeks after the writing exercise, students that wrote about their traumas experienced positive subjective well-being – better moods and fewer illnesses. ^*

EXPRESSIVE WRITING

Expressive writing can help you identify negative patterns in their day-to-day life, better cope with stress, gain personal insight and also to find meaning and greater life satisfaction. There isn’t a right or wrong way to journal. You simply just need to be open to the the process and write in whichever way or format that is best suited for you. Here are some ways that you can engage yourself in journaling on the daily:

Free-writing – begin to write about anything that comes to your mind and let your immediate thoughts guide you. You will be surprised at how reflective this is.

Randomized words – write down a few words on different pieces of paper and fold them up (or ask someone to come up with the words for you). Start by picking up one piece of paper to reveal the word, set a one-minute timer and write whatever comes to your mind. 

Repeat the steps for each word. At the end of this writing session, you may discover a certain thought pattern or a creative pastime developing.

Future self journaling – on every new moon or during a particular time of the month, make a journal entry from six months in to the future. This helps kickstart your visualization process and also helps you create intentions and goals for yourself. Also, you will be amazed to read your journal entries in the future to find out that you are living the life that you created on paper!

Short-story – write a short story or fairy tale – this can lead you into writing your life’s story in a creative way.

Gillie Bolton, a writer and researcher suggests writing for at least six minutes. Twenty minutes is ideal to get to the core of your self exploration. Regardless of the manner that you choose to write in, remember that you own this process. There are no rules of writing or organization that you need to follow. Just go with the flow.

UNCOVER YOUR HAPPINESS AND CREATE YOUR STORY

When you make journaling a daily habit, you end up becoming a researcher of your own self and a conscious creator of your future life. That’s right! You gain all control over the mood, the tone and the theme of the upcoming super hit series of your life! Once you grab a handle on journaling, be sure to include these elements into your writing practice:

1. Include your intentions. When you write down your intentions whether it be by goal-setting or creatively; you are actually developing a deeper belief within you about your abilities and you are more likely to take action.
2. Reflect. By writing about your thoughts and situations, you actually start to examine them objectively and uncover life lessons – an opportunity to grow.
3. Accept. Exercise self-compassion and accept the feelings and emotions that may flow out onto the paper.

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The post The Science of Writing: How Journaling Can Improve Your Health and Well-Being appeared first on Sherina Chandra.

B.F. SKINNER AND OPERANT LEARNING Skinner was an American behavioural psychologist. He was interested in learning more about how the consequences of people’s actions influenced their behaviours. This later became known as operant conditioning – a type of learning where rewards and punishments are used to acknowledge certain behaviours. Skinner invented the ‘Skinner box,’ an enclosed apparatus with a key or a lever that an animal could press to obtain food or some type of reinforcement. There was also a device that recorded each response provided by the animal. Over time the animal (a pigeon in this case) learned that by pulling the lever, they would be rewarded with food. Later, Skinner incorporated green and red lights into his experiment. When the lever was pulled as the green light flashed the animal would be rewarded with food. When the lever was pulled when the red light flashed, the animal was punished with an electrical shock. Over time the animal learned to avoid pressing the lever when the light was red. Through this experiment, Skinner learned that specific consequences are associated with voluntary behaviours in natural settings. This meant that rewards increased a behaviour and punishments decreased a behaviour.

REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES

Skinner went on to discover that the timing and frequency of reinforcements influenced how new behaviours were learned and old behaviours were modified. There are four schedules of partial reinforcements that impact the operant conditioning process.

1. Fixed-ratio schedules – Responses are reinforced only after a certain number of responses have occurred, i.e. receiving a gold star after turning in homework for five days in a row.
2. Fixed-interval schedules – Responses occur after a certain amount of time has passed, i.e. cleaning your room every Friday because you know you will receive a present.
3. Variable-ratio schedules – Reinforcing a behaviour after a varied amount of responses. This keeps you motivated, i.e. your teacher rewarding your class with pizza on any given day for consistent positive work habits. (unpredictable). Gambling is another good example.
4. Variable-interval schedules – Providing reinforcement after an unpredictable amount of time has passed, i.e. being given a treat after an unpredictable amount of time has passed between you doing something nice for someone at work/school.

UNDERSTANDING THE REWARD CENTER OF YOUR BRAIN

There are ‘reward circuits’ at the top of your brain stem called the ventral tegmental area (VTA) comprising of the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens it’s where dopamine (a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and rewards) communicates with dopamine producing neurons. The dopamine is later transported to areas of your brain through two dopamine pathways: mesolimbic and mesocortical. In the 1950’s it was recognized that dopamine neurons are activated in your brain when it is exposed to pleasure and rewards. This is why certain actions such as: eating certain types of foods, ingesting certain drugs, sex and gambling give you a ‘feel good’ experience.

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA IS DESIGNED THE WAY IT IS

Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter all may be used for different purposes, but they are designed with four things in mind: trigger, action, attention and investment.

• Trigger – a human need for everyone is to belong. In other words, you crave acceptance – well, all do. Social media creates a community where you can easily be recognized.
• Action – you go on social media to share something, or to see what others are doing.
• Attention – you are rewarded with likes, comments and follows, your attention is now captured.
• Investment – the more you spend time and money, the more market research social media outlets acquire. Social media follows a variable-ratio schedule similar to slot machines. You receive likes, follows, comments and DMs at random times and the swipe down feature to refresh acts like the lever to pull on slot machines. Having an AHA moment now?

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The post How to Thrive in the Digital Age: Creating Healthy Boundaries with Social Media appeared first on Sherina Chandra.