As we begin the new year, trust your emotional brain to do what it does best: return you to your natural state of joy.
Last year I had a series of health problems for the first time in my life, and now that I’m healthy again, I’ve decided to increase my EBT prescription. It seemed sad to me to get high 10 times a day. Why only feel great ten times a day when I could do so much more?
So I set my goal at 20 and laughed because it was actually easier than just doing 10 of them. My brain stayed in a higher state so I didn’t have to interrupt those stress circuits to feel great. Consider trying the 20 Spiral Ups a Day recipe!
New to EBT? Start with 5 spiral ups
Admittedly, it takes a while to get comfortable with the idea of turning stress into joy. Therefore, I do not recommend starting with 20 spiral ups per day. Five is enough to startle the amygdala at first, but that will soon change.
However, after about a week and five spiral-ups, if we don’t challenge it and do up to ten of them, the brain will get bored.
But considering that Instant Boost only takes a minute with practice (and there’s a clear desire to get the process started and finished), even pausing the stress ten times a day feels a little sloppy. Why not take some of the other 23 hours and 50 minutes and increase it even further?
20 spiral ups! Feel the difference!
As I increased my EBT prescription, I became curious about how many of them I really needed. These days, IUDs are a part of my brain on a cellular level, but given my health struggles over the last year and my desire for optimal health, why not do a lot more of it?
So far, three days into my new plan, I’m surprised. I like the new recipe. It’s not difficult and I passed 20 yesterday. . . Collect 23 of them and 33 Joy Points.
I’ll explore this further, and I hope you will too. However, you don’t have to worry about becoming addicted to pleasure. All sublime emotions, including love, compassion, hope, forgiveness and awe, are natural, flowing joys. Instead of the “I have to get it done” feeling of addictive wires, the desire is to appreciate the moment, knowing it will fade so we can send the email, fold the laundry, do the dishes, and then come back again and again in due course.
The bursts of joy are not the “I have to get it” of addiction, but the “I got this…” of optimal health. It is a multi-layered feeling of satisfaction and worth training the resilience pathways to achieve it.
The “I have this…” Establishing a vigorous EBT practice is all about emotional safety, knowing how to take really good care of ourselves, and we do. We put our joy first and all good things come from that.
