Imagine feeling the calming assurance of optimism as you are settling into the start of your new day, bolstered with trust in yourself and confidence that you are full of achievement, and flowing with abilities for an excellent day no matter if adversity finds its way uninvitedly into your work or daily life. This is what learning to develop an optimism bias is all about, and this is why we are relishing it. We love this handy idea of optimism bias for wellbeing.
You may be thinking so how can we enhance our Optimism Bias in a healthy way? Dr Tali Sharot led a Cognitive Neuroscience research study on “How Dopamine Enhances an Optimism Bias in Humans”. Dr Sharot is Director of the Affective Brain Lab, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the department of Experimental Psychology and The Max Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry at University College London, and on the faculty of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT.
The research study examined the hypothesis that enhanced dopamine function in the human brain will influence how people develop their own perceptions on probabilities of future life events in an asymmetric manner (I.e perception of enhanced positive life event outcomes and impairing negative outcomes), which can in turn lead to an increase in peoples’ optimism bias.
Having an optimism bias means having a tendency to often lean towards a likelihood to experience positive events, and underestimate likelihood to experience negative events in the future. Such an optimistic outlook can cultivate a positive vibe that enhances our motivation in difficult situations, making it more likely that we engage in rewarding activities of self-choice, encouraging us towards a positive trajectory of growth in sight of our personal goals.
You might not believe this, but it turns out that general research in the field of optimism bias has already found that people are optimistically biased when making predictions about the future, habitually underestimating the likelihood of negative events This bias is also associated with people refreshing their beliefs more in response to information that is better than expected compared to information that is not favorable.
Dr Sharot’s research study in particular had found that enhancing dopamine function of participants in the study had:
#1 Increased their prediction bias in an optimistic direction.
#2 Lowered their estimation of the likelihood of negative events as the tendency to incorporate undesirable information into one's forecasts of the future was lessened.
This is amazing news. Enhancing our healthy dopamine function may thus lessen our estimation of negative events, helping people with any tendency of rumination or less positive outlook dispositions to pivot towards optimistically biased mind states that could in a way benefit their wellbeing. By believing that we are unlikely to fail and more likely to succeed in our pursuit of our life goals, we have better self-esteem, lower stress levels, and better overall well-being.
Here are some healthy ways that may enhance our dopamine functions, improve our wellbeing:
1. Meditation
It may surprise you that during meditation, research has shown that dopamine release may increase by 65% ! This was first discovered in a clinical research study led by Neuroscientist Troels W. Kjær in 2002. The loss of executive control during meditation had significantly increased dopamine release. If you are new to meditation or already practicing meditation but constantly looking out for new ways to improve the quality of your meditative sessions, try out these Apps which I had found to be quite useful for practitioners as well as beginners.
100+ guided meditations, soothing sleep stories, calming nature sounds. Free 7 days trial, thereafter $5.50 per month.
The meditative resources within the App are categorised by what you’re doing or how you’re feeling. So you’ll find guided meditations for Walking, Stress & Difficult Emotion, Work Break, Going to Sleep, Waking Up and many other different categories. Each session last from 4 minutes all the way through to 30 minutes. Nearing $6 purchase for the Android version. IOS version available too.
2. Savor the Nature and Incorporate Outdoors Into Your wellness Activities
Spending at least 120 minutes in nature a week is associated with good health and wellbeing, and guess what, it did not matter how the contacts in nature was achieved (e.g., one long vs. several shorter visits/week). This discovery is based on a research work led by Dr. Mathew P White at the European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter Medical School, UK.
These are Apps that you could explore and try enriching your walking, hiking or outdoor experiences with fun and excitement in your nature exposure this weekend.
Encounter a beautiful, unknown plant or flower during your walk but not sure what it is ? With PictureThis® you can now identify 1,000,000+ plants every day and anywhere with your smartphone. Discover interestingly new plants hidden around your neighborhood each time you venture into the outdoors or spend time in nature. The App also answers your gardening questions intuitively, and easily transforms you into a “green thumb” right away. Available for Android and iOS smartphones. We Love this!
Integrable with Apple’s Siri for voice activation, the Walkmeter App also lets you If you choose to share, you can post your workout online for your own analysis, or for sharing with your friends, family, and coaches.
3. Load up with These Flow Triggering, Creative Activities This Weekend
Fulfilling creative activities like DIY hobbies, knitting, drawing, home deco, crafting, or simply journaling help activate flow, and are all micro tasks that help us gradually move forward towards achieving our goal milestones - one at a time. And when we eventually do, our brain is energized with dopamine. Here are some creativity ideas and Apps that could support you in your discovery journey of flow and creativity.
#1 Jigsaw Puzzles
This online jigsaw puzzle website “Jigsaw Explorer” is another one that you may like to check out. It has many puzzles (mostly < 100 pieces) and varying levels of difficulty, thus suitable for everyone including children and elderly. Try setting a completion time goal for yourself and see if you can complete the jigsaw puzzle within your time goal. For increase in difficulty, choose a challenging one or set a shorter time goal. Good luck and have fun starting your Flow journey!
#2 Creating Music
Many have said that creative pursuits like music creation is a truly self-empowering experience, but on the other hand there are also perceptions that most of us are not adept at doing so This online platform Singing Bowls turns that perception around on its head. Simply by setting the parameters of a few slider bars, anyone can now create their own personally customised relaxation music. I have used this to produce background music sound tracks for relaxation, weekend readings or an evening walk in the park. When you feel comfortable to level up your skills, try creating other genres of music using Soundtrap by Spotify. Choose the free plan when you sign up with Soundtrap and start exploring the introductory videos which offer great starter tips for beginners. You can also invite friends to create music together with you with Soundtrap.
You may also like to explore the next Wellness Chums blog post on “Hidden Wellness Powers in Your Hands Right Now” and wonder about the nascent power of your music playlist for improving wellness at work.
Have a great week. 😊
Our best wishes to you from the Wellness Chums team in Singapore.
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