Rules of the Game

"Common sense is not common action... information alone does not cause transformation"  -Shawn Anchor


I found a little longer talk by Shawn Anchor when he spoke at the MS Foundation meeting.  He was more specific in his instructions, including when you start this change, choose only ONE of the five and consistently do it daily for 21 days

1. Gratitude: write or voice 3 new things you’re grateful for over the past 24 hours, rules: never repeat them and you must be specific 

2. Journal about one meaningful experience, every detail that you can remember, that occured over the past 24 hours.  It allows your brain to relive it.  

3. Exercise in the morning before work: it teaches your brain that your behavior matters, it trains your brain to recognize that if your behavior matters in this area of your life, it may matter in other realms of your life. The minimum is exercise of 10 minutes a day cardio, research showed it had a 30 % drop in relapse rate of depression.

4. Meditation: doesn't have to be Christian or Buddhist, but it should be performed  for at least 2 minutes a day.  It trains your brain to only focus on one thing alone, that of your breath.  Watch your breath go in and out for a full 2 minutes.  It undoes the multitasking, and your stress level decreases.

5. Conscious acts of kindness: Complete a 2 minute phone call or email praising or thanking someone in your social support network.  This is the greatest predictor of happiness during a time of challenge/stress.  This is the usually the very first thing that we abandon in those times of stress, but it is the most important to keep intact when those storms come.