INTRO – Hi everyone, welcome to the ADCET Podcast – supporting you – supporting students. We would like to acknowledge the aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples who are the traditional custodians of the lands on which this recording is taking place and pay our respects to the elder’s past, present and emerging. This podcast is the first from our series of bite-size sessions 12@12 to help you recharge. This first session – Jolts of Joy teaches you to short-circuit a downward spiral of negative emotions with a short sharp jolt of joy to broaden your brain’s capacity. Make sure you check out our show notes for links to the session recording and presentation slides. Enjoy.
DEBBIE: So positive emotions -- are they just there to make us feel good? Do they put the icing on the cake on life? Do they distract us from all of the bad things that happen or like long tiring days or do they serve a bit more of a purpose? We know some negative emotions help us protect us and help us to survive through the ages. Barbara Frederick son found the positive emotions also have a really big part to play in our evolution as a species and they do a lot more than just make us feel good in the moment. They actually broaden our capacity, focus and attention. If it means we see more possibilities, and are open to more possibilities of what is happening around us. It makes us better at solving problems. We are more creative. We can think more quickly. We connect better with others. It actually also builds up our resilience. It builds up our connections with others, it builds up our social relationships. It builds our wellbeing, not only our emotional wellbeing but it actually builds up our social and our physical wellbeing as well. There are some real links there. If you think of it as an upward spiral of wellbeing. Irlike to picture that and like to think that when we feel good we're more likely to be open and to invest in our relationships, get on well with others T creates that upward spiral. Positive emotions -- what are they? Anyone want to put in the chat what words they think of or emotions they think of around positive emotions? When we think of happy, is it more than that? Inspired? Yes. Happiness. Giggles, kindness. Joy, confidence, calm, some good words there. Joy and being grateful of the positive emotions, there are a lot of different ones. We could say jolt of inspiration but it doesn't sound as good as jolt of boy. Jolt of joy means a jolt of positive emotions. Angela mentioned love there. Barbara talks about 10 -- about joy, hope, love, interest and pride. I think pride has a bad PR boss. But authentic pride is a really great positive emotion. Amusement -- that is our humour. Serenity, calm, gratitude, inspiration and awe, all of those are positive emotions that help play a part in our brain working at its best. On the flip side -- I want to touch on this really briefly -- while negative emotions are a normal part of being human -- that's what makes us have things that matter to us and help us experience life, but too many negative emotions can create a downward spiral just like the opposite of an upward spiral with positive emotions. That downward spiral and why we open up to possibilities, we open up to what is happening around us, we see more, we experience more, we connect better, negative emotions have the opposite effect. We actually narrow down, it makes it really hard to see the bigger picture. It reduces our creativity and makes it harder for us to problem-solve. We're less likely to ask for help when we need it. Over time it reduces our work performance, especially when we're in jobs where we need to come up with things outside the box and to be a bit creative and innovative and need to connect with people. It can strain our relationships not only at work but in our parts of our life. The thing with emotions is that they are contagious. If someone has positive emotions, full of positivity, we're likely to catch that. If someone is heavy with a lot of negative emotions we're likely to catch that as well. Too many negative emotions create downward spiral. But we don't want to many positive ones either. It's having that nice balance. Sometimes we need to stop a negative spiral. Again I like that spiral because I can nearly see myself spiraling down and the jolt of joy can stop it. Next slide, thanks, Darlene. A jolt of joy is really short quick bursts of positive emotion, something that oh quick I'm spiraling down, I just want something to distract me. When you are experiencing a negative emotion you don't want to ignore it or brush it under the carpet but often what we do is recycle our negative emotions. So if something bad happened in the morning we're still recycling that emotion later in the day. Whereas we could have a short quick burst of positive emotions to lift our mood and help us come back and consider the negative situation with a lot more openness and curiosity. Short quick busts of positive emotion -- it could be watching a funny YouTube clip. It could be ringing or texting a friend. It could be using that awe and stepping outside and looking at the clouds or taking in the sunshine. Could be curiosity, so ask Google a question. It could be doing a really good stretch and opening up your body. I think I was talking to Debbie the other week and talking about her ringing up work mates and doing a quick few dance steps. Anything you think will lighten your load, lift your mood and make you feel a bit better about things. What kind of jolts of joy do you use now? Anyone want to share any other jolts of joy they might use? I know one of my favourite ones is that I would step out into the garden. And literally smell the flowers. Dancing is good. Yes. Sewing. YouTube. Sew something good. Knitting, yep, cooking, the front garden. So just short things. One of the advantages of working from home at the moment is we can go into our garden. Sometimes we can go even at work and sit under a tree or just step outside out of the office. Yoga, craft. Yes, music. Music, putting on your favourite tune. Another short sharp one is just taking three really deep breaths to calm yourself. And get that calmness, serenity. That's also a positive emotion. Birds in the tree. I have a great jolt of joy in the morning when I sit on the park bench and look at the ducks in the river swimming around. The idea is when you are feeling good and maybe just straight after today, because we're going to finish at 1.12, is to come up with five jolts of joy that you can use when you need to, that you can go to. Write down five jolts of joy. It's actually on the next slide, Darlene, thanks. Write down five jolts of joy and keep that list handy. Maybe put it on your computer, put it in your diary, put it on your phone. If you are feeling like you are starting to feel down, you can grab your list and go, what will I use at the moment to lift my mood? Another good thing and a few people have mentioned it, stepping out in the garden and so on -- is the value of nature. Nature is found to be great at lifting our mood and our health. It has real effects on our physical and mental health. It's a great thing to lift our mood, to try to spend some time at least once a week in nature. Or at any time after you notice that you are feeling upset or you are really struggling. Take a few minutes to go and step out into nature. That might be sitting in the garden, sitting under a plant, looking at birds in the trees, looking at clouds, whatever and try to take it in as much as you can with all of your senses. So be aware of your surroundings and just lose yourself even for a few seconds in your surroundings.
OUTRO:
We just wanted to thank you again for listening to our podcast. If you are loving our podcasts please subscribe to our channel so you can keep up to date with our latest episodes, we would also appreciate if you could leave us a review. If you are after more great content you can head over to our socials and website - www.adcet.edu.au. Our next bite sized session will be on Balancing Bias - Balance your built-in negativity bias and focus with perspective, clarity and hope
