SerenitySTAT
wrote:
I finished active treatment less than a month ago, and wow, you just don't bounce right back up. Before all this started I have had sciatica for a couple of years, and it worsened during treatment. In trying to recover from both, I've been feeling frustrated. Now, I'm tired of the pain, fatigue, and frustration. Oh, and all these pills! I've been told I'm not happy unless I'm complaining about something (yes, my darling husband, though he hasn't said it since diagnosis).
I recently read this article below and pulled out some sections. It reminded me of when I was younger and said "It's the little things...". I'm going to try it and will post my thin slices of joy as I experience them. Please join me so I can experience your thin slices of joy.
http://qz.com/818998/googles-former-happiness-guru...
Google's former happiness guru developed a three-second brain exercise for finding joy
Successfully reshaping your mindset, he argues, has less to do with hours of therapy and more to do with mental exercises, including one that helps you recognize "thin slices of joy."
Although they last two or three seconds, the moments add up, and the more you notice joy, the more you will experience joy, Tan argues. "Thin slices of joy occur in life everywhere… and once you start noticing it, something happens, you find it's always there. Joy becomes something you can count on." That's because you're familiarizing the mind with joy, he explains.
Tan's "thin slice" exercise contains a trigger, a routine, and a reward—the three parts necessary to build a habit. The trigger, he says, is the pleasant moment, the routine is the noticing of it, and the reward is the feeling of joy itself.
A small study by psychologists from Loyola University published last month in the journal Aging, for instance, showed that among adults over age 55, those who reported a better ability to savor life were more likely to report higher life satisfaction, regardless of ill health. For those less able to relish small events, poor health made all of life seem drearier.
Sep 12, 2017 Edited to add update on sciatica: Using postural alignment exercises and nerve flossing, my sciatic pain is gone. I have most of my mobility back, and I am no longer taking any pain medications! I have significantly less mental fatigue after I dropped my Lyrica dosage. Big joy! I need to continue the nerve flossing or else I feel the tightness returning, but that takes less than a minute of my time. It took months of slow progress with some setbacks, but I finally succeeded!
"Do not overlook the little joys!" (Hesse, 1905) 🐶☕️🛀🖼🥐🌲🎭 Dx 11/2015 IDC Left IIIC 10/11 nodes ER+PR+HER2-, 12/2015 Left Mast, 2/2016 4 AC+12 Taxol, 9/2016 Rads Nodes Chest wall 15+4 boosts, 10/2016 Tamox, 4/2019 Exemestane, 12/2019 Ibrance/Xgeva
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