Hello friends, and welcome to this month’s Joyinmovement newsletter. As we close out another year, (the 12th year of newsletters), it’s impossible to think of this year as just another year. It’s been anything but. Often at year’s end we talk about goals for the new year. I’m thinking we all share the same goals going into 2021: stay healthy, stay safe, stay positive, and test negative. Now that we’ve dispensed with goals, I’ve got FIVE fun and valuable videos and topics to share with you. Let’s get started with………
10 Songs That Make People Happy
I don’t know about you, but music evokes emotion in me, so why not get some happiness going? Recently, there was a very fun article in Inc. Magazine. Based on research by a neuroscientist, these 10 songs make people happy!
Here are the songs. Give a listen and see what you think. If you have any songs that make you happy that are missing from this list, let me know. Can never have too much happiness 🙂
Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen
Dancing Queen by Abba
Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys
Uptown Girl by Billie Joel
Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
I’m a Believer by The Monkees
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper
Livin’ on a Prayer by Jon Bon Jovi
I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor
Walking on Sunshine by Katrina & The Waves
Got Elbow Pain? Watch this video!
Lately, I think due to all the work-from-home hours that people are logging, I’ve been fielding many questions about elbow pain. It’s a common complaint, so thought I’d share this excellent short video so you can see what to do for elbow pain.
Better Approach to Weight Loss
I’m betting that a large majority of you will put fat loss as one of your 2021 goals. There is one simple action you can do more of, that you are already doing but probably not paying attention to. Did I get your attention? Good…….then watch this!
Looking to Make Change or Begin New Habits? Use Habit Pairs!
Research suggests that what’s often called “pairing” or “stacking” can help us stick to new habits after their novelty has worn off. Why? Because pairing reduces the overall cognitive cost of both remembering to integrate these behaviors into our lives, and actually performing them.
Pairing means attaching a new habit to an existing habit: I’ll take vitamins when I eat lunch each day, or I’ll read fiction for twenty minutes every night right before I go to sleep.
The idea is to figure out what’s allowing your brain to justify away sustained maintenance of positive habits, and to get rid of those excuse-triggers whenever possible.
Fool-proofing our habit-building systems may mean investing in a few small pieces of workout gear so that the journey to the gym doesn’t serve as an excuse to miss our daily workout. It may also mean not keeping unhealthy snacks at home, if we know we’ll eat them if they’re available.
Health-related habits are statistically some of the most difficult habits to introduce and stick with over time. But this pairing approach applies to any kind of habit, from reading more books to learning a new language, from writing every day to being more outwardly appreciative of the people in your life.
One motivating factor about using pairing is that these sorts of efforts tend to compound over time.
Successfully integrating new habits is a muscle that can be developed! I find that the process of rooting out frictions, identifying existing habits to which we might attach new ones, and tweaking our environments to make those habits work better, becomes second-nature after doing pairing a few times.
Remember that who we become is in many ways a consequence of all the small things we do each day. Having a better sense of how those small things fit together, what makes them sustainable, and an awareness of our ability to swap them in and out if we choose to, grants us more control over our eventual outcomes.
This Month’s Book Recommendation
Thinking clearly about the world we live in may be more important now than ever. Here’s a great and important read for you. Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think, by Hans Rosling.
Rosling was a medical doctor, professor of international health and renowned public educator. He was an adviser to the World Health Organization and UNICEF, and co-founded Médecins sans Frontières in Sweden and the Gapminder Foundation. His TED talks have been viewed more than 35 million times, and he was listed as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world. Hans died in 2017, having devoted the last years of his life to writing Factfulness.
I have a prediction as we end the last newsletter of 2020. You’re going to look back and see that this was the year that gave you a decade’s worth of personal growth and self-development! I hope throughout the year I provided you with ValueTainment: education, inspiration, and entertainment!
No matter what happens in 2021, we have no choice but to show up every day and be the hope, light, and optimism for each other, our communities, and for our family.
See you next year, and keep the Joyinmovement flowing, no matter what!
shelli
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