New Again
/Do you feel a dose of excitement when there is something new in your life?
A new car, new outfit, new project, new friend, new furniture, new season, new home, new shoes, new toy, new relationship, new idea, new journal, new book, new computer, new desk...you get the idea.
What do you feel when you get something new?
(here are some words to get you rolling: hope, a fresh start, potential, momentum, beginning, thrill, anticipation, possibilities, growth)
Think about how good this feels to bring hope, freshness, thrill, and possibilities into your life.
When did you last feel the sensation of something new in your life?
Typically, bringing something new into our lives gives us a dose of dopamine. Dopamine is a feel-good chemical released in our brains at the excitement and anticipation of something new.
We can actually get a hit of dopamine without spending any money. You can make things new again with just a little mindset work and intentionality.
The word renew means to "make new again." We can renew things in our life and get the same happiness hit of dopamine that we did when it was new.
Think about this with some object in your life - cars, furniture, clothes - select something that you were happy about when it was new. Reflect what you loved about it - a new car doesn't have our junk in it yet, new furniture doesn't have spills and snags yet, new clothes feel fresh. We love the clean start of something new.
Now take some action:
How can I make my car feel new again?
What can I do around my house to feel a sense of things being new again?
How can I help my friendship, partnership, or marriage feel new again?
What else in my life could use some renewal?
Notice the areas in your life that feel stale or stuck. What would it take to bring new life into these areas?
There are scientific studies looking at the dopamine released when a person eats popcorn with chopsticks instead of by the handful or when a person eats a raisin extremely slowly for 5 minutes as if they had never experienced a raisin before. These studies are quoted in mindfulness workshops often (the power of slowing down and noticing) but this data is also used to prove that our brain needs new stimulation, which is why we love new things. Here is a link to one of the studies if you are intrigued by this.
Give your brain some new experiences this week - make old things feel new again and see what you notice.
Sending you lots of renewed spirits,
Ginger
P.S. This fun clip from Breakfast at Tiffany's may lend some inspiration to making a relationship feel new again.