Here's a win that surprised me tonight. Despite struggling with new glasses for the past month*, I have recently enjoyed pulling out some of my old piano music from as far back as high school.
Tonight, I moved past the eye issues and other things weighing on the day and tried a Beethoven Sonata. In fact, I had avoided it for 19 years, thinking I could never enjoy casually playing what I had spent two years perfecting and memorizing for part of my final recital and exam. I had completely forgotten what it looked and sounded like... until I started playing.
Here's the utterly amazing thing about our brains. I still had muscle-memory to play some parts easily! And what struck me was that the parts I remembered best were the sections that made me happiest all those years ago! They gave me the old thrill again, and I'm pretty sure I was smiling through them tonight.
This reminded me how happiness is powerful in our brains!!
TIP: Try take time to purposely remember some happy things in your past... whether years ago or days ago. Knowing what we do about the neuroplasticity of the brain, this simple act will do more for your health than you can imagine!
Intentionally remembering - especially in light of God's goodness, provision, love... positively affects many parts of the brain, including the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and amygdala. It even helps our brain release dopamine, positively impacting far more than just mood!
No wonder God told us throughout His word to "remember" as well as to think about whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy. [Philippians 4:8] Science is finally catching up to some more of what God has told us all along.
*Yep, it was time for bifocals along with the double whammy of a prism to pull my left eye into alignment. The combination of a sledding injury 24 years ago along with the neurological complications of Lyme, mold, toxic levels of mercury, etc. these past years, made my optometrist give this a try.
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