Today, December 4, is National Dice Day. Often I laugh to myself because our society needs to have these special holidays for things that really aren’t important in the grand scheme of life. However, these quirky “holidays” do link many ideas in my mind and give me food for thought and they can be fun too!
I don’t have a personality that gravitates to gambling and usually don’t even purchase lottery tickets. Although, I must admit, I love Las Vegas for the architecture and I do occasionally play the lottery when the rewards are high. I think we all dream of winning that big jackpot and having the opportunity to retire with a margarita in our hand while sitting on a beach. But there are other ways that you gamble in your life without going to the casino or purchasing lottery tickets.
We gamble with our lives by how we view what’s happening and how we react to those things that are happening. Our outlook and our reactions determine everything that happens in our life.
Because its National Dice Day, it made me ask myself …
What I am doing or what am I avoiding doing in my life that is almost “gambling with my life or my future” because I’m not addressing or facing the problem?
In all honesty when I have an issue that bothers me, I tend to constantly mull it over in my mind and put my head in the sand and avoid it at all costs. It’s almost like a fight or flight response and it is exhausting! In the logical side of my mind, I know that this habit increases my stress level and doesn’t resolve the issue. Eventually, things pile up and everything becomes way too much and then it hits me like a truck. Once that happens, my progress in my life and self-growth comes to a dead stop. Once I’m stopped, it takes twice as much energy to get started again. I have done this so many times I can’t even count them. As I look back at my life, I see that I have lost precious time. As I get older, that time becomes much more precious. None of us knows how long we will be here to complete what we need to do. Unfortunately, this has been my go-to for coping with my life challenges.
It’s really to difficult to change habits because we have been doing these things our entire life and they are ingrained to who we are. Ingrained means that it is a pattern of thoughts and actions that are immediately triggered by a particular event, smell, word, image, or thought. Once the trigger activates the pattern, it’s very difficult to stop. Each time you repeat the pattern, it becomes stronger and faster to activate. This is why we find it so difficult to change our habits. Luckily, if you can see it and admit it to yourself you can begin to change it.
I am slowly changing these bad habits. I do admit it has taken a lot of hard work. But when I have made progress and to break these ingrained habits down, it’s helped to slowly eliminate stress. I am realistic though, that I will probably be a work in progress the rest of my life. But, I am OK with that too. If I had nothing to work on, I think life would be pretty boring.
Take some time out of your day and ask yourself …
What are you doing or what are you avoiding in your life that is almost “gambling with your life or your future” because you’re not addressing or facing the problem?
Now that you realize that you’re doing something that isn’t helping you, I’m sure you’re asking what can you do about it.
Fortunately, your brain can be rewired because it has neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity means that if you use mindfulness to pay attention to what you are feeling, when you are feeling it, and add an art modality like painting, you can actually rewire your brain to form new pathways. You need to pay attention to how you are thinking and how you are feeling so that you can change your patterns. Check out the infographic below.
Dartmouth College psychologist Alexander Schlegel, did a controlled study to determine if mindfulness can actually change a brain. An article was published in the journal NeuroImage. They determined that when you start doing the work with art and mindfulness the brain responds, allowing one to build and retain information.
Mindfulness and art allow the brain to adapt to new habits, new skills, and new information.
Painting is an excellent creative activity to engage the brain. When painting is paired with intention, it acts just like meditating on a cushion.
It helps you to access information by combining the analytical side of the brain and the creative side of the brain and helps them to function in agreement as one unit and allows your body and mind to be live in a more peaceful state.
If you want to make some changes, add some mindfulness and some type of creative activity like painting to your day!
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