A what? A struggle switch?! What the heck is that? Imagine if your mind has a switch that gets flipped on every time you feel a certain unwanted emotion. Anxiety for instance. Or sadness. How about anger? Imagine that switch gets flipped when we react to these  typical  human emotions. We feel anxious. We notice the anxiety. Then we get anxious about anxiety. Now we've got a double dose of anxiety! That's the glorious side effect of having a fantastically sophisticated human brain!  Has that ever happened to you? I know it's happened to me. 

Now that you know you have one, would you like help in turning off your Struggle Switch? Different modes of therapy can help with that! 

I recently watched this fascinating TEDxTalk given by Alison Ledgerwood. In 10 minutes, she describes how easy it is for our minds to get stuck in the negative. Makes sense to me, because we've survived as a species because our brains our awesome at sensing danger!  Danger in the past (and present) was/is equated with something negative. Our fight/Flight centers of our brains fire up when negative stuff happens, getting our bodies ready to act--either fight or run like the dickens (or freeze...but I'm not sure if you can freeze like the dickens...Heck I'm not even sure what "the dickens" is!) 

However, Alison gives some super fascinating statistics in her talk  about her research in how our minds get stuck in the negative.  If you have a chance (10 minutes only!), check it out below. She also makes a good case for beginning a gratitude practice as a way of retraining our minds to get out of the negative. So, What are you grateful for you today?

Alison Ledgerwood joined the Department of Psychology at UC Davis in 2008 after completing her PhD in social psychology at New York University. She is interested in understanding how people think, and how they can think better. Her research, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, investigates how certain ways of thinking about an issue tend to stick in people's heads.

September 11 happened earlier this week. It's a day that causes pause for many of us. While reflecting on the collective grief that 9/11 holds for this country, I decided to re institute my (errr....Mother Theresa's actually...) "be the change you want to see in the world" motto by re-committing to my daily yoga practice. I turned to my favorite YouTube Yoga Teacher,Lesley Fightmaster, for direction. Here's the first of her 30 Yoga for Happiness videos. Why not give it a try? Surely you've got 30 minutes to commit to yourself, don't you? 

Welcome to Hatha Yoga Happiness. I'm thrilled that you're here!! Day 1 starts off gently and focuses on gratitude (no big surprises from me...right?). Remember...gratitude is an action and the more we practice it, the happier we'll feel! BTW-These yoga videos are great to practice in the morning if you can.