positivity

Kinda Nice!

/ Steve Lakey / 5 Comments

 

In Dr David Hamilton’s blog post, ‘Born to be Kind’, he explains how we have been conditioned to show kindness through our heredity. No wonder being kind makes us feel better – it’s part of our genetic makeup. 

Our bodies have evolved to produce a hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin is sometimes referred to as the ‘cuddle chemical’ or the ‘hug hormone’, with good reason. It helps us to emotionally bond with each other.

We don’t just produce oxytocin when we’re being kind, but even when we’re thinking about being kind. So all those hours spent looking at cute animal videos on YouTube weren’t wasted after all!

Even small expressions of support between family members and friends will stimulate the release of oxytocin. As will quality time with your pets. Or someone else’s pets.

Not only do we get to feel better, which improves our mental health, but there are many physical benefits of oxytocin being released too. Love, trust and sincerity can prompt our inner healing process.

Oxytocin can increase the body’s healing rates and slow ageing rates. It can lower blood pressure and decrease intestinal inflammation. The list goes on.

So if you’re being kind to someone else, they benefit and so do you – it’s not just kinda nice, it’s kinda win-win! 

Nature Nurtures

/ Steve Lakey / 6 Comments

Photo by Steve Lakey

If you read my recent post, ‘Life Lessons From a Fitness Tracker’, you would know that I’ve recently become reacquainted with my Fitbit, after a long lay-off.

My stats are gradually improving, if not exactly hitting Olympian levels. But I’ve realised that my exercise doesn’t have to be extreme to be beneficial. Unlikely as you are to find me power walking past you at high speed, I’ve rediscovered another type of power walking – drawing on the power of Nature. 

This area of the country used to be scattered with coal mines and the railway tracks that served them. One of the few positives from the demise of the pits, is that a wealth of parks and trails have been landscaped in their place, to create an environmental legacy throughout the local countryside.

Just a short drive from my home, I can be walking on a secluded country trail. One minute, I’m strolling through a steep-sided cutting, hewn from its sandstone bed over century ago. And the next, I’m high on an embankment, looking down on a herd of sheep, through the canopy of trees. On occasion, a gap in the green affords me an unexpected glimpse of a farm. A few times, I walk under stone and ironwork bridges – relics of the industrial past.

On this May afternoon, I was joined by a chorus of happily chirping birds. Later, several horses cantered by. There were dog walkers aplenty, with their furry friends chasing around happily.

Everyone, humans and animals alike, seemed to have the time to say “Hello!” Even the speedy cyclists nodded their heads and gave a cheery thanks as I gave them room to pass. A sprightly senior dog walker told me that all this area was his playground when he was a kid. In the days when there were not only railways here, but steam trains using them.

But mostly, it was peaceful and I had myself for company. And whatever pace I was going, there was no denying the restorative power I drew from this walk.

Nature most certainly nurtures!

Big Boys DO Cry

/ Steve Lakey / Leave a comment

I recently watched a YouTube video about ‘Top Ten Songs that Make You Cry’. I have to say that I was baffled by most of the choices, but I guess it’s a personal thing. The two main things against me crying at songs are:

  1. I’m British (stiff upper lip and all that)
  2. I’m Male (big boys don’t cry!)

I suppose it’s down to conditioning through many generations. Our tear ducts work perfectly fine. It’s just for most of us they don’t get used very often!

But things are changing, I would say for the better. No self-respecting U.K. X-Factor contestant, male or female, is afraid to shed happy tears when they qualify for the next stage of their journey. So maybe the ice is melting. And maybe there is hope too for the middle-aged generation of British men like me.

To prove my point, I stumbled on a song that gets me tearful every time I hear it. Even reading the lyrics gets me emotional. It just somehow resonates with me. Reading the YouTube comments, I’m not the only one that feels like this.

The way it brings my emotions to the surface in a calming way, allows a cleansing and healing process to take place. And through it, my spirits are lifted.

So sometimes, big boys do need to cry!

The song is ‘Big River’, written and performed  by Jimmy Nail. Jimmy is a British actor/singer who is synonymous with his home city of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne on England’s North East coast. With this song, he weaves a story that is deeply personal, together with a lament for times past, and concerns for an uncertain future. But as the song finishes, Jimmy sounds a note of positivity, that the spirit of its people will see a once mighty city restored to its former glory. His heartfelt vocals combine with the haunting guitar work of Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler.

 One of the reasons I connect with this story is that I come from a former coal mining area. Now, all the pits are closed and most of the heavy industry has gone for ever. It isn’t just the economy that is suffering, it is the local identity. Four generations of my own family, including myself, worked at one of the local pits, Mansfield Colliery. The story for me is both historical and personal.

Like Jimmy’s big river, I hope my hometown of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire and the surrounding area will rise again. And in a way that looks to the future, while still honouring the traditions of the past.

It’s not the industry that made the people, it’s the people that made the industry.

 

 

Leaving Homepage!

/ Steve Lakey / 2 Comments

Anyone that’s moved home will tell you that it can be a stressful experience. But moving homepage has definitely removed a whole lot of negativity from my life!

My morning routine for several years now has been to look at the BBC News website and watch their breakfast programme over my cereals. When I click to open my Safari browser, the first thing I see is a selection of the day’s news:

Our Prime Minister said this!

Their President tweeted that!

The Economy is about to do this! 

And of course, all the news and information is carefully screened and monitored to be inspiring, uplifting and positively the brightest way to start your day – Not!

It isn’t that the BBC is any worse than any other news organisation. But it can’t be coincidence that most of what we are shown is seriously negative. Is this really what we want?

Every disaster, natural or man-made, is systematically beamed from around the globe and presented in a condensed format that can be repeated at regular intervals, just in case we missed it fifteen minutes earlier. Perhaps we should be grateful that the misery is generally restricted to our planet. Presumably, in the future we’ll be shown the destruction of distant galaxies, holographically Live-streamed from the Delta Quadrant! 

So, I’m choosing to remain in blissful ignorance of Life’s misery. I’m sure if something is important enough, it will filter its way to me eventually.

My morning routine now consists of a slightly more healthy breakfast, with a reassuringly relaxing, yet superbly stimulating side-order of positivity.

My replacement homepage is WordPress. I now study positive posts on my Reader while listening to relaxing ambient background music. And when work beckons, I head for the shower with more of a spring in my step.

That feels like good news to me.

Life Lessons From a Fitness Tracker

/ Steve Lakey / 10 Comments

On my previous post, ‘Want Success? Aim Lower!’, I wrote about how I re-engaged with my sadly forgotten fitness tracker, and by lowering my targets, I managed to succeed. I can happily report that my progress, for the most part, has continued. And if I have the odd bad day, I accept it and put my best foot forward.

I have since rediscovered the world of tracker stats. Delving into the accompanying app, there is a goldmine of health-related stats to pan out, should I get the urge. I looked at my sleep patterns (probably not getting enough), resting heart rate (dropped to respectable levels) and even started recording my water intake (increased due to buying a fruit-infuser water bottle).

And as a tracker is made for tracking, it’s great for looking at trends and patterns in your fitness journey.

But it also has another benefit. Whether you use the app or not, the  tracker helps you stay in the moment. Or at least to take one day at a time.

I’ve had good days when I’ve blown my targets out of the water. And bad ones where I’ve sunk without trace. But come midnight, everything resets to Zero. Without fail.

Every morning I wake up to a tracker empty of steps, but full of possibilities. How it plays out is down to me – I have to take responsibility for my own actions. Do I take a step in the right direction, or a turn for the worse?

And tomorrow, it all starts again – my results are washed clean. I’m up and walking. Today was the best day ever? Great, but soon those numbers will disappear. Yesterday was a washout? No matter, today can be better. I’m free to choose. 

That’s not a bad prompt to get every morning. So many positives from such a small device.