Want more self-confidence? Feel calm and resistant to stress? Get fit? To see that you are respected and that both your loved ones and people at work listen to your opinion? - Then you need serotonin. He is responsible for all these wonderful effects. How do you know if you have low serotonin? - Increased sensitivity to pain - Decreased self-confidence - Cravings for sweets and overeating in general, weight gain - Slouched posture - Obsessive compulsive disorder - Generalized anxiety disorder - Increased anxiety - Irritable bowel syndrome - Reduced resistance to stress, you “flare up” at any time for a minor reason - Craving for alcohol (more often in men than in women) - There is a person in your environment who devalues ​​your achievements, desires, and after communicating with him you feel depressed and self-pity - Situational depression - Bipolar disorder - Sleep disorders: difficulty falling asleep, shallow sleep, frequent awakenings at night (serotonin is a precursor of melatonin, which is responsible for sweet and healthy sleep) And great news! To get enough serotonin without taking pills, all you need to do is learn and use 11 ways to naturally increase it. 11 ways to get serotonin without SMS and registration):1. Write a list of your achievements and super achievements. Achievements are goals you achieve through persistent and focused effort. Super achievements are goals that you achieved even though you were sure that you would not succeed, possibly due to a lack of initial resources. Examples of super achievements: moving to another city, country, admission to a prestigious educational institution, 1st place in competitions with great competition, traveling to distant countries, speaking in front of a large audience, successfully passing a difficult exam, marathon, finding a dream job, a dream relationship. If a person initially low self-esteem - he will not believe in himself. And getting a driver's license and driving a car will be a super achievement for him. In this case, it is important to work with a specialist on self-esteem. Self-esteem will inevitably be reduced by the influence of a toxic environment, which will convince you that some fairly simple things are inaccessible to you, that you are not worthy. I will write about a toxic environment below. A super achievement can also be something that most people cannot do. What requires courage, intelligence, perseverance and a lot of effort. And only you can decide what will be a super-achievement for you, what will be an achievement. This is your life and your list. Just writing it will give you a rush of serotonin. For many people who, as a result of their upbringing, have a strong negative view of themselves, writing such a list will be a huge achievement. I believe in you!2. Read this list morning and evening. Why is this important or scientific justification? Scientists gathered 2 groups of people with approximately the same IQ and level of intelligence. And we chose several mathematical problems for them. Group 1 was given the task of writing down, reading and remembering their defeats. And the second group - their victories and achievements. As a result, in group 1, 30% of people completed the tasks, and in group 2 - 75%! Conclusion: if you want to be a successful person, you need to remember your achievements. You don’t have to show your lists to anyone and don’t let them devalue them, including your internal condemning censor. We were taught at school to do everything perfectly, and not at a level sufficient for results. Although in most situations in life it is enough to get a C grade and move on. You don’t need to do everything perfectly. For example, in business you need to first test a product made “on your knees” without bringing it to perfection, because it may not work. And one of the most common mistakes is to invest a lot of money, effort and time into a product, make it perfectly, and then launch it on the market and realize that it is not needed. So in business, when testing a product, it’s better to be a C student,for whom excellent students will ultimately work. It is with perfectionism that the habit of devaluing one’s achievements is associated. Therefore: 3. Stop the inner voice that will devalue what you have done. He will say that you were just lucky, you didn’t do anything special, and will repress the fact of your efforts from his consciousness. This is a lie! I remember an incident: I went to a climbing wall with a friend who, with my tips, climbed a difficult route. And after that he was sure that he didn’t get through it! His brain completely repressed this fact, he hypnotized himself into failure and had depression, which we eventually managed without medication. What to do with this devaluator? It can be impolite to send it with 3 letters. And say to yourself: I made an effort to achieve this goal, and I like that I was able to do it. This is really valuable. If a high level of intelligence does not allow you to swear at your internal censor, then you can simply say to yourself: thank you, I refuse to cooperate with you, goodbye. My achievements are important.4. Do not let other people devalue your desires, the qualities of your personality, goals, achievements, pleasure. Especially if these people are your parents or loved one. If you have observed such manifestations of toxicity in them, then there are several options for action: 1) The most radical is to stop communicating for a while, think and decide what to do about it. 2) Continue to communicate, but stop telling what is for you really important. 3) Continue to communicate + set a condition for them to stop devaluing you and your achievements. (How to set it so that they fulfill it is the topic of a separate article) 4) Continue to communicate and tell, again step on the rake of toxic communication and write out how they devalue what is important to you. Next - form a position: you agree with them or not. And ask yourself: I’m being devalued, this can’t happen to me, I’m against this, what do I want next in communicating with these people? Remember! If you feel guilty even at the thought that you might start hiding what is valuable to you or stop communicating with toxic people, this means you have been manipulated by guilt. And this needs to be sorted out together with a specialist. Otherwise, you will be subordinate to toxic people all your life.4. Train your concentration. The simplest option is to find an object in front of you and direct your attention to it. Turn on the stopwatch and time how long you can maintain concentration. As you do this exercise every day, watch how the time lengthens. The longer you can concentrate, the more serotonin you will have. In my consultations, I teach you to concentrate on conditions that cause the release of happiness hormones. 5. Physical training. Not all workouts will give you a surge of serotonin.1) It is released when you are happy (!) doing extra effort. For example, when in the gym or at home you do something that is quite difficult for you and realize that you can do it, and it occurs feeling or thought: I can do anything. Such exercises include bodyweight exercises and when you stand for a long time in static exercises. The main thing is the feeling “I can move mountains”, characteristic of the release of serotonin. 2) Training where you overcome strong fear. For example, heights: rock climbing or even a panda park. Overcoming the fear of falling and speed - alpine skiing, or sliding down a hill on regular skis. Just first you need to work out with an instructor. Parachute jumping6. Learn to defend yourself environmentally from toxic attacks in society. This applies to both this forum and daily communication. What does eco-friendly mean? This is when you clearly see the manipulations of other people and can respond to them calmly, with humor and without aggression. At the same time, in such a way that the people around you will respect you and laugh at the one who “ran into you.” Moreover, I will say: the more environmentally “won” conflicts you have, the more serotonin. The moreserotonin - the more confident your non-verbal manifestations are, as a result of which people begin to respect you at first sight. When situations may arise where you need self-defense from toxicity: - At home - At work - When you come to a toxic trainer to train and he scolds you and does not praise you - On the forum - In transport Such situations can arise during any interaction with people. And this is expected, the main thing is to weed them out and enjoy the opportunity to defend yourself and get serotonin. By avoiding conflicts, you deprive yourself of the opportunity to win environmentally and get a surge of serotonin. I have a course on environmentally friendly self-defense and influence in society, if you want to learn this skill, write to me in a personal message, I will send you a description of the course and conditions.7. Learn to stand up for those who do not know how to stand up for themselves from aggression and toxic attacks: children, women, and less often men. It's an amazing feeling when you realize that you are against violence and on the side of truth. This gives a surge of not only serotonin, but also oxytocin. I remember how during one training the teacher wanted to take away the phone from my partner, an adult. I then stood up and said that he has human rights and this is his property and there is no need to take it away. She started threatening that she wouldn’t give me a certificate, but I talked to the organizers, knowing what to say and how to say it, and everyone calmed down. The phone was saved, the certificate was received, the teacher lowered the degree of arrogance, and I was respected. If you suddenly have a habit of asserting yourself at the expense of weaker ones, for example, yelling at children or, even worse, hitting them, then it is important to remove it. It’s better with a specialist. These are traditions of forced upbringing in society and this is an obstacle to real self-confidence. And it's not your fault, but your choice. This choice prevents you from gaining real self-confidence.8. Develop your interests and hobbies. When a person is very interested in something, he also releases serotonin. A sign of interest is when you do something quite difficult for the brain and are so immersed in it that you don’t see anything around you. This could be studying languages, how the brain works, scrapbooking or programming, researching some issue, reading scientific articles with Google Translator in English. This could be writing articles or drawing. The main thing is that you do something that gives you pleasure and is at least a little challenging for the brain. And so that you don’t scold yourself, but only celebrate your small achievements.9. Start building a supportive environment. A supportive environment will treat your mistakes in a friendly manner, they will reassure you and tell you what you can do to resolve the issue. Will help with resources. He will see the good you do and show respect for you. With such close people you will feel valued. I am planning to create a community called EQclub or a club of love, care and development of emotional intelligence, please write in the comments how relevant it is for you.10. While walking, make sure that your chin is raised 1-2 degrees above the horizon, and so is your gaze. This gives an activating signal to the extensor muscles that maintain posture, and the person automatically straightens up and begins to non-verbally express himself confidently, which in a closed reflex loop gives a signal for the production of serotonin. 11. Remember the state of the winner - determination + action + triumph of victory. By doing this, you directly activate the neural network that is connected to the areas of the brain that produce serotonin. Finally, a few words about cortisol. It is inversely proportional to the amount of serotonin. How it happens: Every time you don't stand up for yourself against injustice, your cortisol levels rise. Every time your inner censor says - yes, this is not such an achievement - your cortisol also increases. If serotonin is the hormone of self-confidence, then cortisol is the hormone of uncertainty and the hormone of stress, victimhood. I will write in detail about the effects of cortisol in a separate article. If you want to work on your self-confidence with me - +79250051555