Seek Out Peak Experiences?!?!
“Why would I want to do that?”
We want to provide our brains with peek experiences because our brains absolutely love learning. It is what the brain is designed to do; learn and keep up safe. This is called seeking out “novel stimuli” by us PsycNerds.
“Novelty seeking refers to the tendency of humans and animals to explore novel and unfamiliar stimuli and environments. The idea that dopamine modulates novelty seeking is supported by evidence that novel stimuli excite dopamine neurons and activate brain regions receiving dopaminergic input”. Translation, find something new for your brain and your brain rewards you with a little brain dopamine bath. A flood of feel good.
There are so many benefits to getting outside your comfort zone, taking off those sweat pants and adding a little risk-taking discomfort to your life. I am going to take a moment and pull back the psychotherapy curtains and let you in on the secret magic that is happening in the counselling process. Psychotherapy modalities and strategies, like the following, all involve people learning new ways of being and getting outside their comfort comfortzone: Behavioral Activation, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Systematic Desensitization, Emotion Focussed Therapy, and really most psychotherapy modalities. This is why therapy works, your plastic brain loves new things and what our brain spends time on is what is built in your brain (new neutrons).
Your brain builds what it spends time on.
“Doing one thing every day that scares you” does not mean base jumping or holding a tarantula in your hand, unless you want to, it means leaning into your life and taking steps toward the things that you want. Often those things can have some fear instilling obstacles plunked right on your path to happiness. So lean in, roll up your sleeves, at your own pace, in a direction that enhances your life and face those little fears.
Risks with benefits 🙂
*HUG*
Just a reminder that this post is part of a 10-part series designed to help you get out and do things that improve your mental health and wellbeing. #PsychoSocialMentalHealth
Series: 10 Things You Can Do to Be Nice to Your Brain
- Learn to Tolerate Ambiguity
- Be Open to New Information
- Learn to Reframe Adversity
- You Don’t Have to Act the Way You Feel
- Zone in on Your Purpose in Life
- Mastering Motivation a.k.a Setting a Fire Under Your Butt!
- TODAY! Seek Out Peak Experiences and Give Your Brain a Little Party!
- Stay True to Your Values – Who do YOU want to be in this world?
- Learn the Art of Balance
- Apply the “Power of Yet” in Your Life
So What Are These Peak Experiences You Talk About?
I hear you saying…
Well, let’s back up a bit. Peak experiences were originally described by psychologist Abraham Maslow as “moments of highest happiness and fulfillment“, in his 1964 book “Religions, Values and Peak Experiences“. He described a peak experience as “a moment accompanied by a euphoric mental state often achieved by self-actualizing individuals”. Dr. Maslow ranked human needs in a pyramid to show that there are so many important needs that must be met on the road to even being able to spend time self-actualizing. We really need to have a place to live and enough food to fuel this journey, as well as, we need to feel safe and connected to our social groups long before we can even start thinking about building our self-confidence and taking personal risks as we seek opportunities to stretch and grow as people.
But…
Self-actualization is not only massive and wonderful challenges, but also the little ones along the way that spark joy or a state of awe. So, no excuses!
What Does a Peak Experience Look Like?
Well, I am glad you asked. To get a little nerdy on ya…
Back in 1983, Gayle Privette developed an Experience Questionnaire (still relevant) that was designed to look at both the shared and unique characteristics of peak experiences. After looking at a wide variety of people, peak experiences have been identified as sharing three key characteristics:
- Significance: Peak experiences lead to an increase in personal awareness and understanding and can serve as a turning point in a person’s life.
- Fulfillment: Peak experiences generate positive emotions and are intrinsically rewarding.
- Spiritual: During a peak experience, people feel at one with the world and often experience a sense of losing track of time, or a state of Flow.
So How Do Peak Experiences Help My Psychological Wellbeing?!?
I hear you wondering…
Check This Out!
Peak Experiences and the Life Changing Power of Awe
“Perhaps the most significant result of a peak experience can be a permanent, positive change of the individual – a sense that one will never again be the same person.”
Why Your Brain Likes Peak Experiences
Dr. Lisa Feldman-Barrett, Clinical Neuroscientist
Last summer I ready a really nerdy book that I loved and it explained so much to me about the new frontier in emotion research. Dr. Feldman-Barett describes emotions in the following way. It blew my mind and explained so much about my experience and the experience of my clients.
- First of all, Emotions are CONSTRUCTED
- I know right?!?! it is so cool that we are active constructors of our own emotions!
- Emotion circuits are not hardwired in our brains.
It all starts with…
- Feelings that Start with Body Signals: this process is called Interoception
- There are 4 main body signals included in interception (emotion creating body signal process) which are how “pleasant-unpleasant” you feel and how “calm-agitated” you feel (mild-intense).
and then your brain does this…
- Feelings Come from Your Brain Predicting
- Happiness, sadness, anger and the rest are not represented by specific circuits within the brain but are rather constructed in the moment.
- Emotions are your brain’s best guess of how you should feel in the moment.
Cultivating Peak Experiences in Your Life
is Important to Your Mental Health.
…I hear your cries of anguish!
“How Do I Do This?!?”
First of all, I want to reiterate that peak experiences come in all shapes and sizes. Don’t put pressure on yourself that you have to go out and have the most amazing, high risk, expensive and transformational experience (those are great, but rare). Go out and be in nature, do something for the first time by learning/experiencing something new, go see a film with subtitles and set some life goals that you can plan and prepare for!
Start with listening to this song for inspiration 🙂
“For the First Time” by Darius Ruker
Here are some ideas to get you started:
Step #1: Read this: How to Adopt a Beginners Mind
Step #2: Watch this: Mindfulness Attitudes – Beginner’s Minds (Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn)
Step #3: Go out and do some stuff!
47 Cheap, Fun Things to Do This Weekend
103 Things to Do on a Money Free Weekend
Get started cultivating awe and creating new emotion concepts in your brain!
Still Don’t Have You Convinced?!?!
Here is the PsychNERDY Science
According to research at UC Berkeley, awe even has anti-inflammatory effects on your body. Researchers found that feeling the beauty of nature, art, and spirituality lower the levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines (things in your body that can cause chronic painful diseases).
“Awe, wonder and beauty promote healthier levels of cytokines suggests that the things we do to experience these emotions — a walk in nature, losing oneself in music, beholding art — has a direct influence upon health and life expectancy,” — Dacher Keltner – Psychologist UC Berkeley
If you never grow, you will never know just how much the mind, body and spirit, working together, are connected to your happiness and psychological wellbeing.
Hey Peak Experience!
Can You Stick Around for a While!?!?!
Two years ago, I wrote about a book that I read and LOVED called, Hardwiring Happiness, by Dr. Rick Hanson, Neuropsychologist. What I loved about this book is that it is very easy to read and apply to your life. I am mentioning it again because it is the final step in your peak experience adventures, making the memories last. Dr. Hansen is a pretty amazing and inspirational speaker to be in the presence of. Yes, I have academically stalked him too 😉
He shares very doable strategies for making positive thoughts stick with you. He says, “the human brain has a tendency to act like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones, a trait that can, over time, lead to anxiety, irritability and self-esteem issues” and “by taking a few extra seconds to stay with a positive experience, you will help turn a passing mental state into a lasting neural trait”
Check out his very simple strategy he calls HEAL. Go out and HAVE a good experience (seek out the peak), ENRICH this experience (rattle it around your brain), ABSORB this experience (don’t let it get away) and then introduce it to a negative experience you still have that is hanging around your brain and LINK them. 
“Taking in the good, can literally rewire our brains”. Check out my previous post for more strategies to help you take in the positive and have it stick around.
So go out give your brain a little party, try new things, create emotion concepts with life experience so that your brain has a range to choose from and hardwire those positive moments of awe into your brain for recall later.
Well, you can have the opportunity to infuse peak experiences from simple activities to intense events, into your life that change your brain and foster your mental health and wellbeing. Please remember, it is not necessarily about what the activity is, but the ecstatic, blissful feeling that is being experienced during it.
Want to Read More?
- Peak Experiences in Psychology
- The Power of Curiosity
- Two Scientific Ways to Make the Most Out of Life
Tell me about your journey!
#YouGotThis #LiveFully #MentalWellness
Dr. Heather Drummond, C.Psych.
Psychologist * Passionate Advocate for Human Flourishing * Human Muddling Through
#EmbraceThisMessyLife
Hi,
What a great start for the day, reading through this posting about our amazing brains and what we can do to keep them (consequently us) happy!
Lots of anticipation about the new things I will discover when will make the time (soon) to click on all the links you provided.
Until then, for sure this days looks better, because I already learned something new!
I have a little poster in my office, that says: “It is never too late to become the person you were meant to be”.
I don’t know the author, and I tried to find it today, but could not. However, one of the search results came up with an addition to it:
“Align your personality and soul purpose and experience more synchronicity, fulfillment and happiness.
It is never too late to become the person you were meant to be”
Thank you Heather for awakening the curiosity in us.
Have an amazing day!
Eugenia
Thank you so much Eugenia! It is such a gift to me to receive such warm and wonderful responses to my posts. You made me feel exactly like I am trying to make other people feel; valued, beautifully human and with so much to contribute. Thank you so very much for taking the time to share your kindness <3 Heather