Carol Gray Kennedy

FFFFOUND! | on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

StumbleUpon WebToolbar - Feelings Matter Less To Teenagers, Neuroscientist Says

I hope everyone is enjoying spring as much as I am! There is so much new life out there! It’s hard to believe there’s all that life underground during our long, Maine winters.

A climate like Maine can be a difficult one for anyone prone to depression in the low light season. It’s a challenge to have faith that warmth and the myriad of colors will appear again.

Life, of course,…can be like that, too. There are periods of cold or darkness that can surround us and seem to swallow us up. We get through them using our memory of better feelings and seemingly better times. This often calls upon our ability to use visualization or imagination.

Often in therapy, a skill is taught to aid in relaxation or changing a difficult mood. The task is to remember or create an experience that is pleasurable, relaxing, or invoking of joy. It is best to use all the senses, because the brain is wired to remember through the experience of sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. There is, in fact, a part of our brain which cannot tell the difference between the imagined and our present physical experience. It is the same.

Because of this, imagining times of pleasure, relaxation, and joy can completely alter the present moment and fill it with whatever we focus on. I’m not saying it’s always easy. Practicing when feeling well is important if you want to use this skill under duress…but it is effective!

For now, I’m going to enjoy all the growth, color, and warmth. I know next winter I will need to remember it many times!