The gaining of skills and competencies by using our minds and bodies in new ways is deeply satisfying because our brains and bodies evolved to be used and are only at their healthiest when they are. The sense of our own competence and achievements gives us feedback that we have learned something. This is why the brain rewards learning or achievement of any kind by releasing dopamine, the brain's ‘pleasure chemical'. We experience good feelings by learning something new and then, as we consolidate the achievement, the brain begins to turn down the reward chemical so we will strive to do better or learn something else.
Equally, finding our personal harmony and purpose in life is crucial for a healthy brain. It is essential for allowing our skills to flourish as well as for removing us from the many addictive tendencies that exist in life. Any activity that makes us feel happy to be alive and offers us a sense of achievement may support and nourish our brains.
In an effort to complete the needs of the world first, many people postpone doing what they love or what they know they need to accomplish for themselves until later in life. What a terrible mistake! It is far preferable to devote a portion of our life to pursuits in which we may fully invest our hearts, brains, and energy. Finding a mission in your life, a commitment to a calling, a career, or even a hobby focuses the mind and the soul. Psychotic patients report that they don't hear ‘the voices' while they are busy working. Surely we ordinary people can calm our own internal whispers with some intentional activities. Almost any form of work or concentrated effort can quiet the noisy brain. Work you love is more powerful still because it brings with it a sense of accomplishment, pleasure and well-being. Passion heals.
One thing to keep in mind is that while pursuing your passion, it is the act of doing that counts, not any perceived level of achievement. The best treatment for our problems is a diet of ongoing, exciting activities. It minimises the noise, fragility, self-doubt, and stagnation that we all must deal with by keeping the brain in a state of continual change, flow, confirmation, and anticipation.
Setting up small manageable goals when on our healing journey is so important, so we can experience success. When you first set a goal, you might get excited about it and a spike of motivation will strike. But motivation is like a flame on a match. It will burn itself out. It's an unsustainable source of fuel. But if you have a routine of small actions that are not too radical or dramatic to maintain, then your new sense of identity will help to sustain you.
And this is where Solution Focused Hypnotherapy comes in place. It can help you not only achieve your goals but to determine which goals to set in the first place and whether any of them feel worth it. Trance reduces stress levels and engages the deeper parts of our mind to focus more positively on what's good, what we want, and what we're looking forward to.