A Simple Brain Hack to Shift Your Mood in Midlife

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Welcome to Midlife Unfiltered and if you've been with us for a while you'll know that every second episode my partner Clarky and I record together. Today we've decided to change it up a little, still be the two of us, but this time I'm going to share a tool that I use in my own life. And Brett is probably going to ask me some questions about it because I'm sure he wonders what the heck I do sometimes with these tools. In this episode, we're changing it up. We're doing something different. You'll notice it's shorter, it's sharper. And we share a really practical tool that you can use. This particular tool is a great way to hack your brain's neurochemistry and help you to see the world in a more positive way. Hope you enjoy. nor is it a substitute for independent professional care. Margit Cruice is not a registered health professional. You are responsible for your own choices and outcomes and should always seek advice from an appropriately qualified professional. So this will be short, it'll be practical, it'll be real. So welcome to the Hacks, Habits and Happiness on Midlife Unfiltered. I'm really interested in what you're to talk about because you do some weird things. I do some weird things, that's true. So today's little, it's a hack that I'm sharing and it's a really simple thing you can do, but I want to go just give you a little bit of background as to why I would do this. So there's some really interesting research around. …about what happens when you force your face into a smile. And I know that sounds really weird because it's hard to walk around with a smile if you don't feel like smiling. And so this tool is for those times but it actually can help improve your brain chemistry. Can I just say something? ⁓ Because I'm really in this. ⁓ Because one of favourite things to do in life… is walk around supermarkets and shopping centers and look at how unhappy everybody is. Everybody has a face that goes… I don't know whether that's going to look very good on the… It's not going to sound very good. But they have faces that are not happy. Everybody looks upset. That's right. They don't look happy. And this is actually…it's a really important point because what happens when you don't look happy is there is an impact on your brain chemistry. So there's been research around where they've been getting participants to practice smiling, like forcefully practice, even though they didn't feel like it. And what they found is that the emotional center of the brain, so which is the, it releases the neurochemicals that, neurotransmitters that encourage an emotionally positive state. And so basically, like one of the things the lead researcher was saying is that when your muscles say you're happy, when your muscles say you're happy, you're more likely to see the world around you in a positive way. you're more likely to see the world around you in a positive way. And we're specifically today talking about the muscles of your face. And then there was this really interesting study ⁓ that they did ⁓ using functional MRIs that ⁓ when you hold pen in your you activate the same in your face as when you're smiling. ⁓ And it produces measurable increases in brain activity. in areas that are associated with positive emotional states compared to holding the pen differently. So is there a particular way you put this pen in your mouth like you put it this way? Yeah, so it's really interesting. No, so for those of you listening, has just put the pen in his mouth basically so it's sticking straight out. And no, that's not the way it does. That's not going to do anything. But if you put the pen in your mouth in a horizontal way, For those of you watching on YouTube this is much easier. It's hard to talk too. Yes, yes. You shouldn't talk while you do it. if you just hold it in your lips you don't get the same effect as when you actually put it right back and hold it in your teeth. So Brett is giving us an example of holding it with your lips. But if you put the pen in horizontally all the way back in your teeth and hold it that will simulate a smile. Like activates the same muscles as… So how far back? Because I just put it in the front of my teeth and I can push it all the way to the back. For you or for people listening? I can do that. Yeah, that's fine. I can do that. Yeah, don't have to put it all the way back, but you can. it so it's comfortable. And if you can do this even just a couple of times a day. So this is a great little hack that you can do while you're sitting down at work, you know, just popping that pen in. Now obviously think about what kind of pen you're putting in your mouth. And pencils and the lead, you know, you don't want lead poisoning and all of those things. yeah, if you start putting that in your mouth, now the reality is when you do this, if you do it for a couple of minutes, you might start dribbling a bit. That's actually okay. Just take the pen out and put it back in. is a hack I learned many, many years ago. And it's a way that we can start to train our brain. ⁓ to tell our brain actually we're happy. And so there's this other piece of really interesting research and I'm not a Botox girl, never, I don't think I'll ever have it, ⁓ there was some ⁓ research done with people experiencing serious treatment resistant depression. So that means they've tried lots and lots of different things and those treatments haven't worked. And the people who hadn't responded to that sort of the medication and other interventions, Well, when researchers used Botox to relax their frowning muscles, their depression scores dropped by up to 73 % after one treatment. Now, if we have a think about that, it has the same impact as what we're talking about in terms of turning on or turning off our muscles and our face telling our brain something. So in this case, in that case with the Botox, is that your brain is not getting the signals. …that you're frowning. So it thinks, ⁓ I'm not frowning, I'm happy. In the case with the pen in the mouth… …you're getting signals that you're happy. Just by putting a pen in your mouth. And it's just about activating muscles. I think it's going to be funny workplace with everybody trying to communicate… …with a pen in their mouth. But if it makes people happier or feel happier… …life is going to be better. I think there's nothing better than walking along in a… This is what I do in the shopping centres when I see people that are looking…they look depressed almost. And I'm walking along and I smile at them. And it's amazing how often they look at me like a weirdo but they smile back. Yeah and that's a whole other mirror neuron sort of thing going on. However it's really powerful. think the most powerful thing is when we start to understand that what our face is doing, what our muscles are doing… is sending our brain a message about our state and we can change that through little hacks like this. And look we know that the science it's not perfect it's messy as science can be but ⁓ when I think about ⁓ simple little things that we can do ⁓ to help our body and our ⁓ feel differently. more positive in the world and I think right now in the world we need some hacks that can help us feel a bit more positive. And you know when you activate those muscles of a smile, whether it's artificial or natural, the brain will start to get the message and I'm not going to say it's instant, you're not going to feel happy instantly, but if you do it over time, build it up as a little bit of a practice, really simple, put a pen in your mouth for a couple of minutes. It becomes a practice that can then start to change the way that your brain is observing and processing the world. So what we should do is create, there's a world day for everything. So we should have a world pen in our mouth day at work to make everybody feel a little happier. Sometimes I think it would be good if you had a pen in your mouth more. But anyway that look that's today's hacks. like to find these kind of weird little things. that I've been using over time, things that perhaps I just do naturally now and don't think about and share them with you. So this is the first of our slightly differently placed episodes, but you know, I just say, why don't you give it a try and see what happens? I'm feeling happier already.