10 Divergent Strategies - Break through the Box!

All creativity imagines an alternative universe ~ August Turak

Thinking Outside a Less Intact Box

Why is it that creative people tend to break rules? Innovators imagine something that will work better. They don't like being boxed in, but somehow have a glint in their eyes for the adventure of a challenge. Is that where you see yourself?

Intriguingly, creativity may have come into the world by a lie... An early inhabitant on our planet imagined a fake water hole and made it seem realistic to a competing tribe so that competitors picked up stakes and moved to settle in that locale. "All creativity imagines an alternative universe," Turak finds. "A universe that does not yet exist, and in this sense every creative act is 'untruthful.'"

Consider the mad artist...is there a link between highly creative people and mental illness? After all, Vincent Van Gogh and Sylvia Plath, represent a popular perception that creativity and madness go hand in hand. Some scientists recently found that "divergent thinking, or the ability to think outside the box, involves the brain's dopamine communication system." A Swedish research team, who investigated the dopamine connection further, discovered that "people who had lower levels of dopamine receptor activity in the thalamus also had higher scores on tests of divergent thinking--for instance, finding many solutions to a problem."  They think outside a less intact box, since previous works shows that people with schizophrenia also have lower dopamine receptor activity in the thalamus.  

So what exactly does this have to do with work?  Everything.  Here're examples of divergent thinking that break norms...

1. Great guerrilla marketing "means developing a sixth sense for knowing when and how to creatively cut corners," August Turak notes. "It requires a sort of impish instinct for breaking rules. But it also means successfully walking that invisible line between creativity and unethical chicanery."

"Every great guerrilla marketer is a bit of a scamp; a person who is constantly evaluating the rules that make up conventional thinking looking for the ones just screaming to be broken. If the bowling ball is the implacable enemy of the egg, guerrilla marketing is the implacable enemy of all the assumptions that pass for business as usual."

2. From Mentor to Mindguide "Both experts and upstarts claim to see unlimited potential in shared wisdom, Dr. Ellen Weber points out. "Yet seasoned mentors advise clever cronies to operate much like themselves, in spite of rapidly changing horizons."

"Few would disagree – it’s time to shift tutoring approaches to reflect more balanced and reciprocal coaching. Guidance based on mutual brainpower potential, and experience from differences, rather than on entitlement, age or seniority."

3. Conversation as a "non-zero sum" game  The world is fast changing from the 500-year tradition of individualism since it is not working in today's world.  Individualism leads to a zero-sum game which polarizes positions.  Collaborative conversations take people in a more productive direction that benefits humankind.  "One player's  gain does not translate into the other's loss, Melinda Blau concludes.  Such conversation helps us to think differently and see new creative possibilities.

4. Experimentation - a part of every employee's work In order to develop a culture of experimentation, H. James Wilson and Kevin Desouza suggest that "organizations should provide employees with a multitude of opportunities to question, observe, and engage in new experiences." Some key strategies are:

a. Increase managerial attention. Managers can encourage employees to experiment with their ideas, but even go so far as requiring experimentation when ideas are being developed and proposed.

b. Develop employees' skills on basics of conducting experiments.

c. Use experimentation in spite of the fact it'ss a messy and untidy process. Experiments usually don't lead to fruitful results.

d. Start presentation series for researchers and practitioners. Sharing extends insights.  Both  researchers and practitioners seek quality outcomes to present to wider community.

5. Fail Harder  Though failure goes against the grain, Jorge Barba reminds us that massive failure advances the creative process. "Success is a lousy teacher compared with failure," Mohawn Sawnney of the Kellogg School of Business finds. "We learn a lot from failure, because failure makes us more receptive to new ideas and failure is easier to diagnose than success." Sawhney suggests that companies should document, celebrate and reward failure by focusing on Famous Mistakes.

Ad house Wieden+Kennedy created a mural to display such a divergent approach.



6. Best leaders are great followers Nearly everyone sees him or herself as a leader. But where are the followers? Michael Hyatt asks. On the flip side, history’s worst leaders never learned to follow. As a result, they became tyrants, making the lives of their own followers miserable, Hyatt contends. He sees unassuming qualities in great followers: clarity of role; obedience with the ability to follow orders; servants willing to do the job joyfully; humility that shines light on other leaders; and, loyalty in public with private influence.

7. Weird rules boost creativity Strangely enough, weird rules can boost a company's innovative output. 10 years ago Stanford professor, Robert Sutton introduced his methods in Weird Ideas that Work.

Some of the guidelines include:

• Reward success and failure; punish inaction,
• Find some happy people and get them to fight,
• Ignore people who have solved the exact problem you face,
• Hire "slow learners" (of organizational code),
• Seek out ways to avoid, distract, and bore customers.

"Rules which fight against the normal corporate norms," Lifehacker's Dave Drager concludes, "have been proven to foster creativity within organizations."

8. Power of Play In a quest to "escape the tyranny of technique," Kate Arms-Roberts discovered InterPlay, an integrated system encompassing all the parts of your life--"a sanctuary for those who seek to be spontaneous, affectionate, open to truth, playful and real," according to leader and guest blogger, Kate Arms-Roberts.  InterPlay's foundations build on "improvisational practices using song, story, silence, dance and community and a set of principles that can be applied to any moment in life.to help break the rules." Consider Ann's experience...

Storytelling forms of InterPlay loosen me up. When I struggle to make the words tell my story, Babbling in a Made-up Language releases me from the pressure of precision. When I am running over with ideas, I Could Talk About is a form that gets the ideas out without requiring me to do anything with them; I just have to list them. If my body is stiff or my words are stilted, I can shake things up by telling Big Body Stories that involve movement or dance as well as words.

How might improvisational play launch new creativity in your work?

9. Gaming changes disliked routines  If you take the Tube to work in London, travel can be fun rather than bearable with Chromaroma. Here's how it works:

Chromaroma will import the user's Tube, bus and bike journey history, awarding points for each trip. For each user, Chromaroma tracks statistics on the number of swipes, achievements, “missions,” “collections,” places, identities, modes of transport, seasonal highlights and passengers encountered as the user travels around the city, along with the number of stations “captured,” records set and overall rank. By watching their own travel details, users can investigate new ways to travel and new destinations; "multipliers" and bonus points are available by working with a team, building up connections with fellow passengers, and discovering “mysteries” attached to a particular location. Beyond competition and conquest, Chromaroma's gameplay “opens up the beauty in the city's transport flows and reveals to its most persistent players some of the mysteries of travel, and even the strange characters travelling through the tunnels in the centre of the system, who may hold the secrets to your city.”

Gaming is used successfully for call center motivation as employees create teams and vie to win trips by most successful calls. Who would guess gaming can be motivating rather than distracting!

10. Solutions do not necessarily address problems Luke Williams tells the story of how Jonah Straw and friends discussion turned to "disruptive business ideas." One of Jonah's friends asked, "how crazy would it be if some company started selling socks that didn't match? Jonah's friends thought it was a terrible idea. It was soon forgotten by everyone, but Jonah, who couldn't let go of it. It led Jonah to launch Little Miss Matched.

"Most people in business are trained to focus only on problems: things that don’t work and need fixing," Williams finds. He says, "It’s more effective to start by identifying something in your business or industry that’s not necessarily a problem, and then go about methodically breaking it down." To do so try the following steps:

~ What do you want to disrupt? Define the situation you want to challenge. Define it in a sentence.

~ What are the business cliches? Identify assumptions that influence the way insiders or outsiders thing about your situation such as "hackneyed beliefs that govern the way people think about and do business in a particular space...We don’t consciously think about these things because 'that’s the way they’ve always been.'"

~ What are your disruptive hypotheses? Poke the status quo by generating several disruptive hypotheses to fill in the answer to, "I wonder what would happen if we ________." Think about opposites as you do this.

~ What can you invert? Red Bull was developed by Coca-Cola as an expensive soda, whereas their others were inexpensive. It may cost double the price of other colas, but it sure will give you a shot of energy when you need it.

~ What can you deny? In the case of Zipcar the company did not need to see the customer or complete paperwork. And, it started renting by the hour. consumers liked the process since they no longer needed to wait in line, fill out papers, listen to pressure to upgrade or add all kinds of insurance. Customers simply apply for membership and they can reserve vehicles online.

Try focusing on something that you take for granted at your business and use Luke Williams' steps to see what hatches.

Let's face it, people who live disruptive thinking, may not be not so crazy after all, considering all the innovations that emerge.

What Do You Do with Criticism?

During a state conference, when I began working with Ellen Weber, someone asked a question that I perceived totally "put down" brain research. Ever experience that?

My defense quickly emerged. I explained findings that defended why Mita brainpowered strategies work. Since this was my first time to receive critique during a presentation, I did not realize the more I defended, the more my critic chimed up to prove the opposite.

Though one woman in an audience of fifty people, she was able to divert the attention of all, as we were ten minutes into the program. But once launching this defense, Ellen soon diverted everyone's attention by asking a question that roused curiosity. We were back on track.  As a result I began to reflect and change my approaches to critique.

This was an early and necessary lesson as I began the Mita work to facilitate change of long established methodologies by innovating effective solutions with the brain in mind. If you are an innovator, you soon learn how to deal with making mistakes related to critique.

"We don't want people to tell us something negative," Karen Wright declares, "unless we ask for it and are ready to hear it. And defensiveness is a natural first response. If you're on the receiving end, take a deep breath." Our strong reactions to negative feedback connect tightly to the way our brains work.

Interestingly, the human brain processes positive and negative data in different circuits. And, negative tracks are hypersensitive compared to positive ones, according to John Cacioppo, neuroscientist at University of Chicago. And, bullying happens, but in today's world where it may threaten your standing, "it is far easier to use feedback," Scott Young at Lifehacker advises, "instead of automatically assuming it is a personal attack." No wonder my initial reaction was to defend, since I sacrificed to help Ellen get Mita Leadership launched well. In my mind, the woman's words were a "put-down" to all I stood for.

Learning to orchestrate well!

The trick is to learn strategies to effectively deal with initial critique:

1. Separate yourself from emotions "Whether you are with someone you love, hate, know little or just met," Bala says, "in the first moments when you realize that you are being criticized you will react the same. Your heart beats faster, skin temperature goes down and you even lose peripheral vision. Because you feel under attack, your first instincts are to focus on that feeling, making it more intense. You will then feel like withdrawing or retaliating. Just remember that both instinctual responses are akin to saying, I don't like your comments therefore I will give you more power. Attempt to do neither as both fight or flight responses leave you with fewer options, not more."
   Imagine a triangle of three contenders, the critiquer, yourself and the topic of criticism. In your mind's eye see both yourself and the critiquer staring at the criticism to solve together, rather than using sharp points to take each other out.
2. Thank the person for the comment This can be disarming.  It takes away the need for one person "to be right."  It gives you the presence of mind to move ahead.
3. Ask a two-footed question that leads to exploration of other possibilities.  You might start in this way... "What ideas have you used in past to overcome...?"  "What has worked for colleagues who faced the issue of...?"  
4. Take it as advice and learn from it.  Though it may have seemed negative initially, what can you learn that might assist in improvements?
5. Ignore it.  Take space to consider it later.  
6. Offer to answer later  Often, a criticizer will have more important things to do later and will not take the time.  If genuine and she wants to help, then ask questions that bring more understanding.  If meant to diminish, the critiquer lost an audience and will merely leave.
7. Let go of it If you linger on negatives, you give your brain a message that you don't have what it takes to accomplish your goals.  The more you let that notion fester, the worse it becomes in your mind.  Instead, let it go as soon as possible and concentrate on new strategies to overcome future darts that may come your way.

These strategies work.  One of the brilliant things about Ellen Weber is that she welcomed me as a collaborator not long after I started working with her, though I saw myself as unready.  That meant she was willing to let me make mistakes and grow into that "crown" she saw for me. There's no easy way around it - mistakes teach us more than our successes.

Truth is that I dwelt on my failure at that early conference for several days following. Though Ellen recaptured everyone's focus and made the most of time remaining, I felt horrible.  I grew new skills to learn from mistakes and change as a result of the incident. 

How are you equipped to handle criticism like a maestro and use it to your advantage?

Tactics to Jump from the Fear Train!

One wonders why fears appear out of nowhere when life is good. But, what do you do about that? A friend once advised me, "Don't worry, Robyn. Worry doesn't change a thing. It just leaves you frazzled!"

More than once, in a variety of settings, I've remembered her words and tried different tactics to escape. But the strange part is, I thought of my friend as a worrier. Fears can rise to any one of us in the middle of the night though life runs smoothly. In fact research shows that one in four people experience anxiety at some point in our lives.

Worry a special form of fear "Worry is a special form of fear," says Edward Hallowell in a Psychology Today article. "It is what humans do with simple fear once it reaches the part of their brain called the cerebral cortex. We make fear complex, adding anticipation, memory, imagination, and emotion."

What tactics work against unfounded fears that rear their ugly heads in the middle of the night? Here're strategies that work for me... What works for you?

Think on Scriptures At times when I slip and fall into needless worry, if I think of approprite scripture, it changes my perspective very quickly. For example, Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds. [from The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language] To follow that up by humming a reminder in music helps too... His Eye is on the Sparrow, works really well. Then I give thanks for the many ways God has blessed me. That brings me right back to center and fears soon flee so that I fall back into a deep sleep.

Turn on a National Public Radio station Hearing what's going in Inside Europe, takes my immediate attention off my worries. The facts and information move my mind away from former thoughts. Best part is the speakers' voice often works just like a lecturer and puts me right back to sleep.

Play a round of Virtual Mind Golf Since I love golf and know the inside and out of at least three courses, I begin to play an imaginary game of golf. I imagine the best of all possible shots and try to see how far I advance on the course before I snooze again. Besides, this gives me opportunity to see myself golf like a pro!

Create a Bust the Barriers List When a barrier rises up, I begin to think of all the ways I can bust it. By seeing possibilities and jotting them down, I'm making positive moves forward - especially as I take action.

Stephanie Dolgoff offers 6 Ways to Stop Your Stressing -- Stat! in Self Magazine, November 2007.

Hop off the worry train Just because you have an idea ("I might get fired") doesn't mean you need to ride it to its terminus. ("There are 50 ways I could screw up, and I've got to avoid them all.") Instead, think of a few tasks that will help whatever happens, like bonding with coworkers.

Plan to fret "Take half an hour to worry intensively, then move on," says Penn State professor Tom Borkovec, Ph.D.

Keep a journal Jot down your worry, then in a few days or weeks, write the outcome. What you'll find: Things usually turn out better than you think they will.

Challenge the likelihood of your worry If your husband is late coming home and you imagine he has been hit by a bus, think about the emotion behind your worry. (You are anxious because you love him and want to keep him around.) Once you have identified the emotion at the heart of your worry and allowed yourself to experience it, see if it's a reasonable worry (hint: probably not). Then let it pass rather than allowing anxiety to ruin your quiet night at home.

Peel an orange The next time a thought threatens to snowball into a stressfest, grab an orange or grapefruit. Press your nail into the skin, peel it back and smell the citrus scent, focusing on every sensation. "Rather than worry about the future, you can bring yourself into the moment," psychologist Robert Leahy, says.

Get nostalgic Visualize your key life events of the past 10 years. You probably can't recall the worries linked with these experiences, or, if you can, you may see that most never happened (e.g., you didn't trip and fall at your wedding). Tell yourself that current worries will fade from memory, too.

Neurofeedback Ellen Weber says that neurofeedback works like aerobics for the brain... or mental exercise... that shifts brain-wave patterns.

Ask and Answer Resourceful Questions Here's a question Ellen Weber suggests to get started... Could you relieve stress that leaves most people anxious and frustrated?

People who live in stress, do so when there is loss of control accompanied by anxiety for the future. Fears often trigger stress for people who focus more on past mistakes than on future opportunities ... where infinite potential becomes more a state of mind. Suggest just one doable solution to one problem you face, for instance, and you literally rewire parts of your brain for the next winning solution.

If you'd like strategies to make questions resourceful... check out Wendy Piersall's excellent strategies at Ten Questions to Turn a Bad Day into a Good Day.

I may have missed a really good tactic that works for you...

Let's hear what you do when all's going well at work and life, yet fears suddenly grip your mind...

Photo Credit from Flickr: Speeding Train by swerve.

Have a Plan to Overcome Boredom?

"High school students say they are bored in class because they aren't interested in what they're studying," according to Indiana University's Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, "or they don't have enough interaction with their teachers." Does this surprise you?

Here's the scoop... Amazingly, findings show that "fewer than 2 percent of students say they are never bored in high school." Another 75 percent of students report they were "bored in at least one class because the subject they were studying wasn't interesting." About 31 percent of learners cited "lack of interaction with teachers as the primary reason for classroom boredom."

Lectures and PowerPoints lead the causes of this lack of interaction between teachers/trainers and learners. Dr. Ellen Weber explains why lectures lead chosen teaching methods...

Lectures are actually a huge asset to the person talking at you...? While it is futile for passive learners who retain less than 5%, lecturers brains spike on every topic they teach, since teachers retain 90% more through the process of lecturing and teaching, according to National Training Institute in 1999.

To counter this, many teachers and trainers adopted PowerPoint since it's touted to capture audiences through lively visuals. Intriguingly, fact is, according to recent research by Prof John Sweller of the University of New South Wales, PowerPoint has more dismal results than lectures...

Now research claims to have proved what millions of bored workers have suspected all along - they have little power and even less point.

According to the report, the brain cannot cope with having too much information thrown at it at once.

Having someone speak and point to a screen full of facts and figures at the same time causes it to switch off.

A speech would be far less of a waste of time, the research claims.

So what to do?

Suggestions for Teachers and Trainers:

1. Ask two-footed questions... Why not find out peoples experiences. You might begin by asking learners or employees for stories connected to the topic. You'll be surprised at what folks already know. And, you'll engage more people and at the same time counteract passivity... Keep in mind that you may not "know it all."

2. Open an opportunity to do something connected to your topic... For instance, you may ask folks to brainstorm in groups to suggest possible solutions to a problem. Group reps report solutions... followed by open discussion to hone out best possibilities.

3. Role play - Ask for volunteers to participate in a role play [you provide overview of each character's role]. Then, everyone can add more dimensions following the session and work out what you require...

4. Laugh, Teacher, Laugh! Glen Walter says in an Education Digest article ...

These same [serotonin] hormones are responsible for making the eyes sparkle and getting the brain to work more effectively. Laughter can produce a great deal of relaxation. When the body is relaxed, the vista broadens, and a person can see things he was missing before. Both teachers and students experience a great deal of stress while under the pressure of tunnel vision. By the use of laughter the hardening of attitudes can be prevented. With the reduction of stress through laughter, there is more time and energy left to learn and create.

Tips to Stay Alert in a Boring Session

Health (Mar 2006) suggests these strategies:

1. Take it personally. Before the meeting, scan the agenda and list how the topics could affect you, your department, or the company as a whole. "You'll be more alert if you're engaged in what's going on," says Gordon D. Logan, PhD, attention expert and professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

2. Tap your powers. In a recent study at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, college students who were "awake but not fully alert" perked up significantly with acupressure. According to Richard Harris, PhD, who led the study, here's what works best: Tap the top of your head two times a second for 3 to 5 minutes. Or, if you'd rather not attract coworkers' stares, try massaging the back of your hand between your thumb and forefinger.

3. Ask questions. It programs your brain to be an active participant, rather than just a drowsy observer. If the speaker isn't taking questions, jot them down on your notepad for later.

4. Sit near an overachiever. Yawning is contagious, and alertness may be, too, Logan says. If someone in your group is nuts about the third-quarter cost overruns that put you to sleep, sit near her and let her excitement rub off.

What are your favorite antidotes for boredom? What've you found effective no matter if your position is instructor or learner...

I'll publish your techniques in a follow-up post!

Challenge Your Brain for Productivity - 5 MITA Steps

"How do you get more productive with your creativity or stay productive and creative?"

My immediate answer's quite simple... Challenge your brain because the brain leaps to the adventure of unraveling puzzles and problems.

When folks mine rich resources of their brain to solve problems they'll be more productive! How so? They use more gifts and talents at work. Why then, doesn't that happen more?

Interestingly, one barrier is bosses or CEO's who see themselves as boosting productivity, while in reality they stifle job satisfaction. Misplaced efforts to improve worker morale tend to lessen productivity according to research at University of Michigan. The secret is to empower peoples' gifts and talents.

Amazingly, MITA strategies worked to increase my personal productivity in ways that changed who I am. Here's a brief overview with links to provide deeper insights for the five MITA steps that jumpstarted my brain and led to productivity in career and more satisfaction in personal life as well...

Question... Ask questions that connect you personnaly to problems. That process guides your brain to solutions or new opportunities. Such questions might begin "What if I..." "How might I change..." "What would happen if I tried..." You get the picture.

Target... Make a plan that initiates solutions or strategies for the outcome you have in sight. I began to work smarter and not harder by using short term benchmarks and jotting them in my weekly calendar so I kept progressing toward the overall target.

Expect... What do you expect anyway? Your expectations must be clear and not foggy or nothing gets done. I wrote down exact descriptions for best end results. Do you seek excellence as I do?

Move... What personal resources contribute to the target you have in mind? Most people automatically dip into one or two intelligences used on the job. Some leaders compartmentalize gifts and talents used at work. For instance they use verbal and logical intelligences to tackle tasks day in and day out, so they miss seeing a project through bodily-kinesthetic or interpersonal lenses. To look at your job differently is often to draw on new talents. When you tap into new intelligences to tackle old projects, watch for rejuvenated results!

Reflect...Reflection leads to growth and change that steps you back to see what's working and what isn't. That leads to adjustment opportunities along the way. Without reflection, each new flight you take traverses the same path and engages the same components. Ellen Weber, who created the MITA model, claims if reflection is left out, stagnation results. How does reflection guide your productivity?

Many folks want research evidence to know that MITA strategies work. Recently, PhD University lecturers in Ireland, began using MITA strategies as they taught and assessed university students in medical settings. Research conducted in 2006 showed that professors using MITA strategies had 5% increase in student motivation and achievement. Similar results hold true in business settings.

Whether blogging, writing articles, having fun with grandchildren, or keynoting to university faculty, I discovered MITA strategies bring productivity in all facets of my life.

Ben Yoskovitz is the originator of The Ultimate Guide to Productivity - What's your secret? He's nearing the 100 posts that he hoped to receive and I hope mine makes the list!

As I read productivity posts on Ben's web site, some of the interesting tips I took note of are:

Best Productivity Tip: Disable Your Inner-Critic by David Wahl

Ultimate guide to productivity: My tip by Julie Fleming-Brown

Choices Are Made Long Before You Decide - Productivity Tips by Jonathan

Ultimate Tip To Reach GTD Nirvana by Andrew Flusche

Productivity Hint? NO! by Annie Boccio

Chris Brown tagged me... I'm tagging

Paintsmh

Appollomemories

Dan316

SNoel

Jsbi in India

Here's Ben's guidelines to enter:

Write a post on your best productivity tips.

1. Challenge yourself by picking your single best productivity tip (although this isn’t a requirement; you can give us more if you want!)

2. Include links to other people that have written posts, or include their tips in your post with proper attribution. And be sure to tag me at Brain Based Biz.

Note: Ben's not asking that you link to everyone in the group writing project meme; pick the ones you want to connect with. You certainly can link to everyone, but it’s not a requirement. Ben likes leaving more decision making power in your hands so this isn’t just a link grab, but you’re thinking about what your audience & community wants to read about.

A link back to Ben's post is appreciated though, to help spread the word!

3. If you use Technorati Tags then tag your post “ultimate guide to productivity”.

4. Tag others in your post to spread the meme. Tag as many people as you like!

5. If you link back to Instigator Blog Ben’ll make sure to include at least 2 links back to you. But this isn’t a requirement, it just helps him keep track of what’s going on. And be sure to tag me at Brain Based Biz.

The question "What guides my productivity" was a fun challenge, Chris. Thanks! Now it will be interesting to see how the folks I've tagged add to Ben's big pot! And, if you'd like this challenge, too, just jump in!

Tips to Raise Serotonin and Well-Being

At times, negatives flood my brain and paralyze my progress. Today, negativity crept up on me as a shadow. To move out of this zone, I reviewed strategies to build more serotonin at Brain Based Business. And this refresher made a great deal of difference that I'll share.

Amazingly, Dr. Ellen Weber posted a blog today with 5 Self Starter Strategies To Jumpstart the Brain. An earlier post, What Is Serotonin and Why Should I Care? added insight.

To start building more serotonin, I fixed a big mug of Chai Holiday tea and lit a candle. And this had immediate effect.

In addition, I researched to find even more. Interestingly, Bryn Mawr research reveals that "From the brain, serotonin neurons extend to virtually all parts of the central nervous system making the branching of the serotonin network the most expansive neurochemical system in the brain." Just consider that each serotonin neuron "influences over as many as 500,000 target neurons." No wonder I felt a dip in well-being.

Ellen's tip to take a brief walk is right on target, since this research affirms that exercise is the best natural way to raise serotonin levels and that more serotonin is produced for several days following exercise.

Here's a few more insights from UCLA resources. The chart below shows some situations which bring cortisol to your brain along with tactics to raise serotonin levels for well-being.



By seeking tactics and doing them today, and moving forward with additional research, I'm on a positive path and I plan to stay there.