The last place most people spot any celebration is at work. In fact, polls suggest that 75% of employees feel disengaged, suffer from crippling stress or dislike their jobs. Have you ever wondered why folks would rather move grave yards, than take their talents into work? Or why university leadership classes tend to tank into drudgery?
Did you know that to laugh at yourself is to laugh away stress?
A Brain on Celebration
What if organizations transformed grind into gala?
Expect playfulness and fun to boost business. In contrast to bare-boned competition – celebration’s an extravaganza that pulls people and insights together to commemorate vastly different angles. Talents alter performance reviews into that sheer triumph that finds space to chase after genius. Ever meet people who mix, inspire and support successes into mutually beneficial inventions?
Mita festivals foster the kind of fun that raises IQ. People enjoy a harbinger of intelligent possibilities when they risk merriment to move beyond mental toxins.
What if questions celebrate the wonder of discovery
Question to celebrate genius ideas through channeling wonder across diverse groups. To wonder or inquire is to celebrate new perspectives. Toss curiosity into any organization and you create new neuron pathways past obstacles. Questions help to sidestep setbacks that await every entrepreneurial journey. Neuro discoveries show the brain’s fun loving equipment to reframe perspective into rejoicing.
Celebrate brainpower
Ever long to move past a misstep? Look at challenges with solutions in mind, and ask what if – to find a celebrity’s fluidity for new insights on the other side of problems.
What if novelty increased celebrity DNA at your organization?
Target novelty and rejoice in risks that toss your guts into butterfly flutters. Risks spin your brain’s hypothalamus into surges of hormones that trigger the pituitary gland adrenalins and activate adrenal glands near your kidneys so you breathe faster and blood races through your body. Your brain’s equipped to survive the thrill while chemicals rage through your brain, your pupils dilate, and in milliseconds your immune system jumps in.
Celebrities who risk high-stake decisions, draw on the brain’s feel good chemical – dopamine – to motivate initiatives that defy logic. Your brain’s hardwired to enjoy dividends and inspire winning ventures without robbing sleep at night.
What if risk today sparked a new celebration tomorrow?
Move multiple intelligences into action to upgrade fun’s IQ at any organization. Laugh more or wonder more, for instance, and you commemmorate intrapersonal intelligence at work.
Years ago, I read a story about Inuit who apologized to seals before they hunted, and who laughed easily in spite of hardships. From that story, until I traveled to Northern Baffin Island, curiosity drove my desire to gaze across frozen tundra through Inuit eyes. Humor kept interest alive on Baffin, I discovered firsthand.
When a blizzard shut down Igloolik’s only car – a taxi, I piled onto a skidoo as Oonark headed to the airport. The biggest of four bags hurled into a snow bank, as we flew over uneven snow in a race against time.
I held onto blowing bags, and held my breath, yet Oonark laughed at icy obstacles we hit. Hanging onto bags flying in icy wind , Oonark’s expression showed sheer delight. Against the blizzard’s background, she showcased all I valued in this intelligent community.
As my eyeballs thawed under icy lids, Oonark burst through the airport door – red-faced and smiling. Hurling my large bag in front of me, she asked. “Any breakables here?” The bag had flown off the skidoo three times I was told. “No problem.” I shot back, “Could’ve been me flying off that pony!” Looking back, Inuit humor and curiosity changed my approach to how we celebrate at the brain center, in spite of setbacks.
The Mita Celebration of Innovation, empowers workers and MBA grads to replace a workplace problem with a celebratory solution. It’s a talent-trade-show of sorts. Innovators engage others in a novel practice such as a new way of tracking financial gains. Or celebrities exchange wisdom about a newly deigned product such as a paten-worthy invention. Have you seen it happen?
What if you proposed a plan to celebrate innovation at your organization?
Reflect to foster the kind of tone that rewires human brains for delight in spite of everyday disappointments. Celebration’s tone surpasses even those brief highs from unexpected pleasures. More significantly, it displaces disappointments in any given moment, with expectations for a finer future.
Because celebration literally changes the brain’s structure, it also alters who you are and how you support others to win, in spite of the odds. It specializes in that robust sense of humor that forgives others and laughs at self. Regrets tend to flee, and grumpiness fades when fun and playfulness become part of a workplace or university culture. We have a policy here at the brain center that only names a problem when you also propose its doable solution.
I like to think of celebration as a skill, since it holds the power to change a brain from arduous to awarding. Plasticity uses every celebrated event to use both right and left brain in ways that change their very structures.
What if you advanced celebration on both sides of the brain?
1. Amygdala for the jubilant person is that tiny sac of neurons that remains open to wonder most of the time. It rarely overheats, and triggers delight as an emotional pattern. How could you train your amygdala to celebrate more?
2. Cortisol withholds its dangerous toxins from people who laugh and play. Imagine meetings that motivate new mental approaches as workplace solutions. What tactics do you use to counter cortisol with celebration?
3. Neuron pathways create habitual synapses for jubilation to reshape moods for those who favor fun over frowning. Can you see how today’s action shapes tomorrow’s brainpower?
4. Plasticity rewires the playful brain nightly for further joyful responses. Deep seated contentment finds novel opportunities to prosper, by simply doing what you want others to see in you.
5. Dendrite brain cells connect positivity to positivity for those who celebrate mental rejuvenation – from stagnation to curiosity. Practice one positive act and watch chemical and electrical activity reboot you mentally for more regeneration.
6. Basal ganglia defaults to playful habits, replays celebratory practices and routinely laughs at the little things with those who rejoice more.
7. Working memory keeps you focused on facts that build concrete solutions worth celebrating. Your working memory tools spring into action to solve complex problems in celebratory settings.
8. Brain chemicals refuel positive moods, increase natural drugs for well being, and add hormones for humor and play. Serotonin, sometimes referred as molecule of happiness, stirs up chemicals to win.
9. Serotonin spikes sincere satisfaction, and a healthy sense of confidence in those who capitalize on celebration.
10. Brainwaves organize by a hierarchy, control neuron communications and alter the brain’s circuitry. Celebrate positive tone for circuitry that builds goodwill even in war zones.
What if your molecular switch stoked wonder – just the other side of workplace compromise or gridlock?
YOUR TURN! Join our Brain Based Circles! Would love to meet you at any of the following!
Brain Leaders and Learners Blog
Mita Brain Center Facebook
efweber on Pinterest
@ellenfweber on Twitter
ellenfweber on Instagram
Ellen Weber on Google+
Ellen Weber on LinkedIn
Created by Ellen Weber, Brain Based Tasks for Growth Mindset