What New Experiences Can Do For Us

Try something new, and then bottle it up for later!

We’ve all heard of “new car smell”, but what about “new experience”?  If we could find a cute little bottle of New Experience, what would be listed on the back?   Reluctant smiles, bashful pleasures, uncertain gratification.  

Trying something new is a little teeter-totter of emotions.  There is the gentle shove of energy when we first sign up, enough to get us from scrolling past to clicking yes.  As it gets closer, that little unsettling swirl of unease begins to ripple around inside.  We step into the moment a little jittery, a bit of adrenaline, thoughts and heart rate flowing.  We step out rewarded with some dopamine pleasure, deep breaths and inner high-fives, thoughts still a bit swirly.  And a few hours later, we get a settled, quiet smile of “how about that I really did it” gratification.

But the true power is that we can bottle this up and store it!  This unique pool of opposite emotions can be stored in our memory brains and tapped into when we need it.  Those novelty moments help us get through other types of moments - old familiar ones that circle around every so often.  gloomy moments, jealous moments, self-doubt moments.   

Yoga describes this as pratipaksha bhavana.  When little negative thoughts start to circle around, you give yourself a dose of that bottle!  You close your eyes and recall the feeling of reluctant smile, bashful pleasure, uncertain gratification.  That dose of “New Experience” gives you a gentle shove over that old familiar bump of negative thinking.  

If it’s been a while since you’ve tried something new, your bottle might need a refill.  So consider this a little push of energy.  It’s time to click yes!

Until next time,

Laura

Want more?

Are you a window shopper?   The time to step through is now (yogatrailtalks)

New Plans: letting go of new plan reluctance (yogatrailtalks)