6 Ways to Trick Your Brain into Liking Your Workouts

This article originally appeared on Triathlete

Every athlete has a love/hate relationship with their sport. It's not all rainbows and butterflies, and often, at some point in the season, training sessions become a drag. When we look back, we realize that the tough stuff is worth it, but when we're in the middle of it, it can be really difficult to find the motivation to work out. Why do we hit these walls? Why does our enthusiasm fade as the season goes on? Why do we have days (or weeks) when we dread that 2,500-yard main swim set or long run?

From a broad, neuroscientific perspective, the brain actually views these long workouts as a threat to its homeostasis (natural state of balance). Think about it: The brain's entire responsibility is to control bodily activities, such as sleep cycles, temperature, food digestion, etc. It controls these systems in an attempt to keep the body steady and balanced. When you do something like challenge the body in a tough workout, the brain has a lot of adjustments to make. It prefers for everything to be steady and normal, so it minimizes threats and classifies any sort of effort as a threat.

But growth doesn't happen in our comfort zone. That’s why we do wild things like participate in triathlon. We start out strong, but then our motivation can fade, especially if we’re not proactive about building a burnout-proof training plan. Let's examine motivation and the brain chemistry underlying it.

We typically think about dopamine as the pleasure molecule. It's certainly involved in the reward pathway, but another critical role is that of the motivation molecule. It gets pumped up when we're motivated to act in a certain way (like when we really want something that we know will help us feel pleasure and avoid pain). When dopamine is high, we feel motivated. When it's low, we don't. So, in the case of dreaded workouts, the key is to tackle the dopamine problem. Here are six ways to trick your brain into actually liking your workouts. (Hint: almost all of them target dopamine.)

Here's How to Be Happy Alone and Build a Lasting Relationship with Yourself

The idea of being alone is not always seen as a good thing. Too often, being alone is associated with the word lonely, but the two ideas are not mutually exclusive. Getting to the point where you enjoy being alone —and dare I say, are happy alone — is a powerful place to be, and one that can be very grounding and rewarding once you're comfortable in that

In order to feel happy alone, you must first build a relationship with yourself. "Building a relationship with yourself involves actually getting to know yourself, as you would anyone else you wanted to build a relationship with," explains Nancy Colier, psychotherapist and author of The Emotionally Exhausted Woman: Why You Feel Depleted and How to Get What You Need.

Colier adds that "while you may think you already know yourself (maybe more than you want to know), most of what you know is probably about who you should be and shouldn’t be, as opposed to who you really are."

In that sense, getting to know yourself unapologetically is the first step to learning how to love yourself and be happy alone. Here are a few more expert-led ways to find happiness alone.

How to Be Your Own Best Friend

First of all, be mindful of judgments that might arise when spending time focusing on yourself, and remind yourself that putting yourself first is a healthy move. "As women, we're taught to be selfless, to take care of others’ needs over our own, and if possible, to have no needs of our own," says Colier. "If we put ourselves on the list of people who matter; if we choose to spend time with ourselves, we’re often labeled selfish and entitled."

Colier says that it might be helpful to acknowledge the loss up until this point of having not experienced true love for yourself or even happiness in solitude. You can even do a small ritual like burning a candle or journaling to signify the start of your personal journey to loving yourself and appreciating being alone. "Journaling can be a wonderful way to discover new things about ourselves and gain deeper insights into who we are," says Kristin Wilson, M.A., L.P.C., C.C.T.P, R.Y.T., and chief experience officer at Newport Healthcare. "Writing in a journal can provide an emotional release and offer a place for us to be completely honest and authentic with ourselves," she adds.

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How To Make Your Weekends Feel Longer

Time off from work always goes by way too fast. Here, experts share how to make the most of your weekends. (Photo: Klaus Vedfelt via Getty Images)

Weekends never feel long enough. Whether it’s a regular two-day weekend or an extended (but, somehow, still short) three-day weekend, leisure time goes by much faster than work days.

While there isn’t a magical way to actually extend every weekend, there are ways to take advantage of the time off work, and, in turn, make your weekends feel more fulfilling.

According to Dr. Mike Sevilla, a family physician at the Family Practice Center of Salem in Ohio, weekends are even more important than you may think.

“People need physical time and space to relax and recharge their mind and body after a long work week,” Sevilla said.

Tracy Dumas, an associate professor in the management and human resources department atthe Ohio State University, added that “any break from work, [whether] vacations, weekends or even after work in the evening, is incredibly important for recovery.”

Recovery, Dumas added, is a “term used by organizational psychologists to capture the concept of replenishing resources depleted by the effort expended at work” — much as athletes need to recover and take rest days after tough workouts.

Here, experts share how to optimize those recovery days and make the most of your time off:

Plan out some of your time.

“You can make the most out of your weekend by planning to do activities that you enjoy,” said Alayna L. Park, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Oregon.

She noted that creating a specific schedule for your weekend can help you follow through with the activities you want to do. This way, you don’t go into Sunday night feeling disappointed with the activities you did (or didn’t do). Read full article on Yahoo.

Mississippi Moms Share Horrors of Parenting During Water Crisis

Brad Vest/Getty Security personnel outside the O.B. Curtis Water Treatment Plan in Jackson, Miss.

Residents of Jackson, Miss., are currently battling through a water crisis that one woman says "has been building for decades." Having children at home makes it even more difficult.

Mom Brooke Floyd, 43, tells PEOPLE that many of her fellow Jackson residents are both "angry and frustrated" after being left without reliable running water for more than a month.

Jackson has been under a boil water order for over 30 days due to issues with the water system, which has left some residents with little to no water at all. The problem was exacerbated by the recent flooding of the Pearl River, which resulted in a temporary decrease in water production across the city.

RELATED: Here's How Mississippi Residents Are Coping During the Jackson Water Crisis

Deneka Samuel, a mom of six children ages 4 to 19, says it can be challenging at times during the crisis, and is hoping to see improvement soon.

"It's hard and it's a struggle, but we're going to keep on and keep on and keep on fighting," she tells PEOPLE.

The water went completely out on Monday, according to Floyd, a mother of four, including 6-year-old twins. "We turned on the faucets and there wasn't any water," she says, explaining that it's since come back sporadically.

What water has been coming into Samuel's house has been brown, leaving her in a constant cleaning frenzy to ensure her kids aren't coming in contact with it. "I have to make sure I keep my house sanitized," she says. "I clean up every day so there won't be [any] bacteria or germs. And I have to watch my kids closely so they don't touch the water in the sink and get sick."

Basic tasks like cooking, bathing or even going to the bathroom have become massive chores for Samuel. She cooks and has everyone brush their teeth with bottled water and uses jugs of water to fill the toilet before flushing (toilet paper, she says, goes in a bag for worries of the pipes backing up).

Read Full Article On Yahoo.

Music Community Plans Protest to Condemn Sexual Violence

Protest flyers are seen taped on an Indiana Avenue utility pole March 31, 2022. Organizers hung multiple flyers around campus to spread word of Saturday’s event at the East Studio Building. Some of those flyers have been torn down and defaced with offensive writing.

Since January, Jacobs School of Music students have been pushing for more in-depth conversations and tangible solutions after an Indiana Daily Student investigation detailed a sexual misconduct case.

Students have attended town halls, conversed with faculty and staff and posted on social media to express their fears and concerns. In internal conversations, the university often stifled conversations, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and barred students from discussing the specifics of the case. 

Now, those dismayed students are asking for more. 

At 5 p.m. Saturday, students and the music community are gathering at the East Studio Building to protest and demand answers from their institution. Within their list of demands, they are asking for the university to condemn sexual violence, better protect survivors and forge a safer community. 

The IDS investigation, which prompted the protest, describes how music student Chris Parker was should have been expelled or charged by police, or both, when he breached his suspension stemming from a sexual assault. The university did not follow these terms of his suspension, which are detailed in a document obtained by the IDS. He was allowed back as a student twice after that. Organizer and alumna Abby Malala said the university needs to follow through on the promises they make in their policies.

"It's very important to us that if a survivor is told that certain action will be taken that that promise to them follows through," she said.

Parker is a starting point for much larger conversations about sexual assault and how the university handles Title IX investigations and sanctions, she said. After the stunting of previous conversations, Malala hopes the university recognizes how infuriated students are about what she calls a "miserable miscarriage of justice."

Read more here.