Goldie Hawn’s 10 Mindful Minutes

Goldie Hawn has three golden rules for changing your life in just 10 minutes.

1. Take Brain Breaks

Stress negatively affects the brain. When you feel stressed out, your brain goes into emergency-mode and shuts energy away from the areas tied to learning and memory. Recognize when this happens and give yourself a mental break with focused breathing or meditation. Studies have shown that people who meditate increase the density of certain areas of their brains. If you can’t meditate, try listening to music or staring at a wall. The break will help you see things more clearly and reduce stress.

2. Focus, Focus, Focus

Focusing on a specific taste or a smell helps strengthen critical networks in the brain, which improves decision-making and helps to regulate your moods. Goldie slows down her brain by blindly tasting jelly beans. She pinches her nose and guesses the flavor by taste alone. She then repeats the exercise with only smell. Develop control over what you pay attention to by directing your focus.

3. Kindness Is Key

As with exercising any muscle, you can grow your brain’s ability to care. Acts of kindness and empathy stimulate a release of dopamine called the “helper’s high.” This helps to improve memory, ease depression, and alleviate pain.