Who Do You Love?

This week, while travelling on the bus to the city, I noticed a guy on his phone flickering through his photos. He was searching for pictures of his family. He would stop on a photograph, enlarge it and just stare and think. Not long ago on the Mojo Radio Show, I interviewed Emily Fletcher from Ziva Meditation in New York, and she spoke of the new science that looks at the positive effect of gratitude on the brain. What occurred to me as I watched this guy reflect on his photos rather than flick through them like an Instagram feed, is that he was genuinely thinking about who he loved and who loved him. There's loads of talk about the power of gratitude journaling, and photos are undoubtedly a powerful way to stimulate the gratitude connections in your brain, transporting you to an amazingly positive moment in your personal history.  Emily said that by simply thinking about what you are grateful for, you are stimulating your brain - making it healthier, stronger and creating new connections. We have those moments in our pockets at all times, and it makes us remember that Kodak was not in the photo business, they were in the memory business. So here is my suggestion, next time you find yourself with a moment to kill, and you are tempted to check your social media feed, your email, or your text messages - stop. Instead, go to your photo album and open a photo of a beautiful moment in the past where you were surrounded by the people you love and those that love you. Reflect, be grateful and take a moment - it's good for your Mojo, for your brain, and goodness knows what else. Make it a daily ritual - when you grab your cup of coffee grab a photo. When you sit on the bus, grab a photo. Before you walk in the door to greet your family after a long day, grab a photo. There is profound wisdom to be taken from the experience of the guy on the bus.