Choose Joyy Podcast
Based on the mood and habit tracking Joyyful Planner, the Choose Joyy podcast is focused on self alignment for those who struggle with anxiety. Through these unpredictable times, we’ve all experienced moments of self-doubt and uncertainty. By making a conscious effort to choose joy daily, we allow ourselves to heal and grow into the path destined for us. Join me weekly to unpack, affirm, and choose joy.
Choose Joyy Podcast
Delayed Joy
This is the episode where we confront the seductive lure of instant gratification and celebrate the magic of delayed joy. In a world obsessed with immediate results, we often forget that true success is more like a marathon than a sprint. This episode peels back the layers of society's fast-food mentality, challenging the belief that quicker is better, and guiding you on a path towards lasting fulfillment that honors your future self.
Join us as we discuss the subtle yet impactful role of small, deliberate choices in our daily pursuit of happiness. Learn why forgoing that impromptu night out for some self-care or curating the perfect music playlist could be the key to healthier habits and a steady increase in dopamine levels.
As always, we encourage you to reach out through our website or messaging platforms to share your journey with us.
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You've made it to the Choose Joy podcast. Here we make a conscious effort to choose joy. Daily, we allow ourselves to heal and grow into the path designed for us. Join me to unpack, affirm and choose joy. Hello and welcome back for episode 11 of the pod. It's a solo episode, so it's just me, no guest. Let's get into it.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to talk about letting go of instant gratification. To be honest, I didn't know what to call this podcast, but the one thing that I kept thinking of is microwaves. So let's dive right in. Instant gratification is pretty much experiencing pleasure right away without actually working for it, and I feel like in today's society, everything that we consume or a lot of what we consume involves instant gratification, supports instant gratification or pushes you in that direction. And there is going to be a part two to this episode, just because I do want to touch a little more on social media and how that affects us and how that can sometimes hinder us from ultimately choosing joy.
Speaker 1:So let me just start by saying this you don't get everything that you want right when you want it. This is not McDonald's, this is not Burger King, and in our society we have a very fast food mentality. I want it. I want it now, but, honestly, a lot of what I'm seeing is a false representation of how life works and how things actually are, and I feel like we've just lost touch of reality a little bit. So let's bring it back. Everything starts small, things don't happen overnight and dreams are not achieved at once. Great things take time, and they always have, and sometimes time is on your side. So lean into it and trust the process. Do not overwhelm yourself by what you constantly are feeding your brain every day and by what you consume. Okay, Regardless of what you see and regardless of what you're hearing, it is okay to slow down, slow down, stop rushing. What are you rushing for? Why are you running? Why are you running? It's really okay to gather yourself, and I feel like this is a gathering period. This is a gathering time. It's a time for everything and right now it's a time to gather yourself, collect your thoughts, and gratification has really led us to a shallow way of thinking and it really just leads to burnout, it leads to stress, and it's all because you are calculating your worth with how fast you get what you want and I'm laughing because I'm speaking to myself. It goes back to the elementary tale of the tortoise and the hare how fast you get something doesn't equate to your worthiness of having whatever it is that you picture in your mind, whatever your goals are and that's another thing Don't lose sight of the bigger picture. What is your goal, what is your why and what is your picture?
Speaker 1:Everybody is doing this thing called life together, but at the same time, it's an individual race and I literally just heard my dad's voice in my head because I used to run track and while track is kind of a team sport debate me on it, please debate me on it it's really an individual sport for real, because you're going against time, like you're going against your own time, and it's really an individual race and we're all going through our own journey. I apply that to life Like, yes, we're all doing this thing called life, but everybody's journey looks different. Everyone me and you might have the same goal, but how we get there, our paths are going to look totally different, and that's what sets you apart and that's the beauty of life that I feel like we are running away from, especially just as a generation the big things in life that we want. They don't come easy and they don't come quick, it takes time. It takes you investing your time and energy and effort into your future self and your future gains.
Speaker 1:If that makes sense, the idea of instant gratification is that you are feeding into that pleasure, right, and you're disregarding the work and obviously one of my favorite parts of our little talks the scientific breakdowns. Okay, you know that we touch on the science behind it and naturally the human body wants to pick pleasure over pain. Duh, and honestly, instant gratification can look like plethora of things from door dashing food, spending money unnecessarily, taking away from your future self, then taking the time to actually grocery shop for the week and having meals to last, and taking joy in nurturing your body. You know what I'm saying Cooking good food and feeding your body the right things. It can look like time spent on your phone. That, all that time spent on your phone. What are you losing? So, essentially, what am I giving up to have this temporary pleasure? What are the long term effects of a short term decision? What are you taking away from your future self, whether that be money that you need to save to get to where you want to be, whether that be time spent or the lack thereof, whether that be feeding your mind and feeding your brain over consumption of things that do not serve you and do not make you better and aren't adding to the goals and where you want to be in life.
Speaker 1:I am slowly learning that wherever you want to be, whoever you want to be, it starts now. You have to show up as her, you have to show up as him Now, actively walk in that and eventually you will see things align. Now back to the science. Instant gratification leads to an attic brain versus a regulated brain. Okay, an attic brain literally believes that instant gratification is linked to survival. So, quite literally, when you give into that instant pleasure, you are forcing your brain to believe that that is linked to survival. You need to give into things that you know won't better you or aren't bettering you, and a regulated brain is knowing that not every craving that you have is a command, that every want that you may have is a need right now and in a world where that instant pleasure is constantly pushed, constantly advertised it's what we feed ourselves every day it can get hard to bring in discipline or delayed gratification right, and I also want to talk about that because I don't want to only talk about the bad things. I want to talk about how we can be better, right, how we can choose ourselves, how we can choose joy. That's the whole point of this.
Speaker 1:It's important to focus on the bigger picture, but first gain that picture. What is your big picture? What does that look like to you? And then, when you have it, don't lose sight of it. Don't let temporary gains become long term losses. Oh, yeah, yeah, that was the one. That was her.
Speaker 1:What instant gratification does is it boosts that dopamine. Right, and dopamine is the pleasure chemical in the brain. It's associated with rewards and motivation, and sometimes that can be knocked off because you don't believe in yourself. And you don't believe in yourself because you base the length of time it takes to see results on your worth. And no, no, no, big no, no. So, instead of giving into the wrong kind of pleasure, let's focus on natural ways to get that dopamine you know what I'm saying To tickle that pleasure chemical in our brains, because ultimately, you get more when you become more. So let's talk about ways to boost our dopamine and delay that gratification a little bit for a bigger reward.
Speaker 1:Okay, number one, which is near and dear to my heart, is sunlight. The older I get, the more I feel like we're plants. I'm a plant mama, I have so many plants. I am a self certified green thumb. Okay, like my plants are flourishing and honestly, I gotta show y'all, like I gotta show y'all my plant babies. But sunlight, like I feel like the same thing that plants need food, sunlight, attention, water, I mean hello, they sound like things that I need. So sunlight, get into the sun. Okay, we have just embarked on daylight savings. Thank you God, thank you Jesus, the sun does not set until after 7pm. Y'all. Seasonal depression, baddies, we have made it, we have made it.
Speaker 1:And, side note, I feel like new year should be in March, like a part of me has felt that way for some time. It just doesn't make sense. You know what I'm saying. Like we start off strong the spring, summer, fall, winter, and then when winter ends, the new year should begin. But that's just me and I literally had this conversation with my sister last night.
Speaker 1:But like, anyway, number two physical movement Move your body y'all, and preferably the two of these things in the morning, so you can talk about these two things by just taking a walk. Taking a walk, you know what I'm saying. Move your body, whether that's waking up and getting a good stretch, whether that's working out before or after the routine of your day. Get some physical movement in 30 minutes a day, at least seven minutes of sunlight, like you need it. Trust it will change your life, I'm telling you guys. So like, come on, god gives us all we need. You have all that you need to choose joy, sunlight, physical movement.
Speaker 1:Number three enough sleep. Put that phone down, go to bed, okay. Whatever that tick talks, see Well, my phone too. Don't go much. Get enough sleep.
Speaker 1:Number four mindful movement, and what that can look like is meditation, yoga, whatever prayer for me. Talk to God, y'all Talk to God, okay. Tell God what's on your mind, what's on your heart. Let God speak to you, and that's just that. And number five music, and I'm thinking of creating playlist for the pod. So let me know if you wanna see that. Either reach out to me on Instagram or hello.
Speaker 1:We have a website. Why are you guys not using the website? Get on the website in or DM me, because it's quicker, but tell me what y'all think. I think I want to do a playlist, like a couple of playlists. But anyway, music, these things are natural things to boost up your dopamine levels and delayed gratification is literally just saying no to me. I mean personally Just saying no to certain things so that in the long run, you're better off. Like you can skip a night out you know what I'm saying and have a night in, and that could work wonders. You'll be amazed you can go to bed earlier so that you wake up earlier and have enough time to actually develop a routine.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you, the small things really are the big things in life, and that's another thing that I'm learning. Oh, I'm getting old, but it's really the small things in life that are actually the biggest. And finally, our affirmation and I have two All our efforts add up and matter. And the second one what I am working towards is worth the weight. You have to believe in your dreams and your goals more than anyone, and that looks like a lot of sacrificing Release old things, old habits, old ways, and really lean into who you wanna be, where you wanna be, et cetera, et cetera, right. So remember that what you're working towards is worth the weight it really is and that your efforts matter and they add up. So put forth some effort, y'all. Let go of that instant gratification and, as always, choose joy. It's a big dream now. We all, you're black and it's like a doing out it, doing out it, out it. I have to get to the whole thing. Slow down.