In this episode of Calm With Me, host Dr. Meredith Calvert explores the neuroscience of being pleasantly surprised, discussing how and why the brain has evolved to react positively to the unexpected and why we remember the delights that sneak up on us, more than those we ancticipate.

Beginning with a story of a surprise encounter during a family hike, she offers tools for finding more unexpected delight and shares a simple and effective practice to help prime the nervous system to be more open to joyful surprises.

Link to SacredCalm Yoga, Breathwork & Hiking Retreat:

https://www.meriyoga.org/sacredcalmretreat

**email meri@meriyoga.com and mention the 'Calm With Me' Podcast to receive $100 off this incredible retreat!

Scientific references discussed in episode:

Pennebaker, J. W., & Chung, C. K. (2011). Expressive Writing: Connections to Physical and Mental Health. In H. S. Friedman (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Health Psychology. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195342819.013.0018

Klein-Koerkamp Y, Baciu M, Hot P. Preserved and impaired emotional memory in Alzheimer's disease. Front Psychol. (2012) Sep 14;3:331. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00331. PMID: 23049516; PMCID: PMC3442282.

Maya Al-Khouja, Netta Weinstein, William Ryan, Nicole Legate, Self-expression can be authentic or inauthentic, with differential outcomes for well-being: Development of the authentic and inauthentic expression scale (AIES), Journal of Research in Personality (2022) Volume 97

V.J. Cheng, Inauthentic: The anxiety over culture and identity. Rutgers University Press (2004)

Macrae CN, Moran JM, Heatherton TF, Banfield JF, Kelley WM. Medial prefrontal activity predicts memory for self. Cereb Cortex (2004) Jun;14(6):647-54. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhh025. PMID: 15084488

Farb NA, Segal ZV, Mayberg H, Bean J, McKeon D, Fatima Z, Anderson AK. Attending to the present: mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. (2007) Dec;2(4):313-22. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsm030

Girija Kaimal, et al., Functional near-infrared spectroscopy assessment of reward perception based on visual self-expression: Coloring, doodling, and free drawing, The Arts in Psychotherapy, Volume 55, (2017) ISSN 0197-4556, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2017.05.004

Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2014). The importance of universal psychological needs for understanding motivation in the workplace. In M. Gagné (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of work engagement, motivation, and self-determination theory (pp. 13–32). Oxford University Press.