All you need to know about Bonhomie

Your December Delight

Bonhomie is a state of exuberance, friendliness, geniality, good humour, cheerfulness and just sheer good naturedness.

Cultivating positive affect and connection with humanness is one of the best things we can do, especially in times of darkness both metaphorically and literally.

Over time, given sustained positive thought, functions in the parietal lobe start to change - for the better.

The parietal lobe is a region of the brain that is responsible for sensory perception and integration. It receives and interprets somatosensory signals, integrates sensory inputs from different parts of the body, processes information relating to the sense of touch, integrates and interprets sensory information, judges size, shape, and distance, interprets symbols, including those in written and spoken language, mathematical problems, and codes and puzzles, plays a role in hearing and visual perception, as well as memory

Consequently, this changes our perception of the self and those around us. Essentially, holding a positive view of ourselves helps train our brain to see the good in others as well as ourselves. This then supports us to have less stress responses in our body, less fear, more plasticity in the brain, a more alkaline body (less disease) and less of a negative bias.

The season goodwill is traditionally thought of as being in December, mainly confined to the time of Christmas.

I want to issue a challenge.

Let us have the spirit of bonhomie that lasts for the entirety of December.

We can all take measurements of our state right now and then again mid and the end of the month and let us test the hypothesis that we can make changes in our perception of ourselves and others with bonhomie.

I would like to extend an invitiation to you that if you would like to be part of a study I would like to conduct into how we can transform December, especially for those of us who find this time of year difficult then you are more than welcome.

You will just have to fill in the questionnaire (totally anonymous) before 1st December, then again after the 31st December but before the 7th January.

I will be sending out the links and the resources separate to this post.

Many people suffer, often in silence, at this time of year. Whilst it should be a time of quiet reflection, it can often turn into isolated rumination so I would like to issue an invite for you to think of anyone in your community that may benefit from this challenge. I will pop the link to invite below.

The spirit of bonhomie will be exactly what it says on the tin. There will be fun, laughter, reflection, play, joy, a veritable feast for your central nervous system. An antedote to capitalism, cynicism and cheerlessness. It will not take up too much of your time and will be extremely useful for your brain and its functionality.

You can see from the diagram above that by embracing our spirirt of bonhomi then we are utilising and strenghtening the highest neurological level of functioning. We are enhancing our ability to care and to play which essentially are the backbones of a healthy, functioning society.

This season will be good for brain function, good for spirit and definitely good for everybody.

I intend you will join in and we can start a movement of bonhomie that will ripple throughout our worlds and make a difference to all of us.

“We have a mission to others--to add to their cheer. This we cannot do unless we have first learned the lesson of cheerfulness ourselves.”