Did you know the brain is an amazing thing? I love watching movies that play with the ideas of how to adjust the power in the brain, changing the paths of brain waves or opening it up for greater efficiency, and sometimes the outcome is more than they were expecting! It it fun to sit back dream that we can move objects with our minds, read novels in minutes or experience the fully connected conscious and subconscious.
With all of the awesome technology that we have today, we know that the brain is a powerful thing. We now know through science and the ways that a brain “lights up” that certain types of thoughts trigger certain types emotions. Which means, very much like the mad scientists in some movies, we to have the power to control the brain.
In fact, I just learned of how guilt and shame are connected to the reward centers of our brains! (Upward Spiral by Phd Alex Korb )
Now I don’t know about you, but I know some people who honestly do love to lay on the guilt! Often on others but it even “rewards” when guilting yourself… bet you didn’t know that!
AND knowing these brain/emotions connections can be used to benefit our daily lives. Here is a review of four ways that we can adjust and connect with ourselves on a happier level every day. (Four points referenced from the article)
Get Grateful. By asking ourselves what we are grateful for, we activate what I like to call the Happy Center. When we activate the Happy Center, we are boosting the happy/peaceful hormones dopamine and serotonin, like your own personal Prozac. AND the above referenced book even suggests that when we are trying to be grateful we become more efficient at being grateful and thus it becomes easier to find this daily boost of happy. Yes, Please!
Get Honest. By getting honest about the negative emotions we sometimes feel we can take their potency down a notch. When negative emotions are labeled, Sad, Anxious, Angry… the brain begins to process that emotion differently and moves the energy from the emotional brain to the logical/problem solving parts of the brain. If fact, the more we push away feelings or try to ignore them, the deeper they fester in the emotional areas of our brains until they can no longer be pushed aside. Whoa! Ever have that moment? (Na, me either!)
Get Choosy. By making decisions we can take a step toward creating peace in our brains, thus reducing the amount of stress we feel in a particular situation. Just the decision making process, begins to bring intentions to reality and then when we back that with goal setting, our stressing brains take a calming breath. The decision doesn’t have to be one that is set in stone, just do your best with the tools and knowledge you have at the moment. With the hard stuff out of the way, the brain then begins to allow the energy transfer into the problem solving areas so they can get to work. OH! and you want to know the real bonus to this one!? This is so cool. Making decisions actually boosts the pleasure areas as well! SO you get a double dip of relieving stress and feeling good about it! Still can’t decide what’s for dinner? Maybe it’s time to let fate help and decides to flip a coin!
Get Social. By being around others we can also help boost the pleasure and calm the stressing parts of our brains. Did you know that there is science to support that emotional pain is registered in the brain the same as physical pain? And most of us can agree there is some honest pain that comes along with a broken heart, but did you know that the smallest interpretation of rejection “feels” the same way in our brains? Now listen up, I used the word interpretation very specifically here, because often the rejection may not be the true reality or even intentional, so knowing how it affects our brains, let’s be careful on when we allow ourselves to feel this kind of hurt. AND being around people we like actually cuts down the amount of sensors that receive the pain message! Whoa! Want to take this one step further? Get Touchy. Now this one can get you in trouble if done wrong. Proceed with caution. LOL. But physical touch has been shown to cut down even more of the pain messages received, and the stronger the relationship of those you are touching, again the less pain messages received. Vice Versa, physical touch has also been shown to boost oxytocin, another happy hormone, and calm the stress receiving parts of the brain. Feeling really down? It’s time to go out, see people, smile, say hi, shake hands, get a hug! Maybe even a massage!
Now put it all together, and that makes me Happy! Do you have any brain tricks that make you happy?
Have an outstanding day!
Sara