To Achieve Happiness you Just need to Train your Brain
The constant search for happiness often creates mixed feelings in people. The dream of being happy sometimes vanishes, unable to experience full satisfaction.
You live in a world where the material is above the sentimental, because it is believed that having large amounts of money or owning many goods will lead us to fulfill the most desired desire: happiness.
Their is a book Train Your Brain to Get Happy: The Simple Program That Primes Your Gray Cells for Joy, Optimism, and psychologist explain some keys to train the brain to fulfill that dream: to be happy.
The expert psychologist details in one of her articles that if you want to be happy, you must keep your brain happy, because feeling pleasure can be so stimulating for this organ that it will respond in the same way.
The Pursuit of Happiness
The first thing to do is to contemplate happiness as a mental state, which is formed by emotions such as joy, optimism, perseverance. All people can feel them, it’s just a matter of working them.
According to the psychologist, it is necessary to reflect on how we feel in the situations that arise.
Generally we stay with the bad because we usually get stuck in times of stress and anxiety, without paying attention to the moments that make people happy.
It is very important to know what causes us sadness and joy, in order to regulate our levels of emotion.
If we are looking for happiness, we must concentrate on those mental states that make us feel good, acting directly on our emotions.
Positive vs. Negative thoughts
Reynolds indicates that every thought releases brain chemicals. Being focused on negative emotions can reduce the brain’s ability to function, even leading to depression .
Negative thoughts slow brain coordination, which makes it difficult to process and find solutions in situations of stress or anxiety.
Fear affects the left temporal lobe, altering mood, memory and impulse control.
Thinking about positive and happy feelings decreases cortisol (a hormone that is released in response to stress) and produces serotonin, a substance that gives us well-being and satisfaction.
Having this type of thoughts supports brain strengthening, as well as the generation and reinforcement of new synapses (information transfer zone from one neuron to another), especially in the prefrontal cortex.
According to psychologist, the prefrontal cortex is the only part of the brain that can control both your emotions and your actions, and can help you focus on the goals you want to achieve.
The prefrontal cortex has the ability to decide what is important, according to the amount of attention given to something and how we feel about it.
The more you focus on negativity, the more synapses and neurons the brain will create, supporting that negative thinking.
The psychologist indicates that the more you think about one aspect and focus all your energy on that, the stronger the connection will be:
What you think and feel about a certain situation or thing can take root so deeply, that you will have to work hard to dismantle negative connections and reconnect your brain to be less afraid, think positively, believe that dreams can come true, trust that your efforts will be successful.
How to achieve it?
You can train your brain to fight negative thoughts and increase positive ones, focusing on routines that lead to happiness.
Try to find time each day to do simple things that make you feel good, such as reading a book, dancing, listening to your favorite song or playing with your pet. They are small actions that help balance a bad day.
Having small moments of happiness will increase positive thoughts in the brain, which will help to have moments of well-being.
You should be aware of what you think, do and express, as it affects both inside and outside, according to psychologist.
Start by concentrating on happy thoughts, looking at the positive side and reflecting when a negative moment occurs.
Your mind has the ability to determine how to act, depending on what happens in your life.
