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In the previous posts for this series, we've been discussing the playdough that is your brain and the fact that it can be "trained" to bring more happiness into your life.
But how does a brain really become happier?
There are 100 billion neurons in your brain. They make connections with one another at synapses, where chemicals called neurotransmitters are released. Each neurotransmitter is a signal, a coach belting out instructions from a playbook. Every neuron listens for the coach to say, "Hey, get in the game!" or "You're not needed. Sit this one out."
If a neuron is needed, it fires and sends a signal of its own. So begins a recruiting process (neurons that fire together, wire together), where the signal of one neuron tells a fellow neuron to fire.
It's not so hard to see how a particular way of thinking gives the neurons repeated practice at running a given play. Over time, the same positive thought ("I am going to catch this ball") reinforces the strength of the "positive" route that's being run. And, as logic follows, a negative thought ("I don't think I can catch this ball today") reinforces the neurons' familiar, "negative" route.
The key to creating a happier brain really means changing your designated plays, but research tells us that altering your thinking requires your mindful attention. Here are a few tips from Rick Hanson's Buddha's Brain for strengthening your positive neural circuitry:
- Turn positive facts into positive experiences. Good things keep happening all around us, but much of the time we don't notice them; even when we do, we often hardly feel them. Whatever positive facts you find, bring a mindful awareness to them--open up to them and let them affect you. It's like sitting down to a banquet; don't just look at it--dig in!
- Savor the experience. Make it last by staying with it for 5, 10, even 20 seconds; don't let your attention skitter off to something else. The longer that something is held in awareness and the more emotionally stimulating it is, the more neurons that fire and thus wire together, and the stronger the trace in memory (Lewis 2005).
