How to Wire Your Brain for Happiness
A recent article from the Huffington Post summarized a book by neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, author of Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm and Confidence. To summarize, on a day-to-day basis, we need to stay with our positive experiences long enough for them to be encoded into neural structure and transfer better into our long-term memory.
Below are five of his tips, that we’ll certainly be sure to try to incorporate further into our multicultural summer camp.
Take in the good.
- Appreciate moments of joy and increase their intensity and duration by lingering on them for longer, effectively “wiring” them into our brains.
Focus on the positive experiences with the greatest personal impact.
- “You want experiences that are matched to your problem, like matching the medicine to the illness,” Hanson says.
Be on your own side.
- Set an intention for joy and then insist upon it. When we are upset or worried ourselves, we often don’t help ourselves as we would others. Instead, we tend to stay upset and ruminate over things longer than we need to.
Maintain a sense of wonder.
- Experiencing moments as fresh and new, with a childlike awe, allows them to stick in the brain for longer, potentially becoming part of our lasting emotional memory.
Open your eyes and look around.
- Mindfulness—the cultivation of a focused awareness on the present moment, developed through practices like meditation and deep breathing—is perhaps our greatest tool when it comes to increasing our capacity for happiness. One way to create more lasting positive memories in the brain, is to make a concerted effort to notice those little, everyday pleasant encounters: A smile from a stranger, a small gesture of caring from a friend or a little personal victory.
What other positive psychology tips do you have to add that can help wire our brains for happiness?