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Daily Habits For Happiness: A Scientific Approach
Discover the science behind happiness! In this video, we dive into the
daily habits and mindsets that can significantly boost your overall
wellbeing.
Hear it Here - https://Neuro-Happiness
00:00:00 Neuro-Happiness
00:01:14 Have A Routine – But Not A Strict One!
00:09:52 Meditation Can Make You Happy.
00:16:11 Self-Talking Yourself To Happiness.
00:23:16 The Reading Habit.
00:28:41 Dear Happiness…
00:32:11 Keep The Flame Of Hope Burning.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XLW8K22
Transcript
Neuro-Happiness:
Speaker:37 Science-Based (5-Minute)
Speaker:Methods to Increase Your Daily Happiness,
Speaker:Fulfillment,
Speaker:and Contentment (Mental and Emotional Abundance Book 15)
Speaker:Written by
Speaker:Nick Trenton, narrated by russell newton.
Speaker:Chapter 1 .- Daily Habits For Happiness.
Speaker:Everyone wants to be happy,
Speaker:but how many people could honestly claim they are?
Speaker:In the chapters that follow,
Speaker:we’ll be looking at what happiness is,
Speaker:how it works physiologically,
Speaker:and how we can use current scientific understanding of wellbeing to start
Speaker:creating a life that we love.
Speaker:Happiness starts in the brain,
Speaker:but that doesn’t mean it’s just a question of neuroscience.
Speaker:We’ll be exploring the question of happiness over the course of 40 practical,
Speaker:evidence-based techniques,
Speaker:covering daily happiness habits,
Speaker:joy-inducing environments,
Speaker:and short-term quick fixes for bad days.
Speaker:Finally,
Speaker:we’ll consider how we can pull everything together to create lasting
Speaker:lifestyle changes that genuinely make us feel good.
Speaker:Let’s dive in!
Speaker:Have A Routine – But Not A Strict One!
Speaker:Picture the kind of person you imagine has their life together.
Speaker:They wake up at the same time every day,
Speaker:they have an orderly morning routine,
Speaker:and they have a fixed food,
Speaker:work,
Speaker:and exercise schedule that they move through predictably,
Speaker:every day.
Speaker:They’re probably quite productive… but are they happy?
Speaker:It turns out that,
Speaker:although routine can be beneficial,
Speaker:you don’t want to get stuck in a rut.
Speaker:Research psychologist Catherine Hartley and her colleagues conducted a study
Speaker:with 132 participants,
Speaker:who were tracked for three or four months.
Speaker:Hartley wanted to see their general mental health state and overall mood,
Speaker:as well as examine what kind of daily routines they engaged in.
Speaker:What the data revealed was pretty interesting - people who were able to do
Speaker:something novel every day tended to report more positive,
Speaker:happy emotions than those who just stuck to the same old,
Speaker:same old.
Speaker:The novelty didn’t have to be big – it could be something as simple as
Speaker:going to a new place or trying something different for lunch.
Speaker:The team also tracked the participants via G. P. S. and noticed that,
Speaker:on days when people moved around more and visited more locations,
Speaker:they were more likely to use words like “happy”,
Speaker:“relaxed” and “excited” to describe their mood that day.
Speaker:Hartley wanted to understand more,
Speaker:so she had some of the participants undergo an M. R. I. scan.
Speaker:Here,
Speaker:she found that the people who were regularly exposing themselves to novel
Speaker:situations actually had different brain function than those who didn’t.
Speaker:Their scans showed an increase in brain activity between the hippocampus and
Speaker:striatum – areas of the brain associated with experience processing and
Speaker:reward,
Speaker:respectively.
Speaker:The more diverse experiences,
Speaker:the greater the connectivity between these two brain regions and the greater
Speaker:the reported feelings of wellbeing.
Speaker:The team published their findings in the journal Nature Neuroscience,
Speaker:concluding that there was a definite relationship between our daily
Speaker:environments,
Speaker:our behaviors,
Speaker:our brain activity,
Speaker:and our overall mood.
Speaker:Diversity of experience,
Speaker:they found,
Speaker:was positively correlated with improved wellbeing.
Speaker:"Our results suggest that people feel happier when they have more variety in
Speaker:their daily routines -- when they go to novel places and have a wider array of
Speaker:experiences," Hartley claimed,
Speaker:and,
Speaker:since the research concluded just before worldwide Covid-19 lockdowns,
Speaker:many were interested in using the findings to maintain wellbeing despite being
Speaker:shut at home.
Speaker:If “experiential diversity” means greater wellbeing,
Speaker:then it’s obvious that,
Speaker:if we want to be happier,
Speaker:we need a little novelty.
Speaker:What does that look like,
Speaker:day to day?
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:it’s likely that each of us has different thresholds for what counts as
Speaker:“novel” – for some,
Speaker:new experiences can feel stressful or threatening,
Speaker:while others are major thrill-seekers and adrenaline junkies.
Speaker:What Hartley’s research suggests,
Speaker:however,
Speaker:is that just a little daily variation is enough to wake up certain areas of the
Speaker:brain.
Speaker:You don’t have to go on a grand adventure every day – just try something
Speaker:new here and there -
Speaker:•Take a different route to work or,
Speaker:if you have a few minutes,
Speaker:explore that strange back street that you always walk past but never go down.
Speaker:•Instead of getting your favorite dish at the restaurant you always go to,
Speaker:get something completely different or try another place entirely.
Speaker:•Mix up the order of things you were already going to do that day;
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:change plans at the last minute and run some errands in town instead for a
Speaker:change of pace.
Speaker:•Take a walk somewhere you haven’t been before and really absorb everything
Speaker:new and unexpected around you.
Speaker:•Rummage in your closet and wear something you’ve forgotten about or a
Speaker:novel combination of items you haven’t tried before.
Speaker:•Work in a different room,
Speaker:in a different chair,
Speaker:or even in the same room but oriented differently.
Speaker:The reason novelty makes us happy is that,
Speaker:neurophysiologically,
Speaker:the sensation of novelty is closely connected to the sensation of reward.
Speaker:And in many ways,
Speaker:the experience of depression is not dissimilar from the feeling of being
Speaker:“stuck in a rut” and under-stimulated.
Speaker:Trying something new is a way to kick yourself out of that rut.
Speaker:Think of novelty as giving your brain a little surprise,
Speaker:which produces a tiny dopamine kick and engages you with your environment.
Speaker:If you’re feeling a little low,
Speaker:pause and ask if you’re really just bored – have you been doing too much of
Speaker:that same thing?
Speaker:Time to try something new!
Speaker:Say Thank You.
Speaker:When you’re feeling down,
Speaker:your attention is deliberately focused on everything that’s wrong in your
Speaker:world.
Speaker:You amplify everything that’s lacking,
Speaker:while ignoring everything that is actually going well for you.
Speaker:One way to reverse this tendency is to use the power of gratitude.
Speaker:Gratitude and thankfulness are having a moment right now,
Speaker:and for good reason – there is mounting evidence that simply being happy with
Speaker:what you’ve got is the key to being happy,
Speaker:period.
Speaker:This idea is not new,
Speaker:however,
Speaker:and it comes with predictable and measurable changes in the brain.
Speaker:Dr. Prathik Kini had always been interested in the phenomenon of gratitude but
Speaker:specifically wanted to see what it looked like in the brain.
Speaker:In a 2015 experiment,
Speaker:he asked 43 people that were already receiving psychotherapy for anxiety and
Speaker:depression to be his study participants.
Speaker:He broke them into two groups – one group was asked to write out “gratitude
Speaker:letters” while the other group simply continued with their therapy.
Speaker:After 3 months,
Speaker:Kini put all the subjects through an M. R. I. scan while they did a separate
Speaker:gratitude task,
Speaker:called the “Pay it Forward” task.
Speaker:The subjects were told that a generous sponsor had given them some money,
Speaker:before being asked if they wanted to donate a portion of this money in turn as
Speaker:a way of saying thank you.
Speaker:It was explained that they should donate money in proportion to how grateful
Speaker:they felt for the money they had received.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:if they felt extremely grateful for the gift,
Speaker:they were told to donate generously.
Speaker:The researchers did this so they could assign exact numbers to the measurement
Speaker:of gratitude,
Speaker:which is understandably a little hard to quantify.
Speaker:The results were interesting.
Speaker:Kini discovered that there were significant differences in brain activity in
Speaker:the participants who agreed to donate some of their money versus those who
Speaker:decided not to do so.
Speaker:But there was more - “Subjects who participated in gratitude letter writing
Speaker:showed both behavioral increases in gratitude and significantly greater neural
Speaker:modulation in the medial prefrontal cortex three months later."
Speaker:Basically,
Speaker:they found that,
Speaker:when people had previously strengthened feelings of gratitude by writing
Speaker:gratitude letters,
Speaker:they tended to experience the effects of the Pay it Forward exercise weeks and
Speaker:even months after.
Speaker:We can conclude two things from this research - 1.
Speaker:Gratitude Literally Shapes Our Brain,
Speaker:And.
Speaker:2. the more we practice gratitude,
Speaker:the more grateful we become.
Speaker:And though it wasn’t the focus of this research,
Speaker:we can also see that the more grateful we feel,
Speaker:the more generous we tend to want to be.
Speaker:This makes sense – if you feel blessed and like you have more than you need,
Speaker:you are more likely to feel that you’re in the position to share.
Speaker:Though many other studies have shown that gratitude can make you healthier,
Speaker:more resilient,
Speaker:and happier,
Speaker:and it can even help you have better willpower,
Speaker:Kini et. al. showed that gratitude actually leads to concrete,
Speaker:physical changes in the brain.
Speaker:Injecting a little gratitude,
Speaker:like novelty,
Speaker:doesn’t have to be a major project to be effective.
Speaker:Occasionally write a letter to someone who has done something to benefit your
Speaker:life,
Speaker:or keep a gratitude journal noting everything you’re fortunate to have.
Speaker:Why not wake up every morning and simply say “thank you” that you’re
Speaker:alive today?
Speaker:Meditation Can Make You Happy.
Speaker:Many of us already know that meditating is the gold standard when it comes to
Speaker:self-regulation,
Speaker:discipline,
Speaker:and stress relief,
Speaker:to name a few benefits.
Speaker:But one of the most underappreciated effects of a regular meditation practice
Speaker:is simple - you just feel good.
Speaker:Researchers led by Richard Davidson at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have
Speaker:taken a closer look at how meditation can specifically affect our sense of
Speaker:compassion and empathy for others.
Speaker:Increased compassion,
Speaker:they reasoned,
Speaker:directly enhances our own wellbeing and happiness.
Speaker:Davidson and his research team wanted to investigate whether meditators are
Speaker:happier in life.
Speaker:Compassion for all beings sounds nice,
Speaker:but does it have any physiological correlates in the brain?
Speaker:The team gathered Buddhist monks who were meditation veterans,
Speaker:as well as non-meditators,
Speaker:and looked at their brain function using fM. R. I. s.
Speaker:These scans allow scientists to see the brain’s function in real time,
Speaker:as well as follow the person’s reaction to various stimuli as it unfolds in
Speaker:the brain.
Speaker:The researchers subjected the participants to all kinds of stimuli,
Speaker:including extremely distracting and distressing ones,
Speaker:like the sounds of screams and jackhammers.
Speaker:They did indeed find that the Buddhists had consistently greater activity in
Speaker:the brain’s “happiness centers” and that they were less disturbed by
Speaker:upsetting stimuli.
Speaker:The Buddhists had greater activity in the part of the brain called the insula,
Speaker:which is what allows the mind to have an internal “map” of the various
Speaker:organs of the body,
Speaker:and the anterior cingulate cortices,
Speaker:which allow us to feel empathy for another’s pain (Lutz et. al.,
Speaker:2008,
Speaker:Regulation of the Neural Circuitry of Emotion by Compassion Meditation .-
Speaker:Effects of Meditative Expertise).
Speaker:It appeared that meditators had greatly moderated responses to stimuli compared
Speaker:to control subjects.
Speaker:This has some intriguing implications for practitioners who claim that
Speaker:meditation allows them literally to influence and change their bodies.
Speaker:The Enigula and the temporoparietal junction are other areas in the brain that
Speaker:showed greater activity in the meditators – these regions are associated with
Speaker:emotions,
Speaker:empathy,
Speaker:and the ability to perspective shift.
Speaker:It appeared that brain activity associated with joy and serenity were more
Speaker:pronounced in those that meditated.
Speaker:After eight hours of meditation,
Speaker:the researchers even discovered elevated levels of gene-regulating machinery
Speaker:and lower expression of pro-inflammatory genes.
Speaker:Practically speaking,
Speaker:this implies faster recovery and better stress resilience.
Speaker:The researchers concluded that the practice of meditation enabled “epigenetic
Speaker:alterations of the genome."
Speaker:Jill Sakai claimed in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology that “gene
Speaker:expression changes with meditation."
Speaker:In other words,
Speaker:though meditation cannot change your genes,
Speaker:it can influence the way that those genes are expressed.
Speaker:Importantly,
Speaker:the kind of meditation under study was one focused on compassion and emerged
Speaker:from the Buddhist conception of loving-kindness for all beings.
Speaker:But it is also possible to meditate with “pure compassion” that is not
Speaker:directed to anyone in particular,
Speaker:and this has also been associated with greater wellbeing and improved health.
Speaker:Researchers at the University of California San Francisco Medical Centre found
Speaker:that the areas of the brain associated with happiness were more active in
Speaker:meditators,
Speaker:and the areas associated with fear,
Speaker:i.e. parts of the amygdala,
Speaker:appeared to be better modulated.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:overall,
Speaker:the evidence strongly suggests that meditating Buddhists really are happier
Speaker:than others,
Speaker:not to mention less disturbed by negative stimuli.
Speaker:How can we meditate to improve our happiness?
Speaker:Meditation master Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche warns against the kind of trendy
Speaker:Western meditation that is really mindfulness “with a focus”,
Speaker:i.e. pushing some experiences and thoughts out of awareness in order to focus
Speaker:on one chosen thought or object.
Speaker:Instead of this busy,
Speaker:grasping form of meditation,
Speaker:he suggests not doing anything in particular with your body,
Speaker:breath,
Speaker:or mind.
Speaker:Don’t “focus” on anything.
Speaker:Sit erect but relaxed,
Speaker:cross-legged,
Speaker:but without strain.
Speaker:Keep your eyes open and your gaze soft and possibly lowered,
Speaker:not forcing it on anything.
Speaker:Next,
Speaker:your breathing - each time your breath goes out,
Speaker:“go out with it."
Speaker:Whatever you’re feeling in that moment,
Speaker:as your breath leaves you,
Speaker:let your mind dissolve with it.
Speaker:Don’t count breaths or follow the inhale or force yourself to do any kind of
Speaker:special “spiritual” breathing.
Speaker:Just be natural and let go of any struggle.
Speaker:See if you can identify completely with this breath rather than imagining it is
Speaker:separate from you.
Speaker:After the breath out dissolves,
Speaker:there is a gap,
Speaker:and you are surrounded by space.
Speaker:Just hang there and linger for a moment.
Speaker:The inhale will happen by itself.
Speaker:When you’ve done this for a while,
Speaker:try to pair the body and the breath.
Speaker:Practitioners are advised to have a “strong back;
Speaker:soft front."
Speaker:Good posture represents your innate dignity and strength,
Speaker:and dissolving with the breath represents vulnerability,
Speaker:softness,
Speaker:and compassion.
Speaker:Your mind will get in the way,
Speaker:but remember that you are not trying to stop thought – it’s a battle
Speaker:you’ll always lose!
Speaker:Thoughts are not the problem but rather our attachment to them.
Speaker:Instead of getting fixated on our own thought traffic,
Speaker:we can just be aware and see thoughts as thoughts.
Speaker:We just notice when our minds have wandered but without irritation (which is
Speaker:just one more thought).
Speaker:Simply sit.
Speaker:Body,
Speaker:breath,
Speaker:and mind.
Speaker:Be this way for a few minutes then get up to stretch your legs.
Speaker:Self-Talking Yourself To Happiness.
Speaker:Meditation is something we can practice and deepen over the course of years –
Speaker:or a whole lifetime – and it’s also something we can dip into literally any
Speaker:moment of any day.
Speaker:So much of our unhappiness manifests and expresses itself as thoughts.
Speaker:Our constant flow of mental chatter can be,
Speaker:when we start to look at it,
Speaker:surprisingly negative and repetitive.
Speaker:During meditation,
Speaker:you may be surprised to find just how relentless your inner self-talk really is.
Speaker:But could you change the program,
Speaker:so to speak?
Speaker:Most of us have heard of the technique of self-affirmation.
Speaker:This is when you use self-talk to affirm your own worth,
Speaker:to support yourself,
Speaker:to show yourself kindness,
Speaker:and to boost your appreciation of your own value as a human being.
Speaker:Basically,
Speaker:it’s speaking nicely to yourself!
Speaker:Though this practice seems like a good idea at first glance,
Speaker:is there any hard evidence that it can make us happier as people?
Speaker:It turns out there is.
Speaker:A study headed by Christopher Cascio and his associates was published in 2015
Speaker:in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience,
Speaker:sharing their findings about how self-affirmation affects the brain.
Speaker:They wanted to see if they could lift the hood and see what actually goes on in
Speaker:the brain when someone chooses to self-affirm.
Speaker:They set up a study of 67 participants,
Speaker:who were then asked to rank the personal importance of eight separate areas of
Speaker:life.
Speaker:The areas were creativity,
Speaker:family and friends,
Speaker:humor,
Speaker:independence,
Speaker:business or earning money,
Speaker:politics,
Speaker:religious values,
Speaker:and spontaneity.
Speaker:Then,
Speaker:half of the participants were put in M. R. I. machines and asked to think
Speaker:about the area of life they rated most highly.
Speaker:They were asked to dwell on these positive thoughts,
Speaker:visualizing themselves having related experiences,
Speaker:or thinking about the details of this area.
Speaker:The other half were not told to focus in this way.
Speaker:The findings suggested that self-affirmation boosted activity in the ventral
Speaker:striatum and ventral medial cortex,
Speaker:which are areas of the brain connected with the experience of reward.
Speaker:What’s more,
Speaker:the research also showed that,
Speaker:when affirmations were future-based,
Speaker:they tended to have a more powerfully positive effect on the brain.
Speaker:An example of a future-based affirmation is,
Speaker:“I’m going to do well with my business next year."
Speaker:We’ll explore the way that thinking about the future can impact our happiness
Speaker:in the present in a later chapter in the book,
Speaker:but for now,
Speaker:it’s interesting simply to note that words of affirmation are not mere words
Speaker:– they have real consequences on our neural connections and brain activity.
Speaker:Self-affirmations are not just fluff.
Speaker:The researchers claim that they act as a sort of psychological immune system or
Speaker:a modulator,
Speaker:buffering us against setbacks or disappointments by reminding us of the
Speaker:resources we have and the positive traits we still possess.
Speaker:But the world of affirmations is more complex than it looks.
Speaker:It matters how we engage in affirmative self-talk.
Speaker:If we tell ourselves,
Speaker:“I’m perfect just the way I am,” but we don’t really believe it,
Speaker:we could actually end up creating more psychological distress for ourselves.
Speaker:Instead,
Speaker:we need to pay close attention to the kind of affirmation we’re giving
Speaker:ourselves.
Speaker:If we want to boost our feelings of self-worth and bolster our self-esteem,
Speaker:it may work better to draw attention to the things we value,
Speaker:for example our work,
Speaker:hobbies,
Speaker:or relationships.
Speaker:We need to remind ourselves consistently that our self-worth has a broad
Speaker:foundation,
Speaker:and by using affirmations,
Speaker:we can draw our focus to those things in life that we value and that give us
Speaker:purpose and meaning.
Speaker:But the researchers also discovered that these affirmations are turbo-charged
Speaker:when they are focused on the future.
Speaker:The theory is that,
Speaker:if we can imagine a promising outcome,
Speaker:we can begin to create a version of ourselves that is better able to tackle any
Speaker:challenges that may come our way.
Speaker:Or,
Speaker:to put it as Cascio did,
Speaker:“We find novel evidence that a future frame may act synergistically with
Speaker:value-based self-affirmations to bolster a sense of self prior to
Speaker:threat exposure."
Speaker:How can we use these findings to improve our own self-talk?
Speaker:Importantly,
Speaker:it’s about more than simply flattering yourself or saying nice things.
Speaker:To be value-based,
Speaker:affirmations of this kind need to remind you of the principles and beliefs you
Speaker:hold dear.
Speaker:The idea is that you can tap into your own integrity and identity,
Speaker:and this makes you feel your own worth and value more deeply.
Speaker:Which makes you happier!
Speaker:Here are some examples of values-based self-affirmations - I trust myself to
Speaker:get through any challenge that may come my way.
Speaker:No matter what happens,
Speaker:I can always choose kindness and compassion.
Speaker:I always speak up for the things I believe in.
Speaker:I’m a good artist,
Speaker:who will continue to create the kind of things that matter to me.
Speaker:My family will always be there for me.
Speaker:I’m strong;
Speaker:I know how to use my talents to make money.
Speaker:Of course,
Speaker:yours might not look anything like this – values are always going to be
Speaker:unique and personal to the people who have them.
Speaker:But notice how each of the above are rooted,
Speaker:not in a place of personal attributes or esteem,
Speaker:but rather in what we value as people.
Speaker:Notice also that many of them are oriented towards the future.
Speaker:Creativity,
Speaker:family,
Speaker:spirituality,
Speaker:money… what do you value?
Speaker:And how does that value look if you project it into the future?
Speaker:In the past,
Speaker:self-help advocates suggested affirmations that focused on fixed,
Speaker:individual characteristics (“I am beautiful,
Speaker:I am successful,
Speaker:I am intelligent”),
Speaker:but it’s easy to see why these can have mixed results.
Speaker:When you dig into your values,
Speaker:however,
Speaker:you are encouraging your brain to inoculate itself against future adversity,
Speaker:not to mention help you feel better in the moment.
Speaker:To practice your own affirmations,
Speaker:simply make sure that each one speaks to your deeper principles and core
Speaker:beliefs,
Speaker:and then add a future element for extra potency.
Speaker:You can write these affirmations down and read through them throughout the day,
Speaker:or say them every morning – in the same way as you would take a daily
Speaker:multivitamin!
Speaker:The Reading Habit.
Speaker:It’s hard to find any commendable person who doesn’t claim that reading
Speaker:played a big part in their success.
Speaker:We all know that reading is an excellent way to learn,
Speaker:to broaden your horizons,
Speaker:to cultivate discipline,
Speaker:to spur your creativity,
Speaker:and even to connect empathically with others.
Speaker:Reading is great!
Speaker:But there also happens to be sound scientific evidence for reading as habit
Speaker:that boosts your mental wellbeing,
Speaker:too.
Speaker:When you read,
Speaker:magic can happen.
Speaker:You become engrossed in a whole new fictional world,
Speaker:with novel characters and a plot that pulls you in.
Speaker:A study from the University of Liverpool found that people who read experienced
Speaker:lower stress levels than those who didn’t,
Speaker:not to mention they had higher self-esteem and psychological resilience.
Speaker:Again,
Speaker:we can thank studies done using M. R. I. s for our ability to examine the
Speaker:brain’s activity during reading.
Speaker:When you read,
Speaker:your neural circuitry and networks are strengthened as you absorb yourself in
Speaker:the narrative.
Speaker:Humans really are built,
Speaker:it seems,
Speaker:for stories.
Speaker:Another 2009 study by Mindlab International at the University of Sussex found
Speaker:that reading is associated with lower blood pressure,
Speaker:better sleep,
Speaker:improved mental acuity,
Speaker:less psychological distress,
Speaker:and better heart rate.
Speaker:They reported that just 6 minutes a day could reduce stress levels by 68%.
Speaker:Cognitive neuropsychologist Dr Lewis,
Speaker:who led the study,
Speaker:claims that "Losing yourself in a book is the ultimate relaxation.
Speaker:This is particularly poignant in uncertain economic times when we are all
Speaker:craving a certain amount of escapism.
Speaker:It really doesn't matter what book you read,
Speaker:by losing yourself in a thoroughly engrossing book you can escape from the
Speaker:worries and stresses of the everyday world and spend a while exploring the
Speaker:domain of the author's imagination."
Speaker:That’s not all,
Speaker:though.
Speaker:In trying to understand the characters and the plot unfolding in the pages,
Speaker:our brains work hard to empathize and take on new perspectives,
Speaker:which in itself is a powerful way to boost happiness levels.
Speaker:Reading is like empathy and compassion gym!
Speaker:Reading literary fiction (i.e. stories that delve into the inner worlds of the
Speaker:characters)
Speaker:boosts our “theory of mind” ability,
Speaker:which is our capacity for imagining the mental worlds of others.
Speaker:This helps us become more empathic and intelligent communicators,
Speaker:which has effects on our real-world relationships.
Speaker:A 2014 study in Neuroreport by Housten et. al. showed how children who grew up
Speaker:reading books actually had brains that developed on completely different
Speaker:trajectories than those who didn’t.
Speaker:The researchers found that reading shapes the growing brain in five different
Speaker:areas and can even increase overall brain volume.
Speaker:The more we read,
Speaker:the stronger are the connections between the neurons themselves and the
Speaker:different brain areas.
Speaker:Reading has loads of other impressive benefits -
Speaker:•Improves Vocabulary And Comprehension.
Speaker:•Boosts I. Q. .
Speaker:•Reduces Stress Level.
Speaker:•Counteracts Anxiety And Depression Symptoms.
Speaker:•Reduces Age-Related Cognitive Decline.
Speaker:•Is Just Fun!
Speaker:To conclude,
Speaker:reading is one of those daily habits that indirectly contributes to our overall
Speaker:happiness and wellbeing.
Speaker:Because reading has such far-reaching benefits for health,
Speaker:cognitive abilities,
Speaker:and verbal/communication skills,
Speaker:it works in every area of life to make us more alert,
Speaker:responsive,
Speaker:empathetic,
Speaker:and overall more engaged with the world around us.
Speaker:What should we be reading?
Speaker:Well,
Speaker:anything we like!
Speaker:Try to get a little reading done every day,
Speaker:and build up to it if you’re not quite used to it.
Speaker:Choose something you’re genuinely excited to read about,
Speaker:but don’t be afraid to mix it up and experiment with themes and authors you
Speaker:might not have considered before (remember the power of novelty?).
Speaker:There’s been some suggestion that reading real books as opposed to tablets or
Speaker:devices is better (Lauren M. Singer,
Speaker:2016,
Speaker:claimed that digital reading means lower comprehension)
Speaker:but pick what works best for you and find times throughout the day to squeeze
Speaker:in a few pages.
Speaker:Blogs,
Speaker:graphic novels,
Speaker:news pieces,
Speaker:and long-form articles also count,
Speaker:but try to read them properly rather than just skimming and hurrying on to the
Speaker:next thing.
Speaker:If you can,
Speaker:try to focus intently on reading what’s in front of you,
Speaker:somewhere quiet where you won’t be distracted.
Speaker:This will help you cultivate discipline and focused attention.
Speaker:Finally,
Speaker:though reading in itself is a fantastic daily habit,
Speaker:you can boost its effects by choosing material that makes you happy.
Speaker:Read things that inspire,
Speaker:excite,
Speaker:or entertain you.
Speaker:Dear Happiness….
Speaker:Matthew Lieberman is a psychologist at U. C. L. A. ,
Speaker:and his research has suggested that putting your difficult thoughts and
Speaker:feelings down in black and white can actually help you overcome them.
Speaker:He conducted a simple experiment where he asked volunteers to have brain scans
Speaker:and then afterwards write in a journal or diary for 20 minutes a day,
Speaker:for four days.
Speaker:Half of the participants were asked to write about neutral experiences – just
Speaker:whatever they thought of.
Speaker:The other half were asked to write down their more emotional experiences,
Speaker:thoughts,
Speaker:and feelings.
Speaker:Then he scanned their brains again.
Speaker:Can you guess what he found?
Speaker:Compared to those who wrote neutrally,
Speaker:the people who wrote down their emotions demonstrated greater brain activity in
Speaker:the area of the brain called the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex.
Speaker:This area of the brain is concerned with emotional regulation,
Speaker:so the conclusion is that,
Speaker:by writing feelings down,
Speaker:these participants were actually working to modulate and manage those
Speaker:experiences.
Speaker:Likewise,
Speaker:as the researchers investigating the meditators brains found,
Speaker:there was also lowered activity in the amygdala,
Speaker:suggesting that journaling helped people manage the intensity of their negative
Speaker:emotions.
Speaker:Overall,
Speaker:this technique seemed to help people process emotions and downregulate stress
Speaker:and unhappiness.
Speaker:"Writing seems to help the brain regulate emotion unintentionally.
Speaker:Whether it's writing things down in a diary,
Speaker:writing bad poetry,
Speaker:or making up song lyrics that should never be played on the radio,
Speaker:it seems to help people emotionally," Dr Lieberman said.
Speaker:Interestingly,
Speaker:Lieberman found that men seemed to benefit even more from this activity than
Speaker:women,
Speaker:perhaps because,
Speaker:for men,
Speaker:the act of expressing emotions abstractly is more of a novelty than it is for
Speaker:women.
Speaker:In any case,
Speaker:everyone can benefit from keeping a diary,
Speaker:and they don’t necessarily have to discover great insights or come to any
Speaker:solutions or conclusions.
Speaker:Rather,
Speaker:the act of writing seems to help us externalize and make abstract our
Speaker:experience,
Speaker:which helps us manage and regulate it better.
Speaker:If the idea of keeping a journal seems a little corny,
Speaker:don’t worry,
Speaker:you can achieve the same benefits in other ways.
Speaker:The idea is simply to express and externalize your emotions in an abstract way,
Speaker:and you can do that with visual art,
Speaker:colors,
Speaker:music (maybe a playlist?),
Speaker:collage,
Speaker:doodling,
Speaker:short story writing,
Speaker:or even a messy combination of all of these.
Speaker:Just remember to keep your diary private,
Speaker:especially if you’re writing down very personal thoughts,
Speaker:and bear in mind that you are not trying to create a masterpiece to show off.
Speaker:Your diary doesn’t have to make sense or be beautiful;
Speaker:it just needs to be a place where you can slow down,
Speaker:process,
Speaker:and put what’s in your head down onto the page.
Speaker:Try to journal every day,
Speaker:if you can.
Speaker:You can purchase readymade journals or make your own.
Speaker:You can go for a line a day or fill up reams and reams of paper with
Speaker:“automatic” style writing.
Speaker:A great habit is to keep your journal next to your bed and scribble down your
Speaker:feelings before sleep – get your worries out of your head and down on to
Speaker:paper so they won’t disturb your sleep!
Speaker:Keep The Flame Of Hope Burning.
Speaker:It might seem odd to include something like “hope” on the list of happiness
Speaker:habits,
Speaker:but hope really can be thought of as a consistent daily practice.
Speaker:And it’s something that absolutely affects our day-to-day wellbeing.
Speaker:Have you ever heard of elderly couples where,
Speaker:once one passes away,
Speaker:the other does too not long after?
Speaker:Ilan Wittstein is a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and
Speaker:believes that you can,
Speaker:in fact,
Speaker:die of a broken heart.
Speaker:He and several of his research colleagues published an article where they
Speaker:identified “broken heart syndrome” or what they called “despondency."
Speaker:The team is not the first to be interested in this phenomenon.
Speaker:Other scientists have also noted a drastic increase in risk of death for
Speaker:mothers whose children have recently died,
Speaker:or a greater risk of heart attack or stroke for those who have been recently
Speaker:diagnosed with cancer.
Speaker:To put it simply,
Speaker:the darker the future looks,
Speaker:the worse our health in the present – i.e. hope can actually influence our
Speaker:longevity.
Speaker:Before Wittstein coined “broken heart syndrome”,
Speaker:another scientist,
Speaker:Curt Richter,
Speaker:conducted the frankly appalling rat experiments that proved just how powerful a
Speaker:force hope could be.
Speaker:In the 1950s,
Speaker:he put rats in jars of water and watched them drown,
Speaker:measuring the amount of time it took for them to give up swimming (yes,
Speaker:really).
Speaker:Interestingly,
Speaker:most of the domesticated rats ended up paddling for days before succumbing to
Speaker:death.
Speaker:The wild rats (i.e. those who are renowned for swimming ability)
Speaker:died within minutes of being in the water.
Speaker:The tame rats stayed alive for ages,
Speaker:but the fierce,
Speaker:wild,
Speaker:and independent ones died swiftly.
Speaker:Richter’s theory was that the wild rats could not fall back on either fight
Speaker:or flight and could not help themselves.
Speaker:So,
Speaker:they gave up hope.
Speaker:To test this,
Speaker:he took more wild rats and,
Speaker:shortly after putting them in the water,
Speaker:pulled them out again for a little while before putting them back in.
Speaker:The result was that these rats learnt that the situation was not,
Speaker:in fact,
Speaker:hopeless and – you guessed it – they continued to swim and fight for their
Speaker:lives.
Speaker:What we can learn from this experiment (other than the fact that some people
Speaker:are shockingly cruel to rats)
Speaker:is that,
Speaker:when someone perceives a situation as doomed,
Speaker:they give up,
Speaker:but when they have a reason to keep going,
Speaker:they can and they do – often for a very long time.
Speaker:Richter simply discovered that “after elimination of hopelessness,
Speaker:the rats do not die."
Speaker:Returning to the question of elderly couples,
Speaker:we can easily see that,
Speaker:when one person no longer has “a reason to keep swimming”,
Speaker:they could give up to such an extent that they too die.
Speaker:This admittedly morbid topic shows us that hope can have measurable effects,
Speaker:not just on our abstract feeling of wellbeing,
Speaker:but on our actual will to survive.
Speaker:The rats in the experiment were,
Speaker:for all intents,
Speaker:similar,
Speaker:physically speaking.
Speaker:But their will to live was almost completely determined by their own perception
Speaker:of whether they were doomed or not.
Speaker:The conclusion for those of us who want to be happy is clear - keep the flame
Speaker:of hope burning.
Speaker:Have something to look forward to in life.
Speaker:No matter what,
Speaker:do not allow yourself to think you’re doomed.
Speaker:Remind yourself instead that,
Speaker:even if things are hard,
Speaker:they can get better.
Speaker:If you are optimistically expecting a good outcome,
Speaker:it almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,
Speaker:because that hope allows you to tap into reserves of your own energy and
Speaker:willpower to make that good outcome happen.
Speaker:Summary -
Speaker:•Happiness can be tricky to define,
Speaker:but it all starts in the brain.
Speaker:We can turn to scientific peer-reviewed studies to learn the daily habits and
Speaker:mindsets most associated with wellbeing.
Speaker:•Though routines are important,
Speaker:so is novelty;
Speaker:make efforts to mix things up now and again and try something new every day.
Speaker:•Gratitude is strongly associated with feelings of wellbeing. Say Thank
Speaker:You.,
Speaker:or simply dwell on all the things you have to be thankful for.
Speaker:•Try meditation,
Speaker:but remember to approach it without grasping at goals or desired outcomes.
Speaker:•Try self-affirmation,
Speaker:but focus on affirmations that are value-based,
Speaker:rather than those dealing with your traits or performance as a person.
Speaker:•Get into the reading habit to increase your empathy and communication
Speaker:skills,
Speaker:as well as relax.
Speaker:Anything goes,
Speaker:but literary fiction is best for strengthening perspective and “theory of
Speaker:mind” ability.
Speaker:•Journaling or keeping a diary can make you happier and help you modulate and
Speaker:regulate your emotions.
Speaker:Try whatever form works best for you.
Speaker:•Finally,
Speaker:understand the role that hope plays in keeping people optimistic and resilient.
Speaker:Always have something to look forward to and you will discover you have endless
Speaker:sources of energy and enthusiasm to draw on.
Speaker:Don’t give up!
Speaker:This has been
Speaker:Neuro-Happiness:
Speaker:37 Science-Based (5-Minute) Methods to Increase Your Daily Happiness,
Speaker:Fulfillment,
Speaker:and Contentment (Mental and Emotional Abundance Book 15) Written by
Speaker:Nick Trenton, narrated by russell newton.
