Hopeology Newsletter - Wire Your Brain for Happiness

HOPEOLOGY NEWSLETTER

May 2011



Wire Your Brain for Happiness!

Our brains are hardwired for fear. As we were evolving, if we were to survive and pass on our genes, it was really important for us to look in the bush for a lion 100 times just in case it was there even once. Our brains are always scanning for what is wrong, then they zero in and focus on that. Sound familiar? If ten good things happen to you in a day and then someone says something negative to you, which are you more apt to remember? You’ll probably remember the bad thing. This is called the “Negativity Bias”. Our brains are like Velcro for the bad stuff and Teflon for the good. Positive events are much more common, but negative events have more impact. And it’s not just for that day. Our brains store the fearful/negative information and retrieve it when anything the least bit associated shows up. This served us for thousands of years, but it’s time to change!

Rick Hanson, Ph.D., neuropsychologist, author, and founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, www.rickhanson.net, gives these steps to actually create new neural networks so positive experiences carry as much weight as the negative ones.

1. Focus on the good facts and intend them to become good experiences. It can be ANYTHING! Appreciating your clean house, witnessing a beautiful sunset, having a great workout, receiving a compliment – there is so much good in our lives.
2. Savor that experience. With as many senses as you can, and with feeling in your body (particularly in the heart center), savor for 10, 20, 30 seconds. You are creating new neural pathways.
3. Sense and intend that the experience is sinking in and creating new neural networks. “Neurons that fire together wire together”. As we repeat wiring positivity into our brains the trickle will eventually become a river and it will become easier and easier to notice, feel and totally experience the good in our lives.

ACHTUNG!! This next step is more advanced. Be careful with it because it expects us to hold both the positive experience and an old negative experience at the same time. What we need to be careful with is re-experiencing the old negative story. Another lap around the neural pathways can make it more ingrained, and obviously, that is not what we are after.

4. Direct the positive feelings to old places of pain. Let the new good experience associate neurologically with the old place of pain. Sooth it, infuse it with positive emotion and gradually replace the emotional charge.

It seems to us that Meridian Tapping with each of these steps would increase the receptivity! Just sayin’.



DISCLAIMER: Anne and Maura are not trained therapists, dieticians, personal trainers, doctors, acupuncturists, psychologists or anything else. They are not offering a cure or a medical remedy, they are offering ideas, theories and hope based upon personal experience. As always, check with your physician or therapist before doing anything that might cause you harm or interfere with your current treatment(s).



Sending you peace and love,


Maura and Anne

maura@infusionofhope.com

anne@infusionofhope.com

www.infusionofhope.com