Happiness is a Skill
You can train your brain to reduce negative thinking and increase positive thinking, rewiring your brain for increased happiness through the practice of the Six Sustainable Happiness Skills.
Happy Brain, Happy You!
Negative thoughts can sap the brain of its positive forcefulness, slow it down, and dim its ability to function. By training our brain to think in a more positive, more optimistic way, we can train it for happiness, improving our sense of well-being and allowing our brain to function at peak capacity.
Life's Good
Happiness is more than a temporary emotional response to a short-lived experience. It’s the ability to recognize that Life’s Good...even if it’s hard sometimes.
Brain Benefits
When we are better able to regulate our emotions and calm ourselves, we reap the benefits!
- Emotional and cognitive effects—Happiness feels good! Happiness skills can help you regulate emotions and stay calm and clear-headed in stressful situations.
- Pro-sociality—Happiness increases oxytocin, which supports relationship-building, trust, and loyalty!
- Mental health effects—Happiness increases other “good” brain chemicals like GABA, which can help with anxiety.
- Stress physiology—Happiness increases dopamine and decreases cortisol, which can have negative impacts on the body!
- Immune function—Research shows that happiness is associated with positive changes in the body’s immune system!
- Health effects—Happiness increases other “good” brain chemicals like endorphins, which can help with pain management.
Brain Science
Change Your Brain with Skills for Sustainable Happiness
Our nervous system is controlled by two main forces—the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.
- Sympathetic nervous system: At work when we are stressed, anxious, or afraid. It makes us want to run away or confront whatever is making us upset.
- Parasympathetic nervous system: At work when our bodies are at rest. It allows us to digest and eliminate food, cry, and salivate.
They are part of the central core of your brain—the limbic system. They constantly dictate how we perceive and relate to the world around us.
Now learn about the neocortex!
Brain Science
Change Your Brain with Skills for Sustainable Happiness
The limbic system is covered and protected by the outer area of the brain—the neocortex—which is divided into four sections, called lobes. Each lobe has a job to do.
Keep exploring to learn how emotions affect our thinking and actions.
Brain Science
Frontal Lobe
Involved in:
- High-level thinking
- Decision-making and planning
- Speaking
- Emotion
- Voluntary movement
- Problem solving
- Judgment
- Language
- Impulse control
Research shows that the right side of the frontal lobe becomes more active when people feel happy. The left side becomes more active when people feel sad. We can train our brains to increase happiness and reduce sadness!
Brain Science
Temporal Lobe
Involved in:
- Comprehending speech and sounds
- Long-term memory
- Emotions
When we get angry, afraid, or anxious, the limbic system gets fired up and can sometimes overrule the outer lobes of the brain, meaning that we are not thinking very clearly. It is harder for our brains process language, form memories, and regulate our emotions.
Brain Science
Occipital Lobe
Involved in:
- Sight
- Makes sense of visual information
In moments of anger, fear, or anxiety, we are not as good at processing visual information. This may cause us to misread non-verbal cues, which can worsen negative emotions. But our occipital lobe also allows us to practice positive visualization to help improve our positive outlook and sense of purpose.
Practice Your Happiness Skills
You may experience a happier, fuller, more meaningful life when you practice the Six Sustainable Happiness Skills.
Practice your happiness skills by building a personalized happiness rating scale based on the Six Sustainable Happiness Skills. Fill it out once a day for a seven day period.
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