Is Our Brain Wired For Joy?
Every wonder how it is that some people can be so happy all the time or why it is that you feel as if it's so challenging to lift your spirits even though there are some many great things about your life
? Well, new research shows that our brain is wired to help us survive danger, but it is also wired for us to enjoy feelings of happiness and joy. Wellness research suggests that joy is not only fun, it quite literally is another type of survival strategy by keeping the body resilient with a stronger immune system.
In order to better understand how this works, we must start with the basics. The Human brain has two hemispheres and according to anthropologists, our brain architecture has changed very little since its initial evolutionary advancements.
The left lobe of our brain has survival circuits that assist with defensive, dominate, win-lose, fight or flight responses. For example, win-lose circuits generate negative emotions such as fear, sadness, anger, bitterness and loss, all necessary to avert danger, and all very unpleasant feelings.
The right lobe of our brain's survival circuits assist help generate feelings like creativity, joy, wonder, calmness and win-win sensations. It generates positive emotions that give us a sense of well being and help make us happy.
We are in the middle of transitioning from being a survival-focused species to a quality-of-life-focused species, everything from running water and electricity to art and entertainment. It is easy to see where our technology and civilization have made it easy for us to survive. Quality of life is overtaking basic survival as the biggest concern for most people and the necessary human skill set is beginning to shift from mere survival to a healthy joy-filled life.
HOW DO WE SHIFT OUR BRAIN FROM STRESS TO JOY?
Most of us now have much less use for savage survival skills but the real question is how do we overcome left brain oriented thought patterns and strong primal survival circuits? Psychologist Roger Sperry, who was 1981s Nobel Prize Winner, conducted what are sometimes called the "split-brain" experiments.
In essence, he states that modern society favors left brain activity and behaviors over right brain responses due to basic societal measuring factors. Experiments show that most children rank highly creative (right brain) before entering school but because our educational systems place a higher value on left brain skills such as mathematics, logic and language for practical application than it does drawing and imagination, only ten percent of these same children rank highly creative by age 7. Most surprising, by the time we are adults, our high creativity remains in only 2 percent of the population.
It is right hemisphere activity that is exactly what is needed to help boost an overall sense of well-being and due to most of our educational conditioning of our brain it becomes harder and harder to so while easier and easier to constantly be analyzing, judge and think critically which is what spurs on many negative emotions such as worry, stress, fear and psychological discomfort.
So we do here at BrainHarmony with our cutting edge neurofeedback technology, is focus on helping our clients achieve higher levels of activity throughout their brain, including the right hemisphere to ultimately boost performance, creativity and well-being. By balancing the whole brain and bringing the left and right hemispheres of the brain into greater homeostasis, a new and more balanced conditioning response can take shape. Most clients report experiencing less stress and more positive emotions after brain training and minor adjustments to lifestyle and diet.
GREEN TEA ON THE BRAIN
An easy addition to your diet to help position your brain for success is green tea. Scientists have found a chemical called EGCG found in green tea, it effectively prevents and destroys various protein structures known as amyloids.
These structures have been linked with the development of fatal brain disorders like Dementia, Alzheimers, Parkinsons and Huntington diseases. Medical researchers for decades have been trying to figure out how best to prevent amyloids plaques (i.e. tightly packed sheets of proteins that infiltrate the brain) from forming. Because of their immense stability and complex composition, these amyloids are difficult to dissolve.
However, a fruitful and telling study from the University of San Francisco found that the polyphenols in green tea can boost availability of the important brain substance dopamine in the areas where it's needed most. Dopamine is a signaling substance in brain circuits that are crucial to creating positive mood states.
Keep this in mind during the holidays and the New Year, a well balanced brain is more apt to feelings of joy and contentment and becomes easier to avoid unwanted hyper-critical thoughts and the negative emotions that follow. So this holiday season, make it a point to engage in positive thinking surrounded by friends and family and give your brain some help with green tea and your mind a rest so that you experience the full beauty of the holidays.
by: Jason T Gomez
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