Can We Train The Brain To Be Happy?

Is it possible to train the brain to be happy? We live in a moment where the so-called “happiness industry” seems to want to convince us through endless publications that the desired well-being is always at our fingertips.

It would suffice to apply a series of strategies. However… is this that easy? Is there perhaps such a simple formula to breathe with greater joy and optimism?

The answer is no”. In matters of change, in that craft that is the advance towards psychological well-being and authentic fulfillment, nothing is easy or fast.

To begin with, something we must understand about the brain is that it does not care if we are happy or not. In reality, all he wants is for us to survive. That is why it will always give more value to fears and those mechanisms that place us in the comfort zone.

Now, just because we have a body that is resistant to change does not mean that it cannot. We are a species that has evolved generating notable advances, those that help us to adapt much better in our complex environments. Likewise, something that we know well from clinical practice is that changes towards balance and healing are possible, but that yes, it requires an authentic (and active) commitment on the part of the person.

Let’s see more changes below.

Can we train the brain to be happy?

Training the brain to be happy does not mean improving our diet. Nor for leading a more active life, doing sports or taking a trip every two or three months. These dimensions can, obviously, make us healthier, give us a specific pleasure and provide us with a satisfaction that can last hours or even days.

However, none of these strategies will make us cope better with stress. When life becomes a knot, we will still not know how to undo it and we will live again with helplessness, fear or anxiety.

As the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi points out, to achieve a happy life, easy recipes do not work, or copying advice from others. It is an individual process where each one must invest efforts being creative, being original.

However, there are a series of very basic realities that we can take as a starting point to reflect. They are as follows.

Train your thoughts in reflection, flexibility, and realistic positivity

Something that neuroscience has been pointing out to us for a long time is that thoughts are the mere product of brain activity. The brain creates them as a result of a series of electrical connections. It is true, but something we have known for a long time is that thoughts themselves also have power over the brain: they can generate new connections and even shape it.

• One example, obsessive and repetitive negative thoughts slow brain coordination, deplete it, and even decrease activity in the prefrontal area of ​​the brain. Something like that makes it very difficult to find solutions to problems.
• A key with which to train the brain to be happy forces us to have greater control over these types of mental processes. Taking care of what we think is also health.
• Everything we think and say matters. Therefore, try to detect such negative thought patterns and stop them.
• However, it is not about turning them around and making use of hollow and overconfident positive thinking either. It is simply a matter of applying a more reflective and less rigid approach to our reality. Being able to see ten options to a problem, to broaden perspectives and stop placing fatalities in our immediate future.

Have a purpose every day, give a meaning to our life

What is a life without purpose? Translated at the brain level, it is a lack of dopamine, of serotonin, of that well-being that tunes in with illusions and daily goals. If our reality has no meaning or motive, we ourselves will also be worthless.

That state leaves us suspended in an abysmal void, the one that always gives way to mood disorders such as anxiety or depression. As Viktor Frankl said in his day, nothing gives us greater resistance than having a task, than remembering what is important to us and for which it is worth moving forward.

That is why if we want to train our brain to be happy, we must clarify not only what is our vital purpose. In reality, each of our days should have a goal, an objective to achieve, even if it is something as simple as ” give me a break, meet someone, read a book, go for a walk …”.

Happiness is being good with yourself: the power of self-esteem

No one can be happy every day. It is impossible to catch and maintain this mental, emotional and attitudinal state at every moment. Now, in reality, there is something much more important than being happy: being good with yourself. To this day, the lack of self-esteem is still that pending account for a good number of people.

This component is essential to promote well-being and is, without a doubt, the rosetta stone of satisfaction and that dimension that we should take care of on a daily basis. John Rawls, one of the most recognized philosophers of the twentieth century, used to say that any society that aspired to be happy should have citizens with good self-respect.

He defined this dimension as that confidence in ourselves to achieve what we want, to value ourselves as free beings and worthy of progress and well-being. The opposite of self-respect was, according to Rawls, helplessness.

To conclude, when faced with the question of whether it is possible to train the brain to be happy, the answer is yes; however, it is not an easy task. It is a daily job, a demanding, complex and courageous job in which to invest every day. Let’s get started today.