Reset To Happiness Blog

Rewire Your Brain For Happiness

Becky Myhre2019-04-01T06:45:38-07:00Categories: Affirmations, Happiness, Tips for Life|Tags: shawn achor, ted talks|

Ever noticed how something will catch your attention and deliver information that helps you? I believe this is my inner being communicating with me. One day, I was flipping through TV channels when I saw a segment on a morning show about happiness. It was by a husband and wife team and they were talking about rewiring the brain to be more positive. Apparently, Shawn Achor, the man, had done a TED Talk with over a million views. I found his talk and watched it.  It’s one of the best I’ve ever seen—full of information and humor. Thanks inner being! Thanks Shawn!

Perception, Reality and the Brain

We’ve all heard the saying, change your perception and you’ll change your reality.

Here’s the exciting part…it’s possible to change our perception by rewiring our brain.  Scientifically, 90% of happiness is predicted by the way the brain process the world. Literally, if you change the way your brain processes, you change your reality. In other words, we can rewire our brains for happiness.

21 Day Rewire

The following is how Shawn Achor teaches people to train their brains to become more positive and create lasting positive change. This takes just a couple of minutes each day. Do it for 21 days in a row and watch what happens to your life. I did and the results were phenomenal.

Gratitude

Write down three new things each day you’re grateful for. I put mine on a little piece of paper, folded it and put it in a vase. Then, when I was feeling a little sad, stressed or depressed, I’d re-read them and it would instantly elevate my mood.

Benefit: This trains your brain to retain a pattern of seeing the world from the positive instead of the negative.

Journaling

Write about one positive experience you had in the last 24 hours. Write as much or as little as you want.

Benefit: This allows your brain to remember and relive a positive experience.

Exercise

Do 20 minutes of exercise daily. Whatever form of exercise you love and makes you feel happy. Walking, running, dancing, biking, kayaking, yoga—it’s all about the joy.

Benefit: This teaches your brain that behavior matters.

Meditation

Across the board, both spiritually and scientifically, there is common agreement that daily meditation is a game changer for improving mood and health.

Benefit: It allows your brain to breath, resets the momentum of negative thoughts, cancels out the noise of life and creates space to hear and receive guidance from your inner being.

Random Acts of Kindness

Take action with conscious acts of kindness. Each morning after you open your email program, write an email to someone in your social support network praising them or thanking them. I texted someone each day and told them what I loved about them. It always felt wonderful when I’d get a text back with “Ahhh…that made me feel so good”.

Benefit: You will feel joy rising. We are hardwired to feel good when doing something nice for for someone else.

Part of the idea for the You Are Amazing game came out of this exercise.

I’ve found this to be a really powerful tool for resetting back to happiness and I’m really excited to share this with you. The You Tube video is only 12 minutes long. It changed my life for the better and it might just change yours too. In fact, I think I’m going to do it again. Watch out happiness, here I come!