You can re-wire your Brain for Happiness
Looking for Happiness? Whether you have more happy or sad thoughts depends on the structure of your brain. The majority of us have a tendency to focus on the negative, this is known as a negativity bias. This is because negative experiences trigger stronger and more memorable emotions than good ones.
Your tendency to focus on happy or sad thoughts depends on a certain part of your brain, the amygdala. This is the part of the brain in charge of your emotional responses. The Amygdala is also linked to another part of the brain known as the nucleus accumbens. This is the part of the brain that drives us to set and achieve goals.
Is your amygdala happy or sad?
Some people have happy amygdalas allowing them to be optimistic and focus on opportunities. These positive thoughts strengthen the desire to take action and achieve goals, creating happy experiences and generating positive feedback to the brain.
Most of us have a sad amygdala. Leading to fear-based reactions releasing cortisol and adrenaline making us feel anxious and edgy.
Do you think your amygdala has a bias towards negative or positive thinking?
Changing your Amygdala
The human brain is constantly evolving and changing which gives us the power to affect the way we experience our lives. There are many cognitive exercises you can do to change your brain.
- Visualisation. May include repeated mental exercises where you imagine receiving positive reinforcement that can change the structure of the brain by strengthening its ability to feel happiness.
- Positive input. To combat negativity removing yourself from a negative situation and putting yourself into one with positive associations can soothe the nervous system and adrenals.
- Recognition. Recognising when you have achieved something important and giving yourself praise can help you gain confidence in yourself, this is linked to happier states of being.
- Practicing Gratitude. If you note down the things that you are thankful for each day, this will train your brain to recognize reasons to be happy throughout your day.
- Practicing Mindfulness. Mindfulness shifts your thoughts from a ‘negative’ future and into the present moment where worries cannot exist.
- Use Affirmations. Working with affirmations will help you focus on positive possibilities which over time will wire your brain to change your inner monologue.
Happiness can heal past traumas and feelings of pain and grief. There is no limit to a number of positive experiences you can create for yourself. Using the power of your own mind you can rewire your brain toward happiness.
Are you ready to create your Happy Life?
Kinesiology can help rewire your brain for happiness.
Kinesiology can be used as a tool to identify and reduce stress on a subconscious level. By working with TCM acupoints to stimulate the amygdala, kinesiology gives us a unique way to shift strong negative emotions and create new attitudes and beliefs about the self.
Using kinesiology in combination with Counselling, Dreamwork, Chinese medicine and the Chakra system can help to balance body and mind.
Suggested treatment plan.
I recommend:
- An initial 90-minute kinesiology consultation followed by 3 – 5 standard consultations 1 -2 weeks apart.
- Further follow-up standard consultations should be spaced between 2 -4 weeks apart or booked as needed.
Recommended Reading:
Hardwiring Happiness by Dr Rick Hanson (2013) presents the latest research in the neuroscience of happiness and explains how you can reprogram your brain to focus on the good, rather than obsessing over the bad. Purchase from Book Depository or on iBooks.
Kristen Ross founded Affinity Wellness in 2007 and since has helped hundreds of clients to unlock their Inner Guidance, Unleash their potential and create lives they love.
With a history in the management of artists. Kristen had the opportunity to help guide the careers of many professional actors and artists, helping others thrive personally and professionally by connecting to their intuition and inner compass, this led her to study healing modalities such as kinesiology and counselling to enhance her work as a soul empowerment guide.
Kristen combines a striking combination of energy healing (kinesiology), counselling, coaching, dreamwork, meditation and yogic medicine practices to tap into the many facets of the self, mind, body and soul and release the layers that block her clients from accessing their intuition and self-love.
She believes that your life is your spiritual practice and that every decision you make is a part of your journey towards peace, power and enlightenment.
Everything you create and achieve comes from your ability to love and accept yourself and to do that you must engage in inner work.
Kristen currently runs a private online practice servicing individuals across Australia, New Zealand and the UK based in Melbourne, Australia.
