|
By Joyce Shaffer, PhD Chronic stress can reduce the number of new brain cells you create, decrease the percentage of these new cells that survive and thrive, act like battery acid to erode your existing brain cells, and make you more vulnerable to disease. That’s why you want to develop a full tool box of skills to alleviate long-term stress. Positive emotions reduce risk. Create as many microseconds as possible of happiness-related healthy chemistry to improve physical, mental, social and business health. Richard Davidson researched monks trained in meditation. Monks with a history of long-term meditation increased the thickness of the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) in comparison with people who had not meditated. The left PFC was also thicker in the long-meditating monks than in monks who had meditated less long. Mindfulness meditation promotes greater awareness in the present moment, seeing clearly and just observing. Fifty year old meditators had thickness of their frontal cortex that was similar to that of twenty year old subjects. Researchers suggest that meditation may slow age-related thinning of the frontal cortex. Happiness, creativity, hope, love, positive character, positive reinforcement, institutions that enhance positive emotions–these are associated with many beneficial outcomes beyond just feeling good. That’s why Daniel Goleman proposed that the body’s immune system provides an ethical system. Increasingly research addresses the healing power of positive emotions. Conditioned responses can have the most enduring power. This has been demonstrated with the placebo effect in which subjects experience the described expected outcome whether they are given the drug under investigation or an inactive pill. Robert Ader convincingly demonstrated that even our immune response can develop a conditioned response. If all his research had been done with humans, it would have been tempting to interpret the results as due to the placebo effect. However, Ader did his initial research with rats, sheep, and other animals. As animals were injected with medication that suppressed their immune system, they were also injected with a placebo. This “conditioned” their immune system to react when the placebo was given alone. Unlike other animals, people enjoy the placebo effect with thought alone. This is evident when they experience a favorable outcome that they assumed would occur. For example, people with hypertension did worse when medications were stopped than when the medication was replaced with a placebo. When research participants were taught to create enduring happiness, they continued the new behaviors despite instructions not to. Perhaps they appreciated the significant benefits too much to stop. Belief affects biology–including that of people who spend time together. There’s a high speed exchange of information between your brain and the brains of important people in your life when you are together and communicating. Goleman refers to this as linking and looping in ways that make emotions “contagious.” That’s why you want to hang out with other people who share your happy mood in order to link and loop judiciously. Developing happy habits into conditioned responses can enhance your brain fitness. And you have many options. Add
Healthy Laughter because … · Combining comedy with new learning can facilitate learning, memory, and creativity · Watching comedy for one hour can improve your immune response · Connecting in positive social interactions can share emotions that are “contagious” and healthy Create
Enduring Happiness because … · Happy people tend to have more healthy habits and, therefore, better physical health · Positive emotions predict longer life with less decline · Positive emotions can increase intellectual resources, productivity, and income Have Happy
Friends to Hang Out With … · Great leaders leverage the power of brain interconnectedness including intuition speeding through spindle neurons · Mirror neurons act like a neural Wi-Fi resulting in emotional contagion
·
“The
exquisite social responsiveness of the brain demands that we realize
that not just our emotions but our very biology is being driven and
molded, for better or for worse, by others–and in turn, that we take
responsibility for how we affect the people in our lives.”
From Daniel Goleman in
Social Intelligence Practice
Mindfulness Meditation because …
·
It can increase
the thickness of the parts your brain cortex that are involved in
processing information that is
o
Somatosensory
o
Auditory
o
Visual AND
o
Interoceptive
·
It can increase
your left prefrontal cortex (PFC) AND
·
It may slow
age-associated thinning of the frontal cortex. New science leads to the conclusion: to keep your brain fit, keep it happy. What a lovely way to enhance the chemistry, architecture and performance of the brain that has served you elegantly all these years. About the
author: Joyce Shaffer, PhD, is a psychologist, nurse, speaker,
global bicyclist and author of Ideal Aging®: 5 Steps to Keep Your
Brain Fit. |
Use
Positive Psychology to Keep Your Brain Fit