The Neuroscience of Happiness: An Interview with Rick Hanson, PhD
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/mindfulness/2010/03/training-your-brain-for-the-better-an-interview-with-rick-hanson-ph-d/
Credibility:
- This interview was last reviewed March 19, 2010
- The interviewer, Elisha Goldstein, and the interviewee, Rick Hanson, both have PhDs in either psychology or neuropsychology
- A lot of his information is coming from a book called Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom, which he wrote.
Notes:
- Resilience- The ability to readily recover from illness, depression, adversity, etc. (dictionary.com)
- Neuroplasticity- The capacity of the nervous system to develop new neuronal connections (dictionary.com)
- Because of neuroplasticity, resilience can be created by taking the time to think positively
- Our brains have a predisposition towards negativity, so people in general have to work harder to be happy than to be sad.
- This negativity bias is an instinct that was evolved to help us survive- you think more about the negative things in order to think up a way to stay safe from threats.
- We evolved the ability to react to negative things, but our brains at "home base" are "conscious, calm, contented, caring, and creative."
- To stop the negativity bias and make yourself more positive you have to consciously try to by thinking about good facts of life and thoroughly enjoy positive experiences.
Questions:
- Can certain people be born with resilience?
- If so, why? If not, why not?
Check out this video, you might find it interesting: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy.html
ReplyDeletethis post made me realize that people are more likely to be unhappy as adolecents. it made me realize this because you said, "Our brains have a predisposition towards negativity, so people in general have to work harder to be happy than to be sad."
ReplyDelete