You can train your brain to be happy!
Research suggests that mental well-being can be cultivated through intentional practices in daily life. Essentially, we can train our brains to be happy. The cultivation of wellbeing thus involves the use of self-regulatory processes to learn, practice, and apply these skills in daily life.
More good news. It does not take much time to actively improve your wellbeing and to activate the relevant parts of our mind and our heart. You can start with micro-practices, like meditation, breathing, gratitude practices, positive affirmations, discovering your core values and other short awareness exercises that can be woven into the fabric of your days. Researchers also call it micro-interventions, or even the micro-dosing of wellbeing.
Christine D. Wislon-Mendenhall PhD, one of the study's authors and associate scientist at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says "When we think about mental health, we often think about therapy. Our study broadens the conversation, to include what is more like the 'eat your fruits and vegetables' of mental health. We can develop mental habits that help us feel well, and that help us to be more resilient when life is harder when we inevitably experience stress and loss.”
The four aspects of mental well-being the researchers focus on in their study include:
Awareness: paying attention to our environment.This can include how we interact with others, how we feel during the day, and what we think in stressful situations.
Connection: this can include how we interact with others, how we feel during the day, and what we think in stressful situations.
Insight: this refers to fostering curiosity and self-knowledge.
Purpose: understanding your values and motivations.
The study describes awareness, connection, insight, and purpose in terms of skills that we can practice in some form every day. Awareness can be cultivated with practices like breath counting, hatha yoga, walking meditations and body scans. Connection by expressing gratitude and loving kindness meditations. You can gain more insight by doing certain Tibetan or Zen meditations and find purpose by purpose components of healthy mind programs. And as said, consistency is more important than duration.
The researchers aspire further research in this area, to stimulate development of new wellbeing measures, and most importantly, contribute to the development of robust interventions to reduce suffering and improve wellbeing around the world.
At MOAI we are also on a mission to proactively help people to improve their wellbeing with these accessible “micro practices”. We are striving for a true transformation which unlocks people’s full potential.
Source: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014859117
