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| Rebecca Dutton Home After a Stroke |
"Your brain is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones," says Rick Hanson (1, p. 41). When we briefly notice good things they slip away the way a fried egg slides out of a Teflon-coated pan. On the other hand the stone age brain we inherited is wired to notice and remember threats like a lion attack. Our brains constantly watch for threats so we can quickly detect them and remember what to do. This is a good thing. Until we start playing bad memories over and over. My goal for focusing on what makes me happy is not to turn into a bubbly person who does not get angry or sad. What happiness does for me is balance the good and the bad.
Negative events quickly get our attention just like the reflex that makes you pull your hand away from something hot. For example, researchers discovered that fearful faces are perceived more rapidly that neutral or happy faces (2). In brain scan studies fearful faces activate a part of the brain called the amygdala which tells our body to release adrenaline to create a "fight or flight" response. The amygdala alerts the hippocampus which immediately sends negative information to long-term memory. That is why 24 hours later people remembered more fearful faces than happy faces (2) and remembered more negative words (e.g. cancer) than positive words (3).
Surprisingly being happy does not require a positive attitude. Actions can affect mood and rewire the brain. While meditation and exercise have been shown to positively affect mood (4,5) they require discipline and time. Here are two simple actions that can affect mood.
Take 10 seconds to let happiness sink in (1). I try to notice things I did not plan that make me happy and pay attention to each one for 10 seconds. Lately I've been happy after I take a shower. Temperatures finally dropped below freezing so the warm water hydrates my dry skin and relaxes my cold muscles. After I get out of the shower I stand still for 10 seconds and focus on this happy feeling. Focusing on something that makes you feel good releases dopamine (1). This helps you pay attention longer to the happy moment which recruits more neural pathways to create a more detailed memory. Repeatedly enjoying 10 seconds of happiness adds up
Get more sleep. Subjects who were deprived of sleep remembered 19% fewer negative memories than subjects who had a normal night sleep (3). What was surprising is that memory loss after sleep depravation was significantly higher for positive memories -- a 59% loss. Sleep loss affects positive experiences more severely than negative experiences because of how these two types of memories are stored (6). We would not want to forget what a lion's roar means so the amygdala sends negative memories straight to long-term memory. More sleep gives the hippocampus more time to transfer positive experiences from short-term to long-term memory.
- Hanson R, Mendius R. Budda's Brain. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications; 2009.
- Yang E, Zald D, Blake R. Fearful expressions gain preferential access to awareness during continuous flash suppression. Emotion. 2007;822-886.
- Walker M, Stickgold R. Sleep, memory, and plasticity. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2006; 139-166.
- Holzel B, Lazar S, Gard T, Schuman-Olivier Z, Vago D, Ott U. How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2011;537-559.
- Babyak M, Blumenthal J, Herman S, Khato P, Doraiswamy M, Moore K, Craighead E, Baldewitz T, Krishnan R. Exercise treatment for major depression: Maintenance of therapeutic benefit at 10 months. Psychometric Medicine. 2000;633-636.
- Bronson P, Merryman A. NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children. NY: Twelve; 2009.
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