Healing Techniques: Science 1.0

For this post we are delving into scientific research. We will be covering two methods: first, how to increase your happiness by 5-15% and second, how to use neuroscience to change the brain. Both will rely on podcast videos from leading researchers in their field. I recommend you watch the videos more than you read my summary.

This video features a professor from Yale who has the most popular class in the last 300 years. She claims that a few simple things can increase your happiness by 5-15%. 5-15% is no joke. We would all prefer a magic button to heal all of our problems, but no such thing exists. Happiness, like any expertise, takes work. A lot of work. Imagine your mood at a 6 compared to a 7.5. That's a pretty nice difference. Or imagine it vice versa and it's not a fun decrease. What we have been taught about happiness is generally wrong which means that we need to rewire our habits and our brains. Here are the tips in the video about happiness and how to raise your level of happiness.

1. Changing your circumstances isn't shown to increase your level of happiness. This doesn't include extreme circumstances like poverty or domestic abuse, but the average person needs to learn to be happy with the circumstances they are in because changing the circumstances doesn't change levels of happiness.

2. Research shows that increasing your income over $110,000-100,000 does not statistically impact your happiness. Money might improve a hotel room or a plane ticket, but fundamentally the vacation is still possible which is what matters. The novelty of newness that accompanies wealth may briefly impact happiness, but it doesn't long term. This is at least in part because of how quickly we become accustomed to things as human beings. If you are always flying first class, it becomes your new normal fairly quickly.

3. Time affluence creates happiness. Time affluence is having free time. Using money to buy back time is one of the greatest ways to improve your happiness. Having no free time is statistically as stressful as being unemployed. Hiring someone to clean the house, or do the laundry, or buying dinner, or whatever you choose to do to save your time, is choosing to invest in your happiness (with disposable income). Asking yourself "how much time did I save" can significantly change your perspective on spending money. We are used to associating available time with making money (time is money), but what we should be doing is associating money with freeing up time.

4. Happy people are social people. This is true for both introverts and extroverts. Obviously this applies to the people closest to you in your life, but it also applies to talking to a stranger. Even briefly talking to a stranger statistically makes you feel less lonely. Instead of being on your phone when in line to get your coffee, maybe talk to the person in front of you.

5. Help others. Research shows that if you choose to help others your brain automatically makes you feel better AND doing so makes you feel like you have more free time. To your brain, if you have enough time to help another person, you must have free time! It has to feel like a choice though, not an obligation. Helping others is doubly effective.

6. Phone use statistically decreases your happiness. Studies show that while people have phones out there is 30% less smiling that occurs = less happiness. Even if you aren't using your phone it can make you less happy if you're thinking about how you want to use your phone. There is overwhelming evidence for how our phone use directly correlates with our happiness and lack thereof. Here is a study on it.

7. Be present. We hear this all the time and there is scientific backing as to why. People are statistically more happy when they are living in the present moment, even when being present doesn't feel good, which is kind of counterintuitive but no less true.

8. Practice gratitude. Practicing gratitude actually has a large amount of scientific evidence that shows it's incredibly effective at increasing happiness. Here is a meta-analysis of 64 studies on gratitude and it's impact on happiness.

9. Savor life. Don't just be present, savor the present. What if this was the last time you saw a loved one, or had your coffee, or listened to the rain? Savoring your experiences makes people more happy. I like to think of it as being serenaded by life. Choose to be serenaded or choose to savor.

10. Practice self-compassion. This one really is a no brainer, if you spend your time degrading yourself, you won't be happy. Kristin Neff is the world's leading researcher on self-compassion and I'd recommend checking her out if you struggle with it.

11. Be mindful. Research shows that we have more free time than we did 10-20 years ago, but it's broken up differently. We have a lot more small chunks of time in 5-15 minute increments and those add up. Ask yourself before you do something if it will add to your happiness. Will spending 5-10 minutes on my phone make me more happy? If not, what would? Be mindful about what you do with your time. How you spend your time determines how you will feel.

The second video features a world-renowned neuroscientist, Caroline Leaf, who focuses on how to change negative thinking patterns with neuroscience. She focuses on how to change your mind, which is different than the brain. Your brain is the physical structure while your mind is the energy force that makes the brain work. The mind encompasses the entire body, not just the brain, and what she's found is that the mind is what changes the brain. This perspective has allowed her to help people recover from what was deemed irreversible brain damage, hence why she's so famous. It's not all brain damage, her studies on mental health show an 81% reduction in anxiety in 21 days, nbd. Here is what she recommends you do in order to change your brain by using your mind:

1. Labeling yourself psychologically, such as depression, anxiety, or PTSD, is detrimental to you. 95% of mind problems are thought based and labeling locks you into a negative thought structure. This limits the ability of the mind to change based on the dominant narrative that you now take as factual. Negative emotions are signals that things are off and that you need to fix it, not that you are broken permanently.

2. Face intrusive thoughts. Neuroscience shows that simply focusing on the negative thoughts helps dislodge them. Her five steps to change negative thoughts are: gather awareness, reflect, write, recheck, and active reach. Before even doing those steps she recommends doing a 10 second pause with breathing while telling yourself "let go". This is supposed to help take away any overwhelming feeling that may occur from facing the thought directly and giving it space to exist.

   1. Gather awareness: Label what you are feeling, the specific emotion. Find where your body is manifesting that emotion. The brain and body are always connected; where there is a negative thought, there is a negative physical reaction. Notice your behaviors or what you're about to do. Ask yourself what your perspective is in the moment: what your attitude is. Or, according to my healing theory RAT, label your current belief. Don't be rude to yourself, just notice what is happening.

   2. Reflect: Gather information. Figure out what caused all of this. Ask yourself questions starting with when, where, why, and how to try and figure out what is going on. Piece together patterns in what caused you to get here.

   3. Write: Start to organize your thoughts and feelings. Take a blank sheet of paper and write what you're trying to work on in the center of the page. Be specific, for example, "my boss". Write whatever thoughts and emotions come up wherever you want on the page.

   4. Recheck: Re-conceptualize by focusing on what you can do right now. Not tomorrow, not a month from now, in this moment what can you do about what is going on for you. Just one thing. It doesn't have to be complicated. It could be saying "I'm doing my best right now" or "I'm capable of figuring this out" or you could visualize something that brings you peace or makes you happy.

   5. Active Reach: Keep doing this method every day. It takes 63 days of doing this in order to make it a habit. Apparently when I was taught that habits are created in 21 days, I was lied to... speaking of being taught wrong...

There you go! Lots of concrete and simple ways that you can start doing now to heal yourself. Hooray science!