6 ideas on how to train the brain to be happy

Speaking of happiness, we think first about how difficult it is, and then, looking back on his life, decide what, and so are quite happy. Neil Pasricha, Canadian writer and director of the Institute global happiness is sure to be happy, just enough to train the brain.

For many years, working with people, Neil Pasricha (Neil Pasricha) fully convinced, as all of them is difficult for a sense of happiness. As a result, he wrote the book "Happiness Equation", which explained how to train your brain to be happy. Nile strategies are practical, effective and unexpected, and here's what a formula obtained them, "wanted nothing + do something = bear everything." He found six simple solutions that we can use every day to be happier. And you should start as early as possible.

1. Three walks

According to the researcher Amanda Hyde (Amanda Hyde), physically active people are more positive than those who prefer not to physical activity, sports or gymnastics, and a different kind of relaxation and recreation. "Moreover, we found that a positive attitude is further increased in those days, when we support your fitness at a height." It will not require you a lot of time: half an hour of brisk walking three times a week. It is proved that thirty-minute brisk walking or jogging helps treat depression even better than medication.

2. The 20-minute essay

Within 20 minutes of writing about what a good and positive happened to you today, and that's exactly make you happier. Why? Because you can live this experience again and again, until you write and re-read, your brain is like a transfer you back to where you were good. Such an experiment was conducted in the University of Texas: couples offered to remember and write down all the positive things that happened to them during the day (they were asked to give this to 20 minutes three times a day). Later it turned out that these people were more than happy, as well as their relationship.

3. Be kind and spontaneous

Five good deeds a week - and you'll be happier! Try (just) to pay for the coffee girlfriend, help a neighbor to mow the lawn or write a thank you letter to the concierge. The experiment showed that the mood of all those who came up with how to help one's neighbor, is much improved. Why? The answer is simple: people appreciated their help, sincerely thanked, and all of it was getting better.

4. Complete shutdown

Learn to relax, to "turn off" all of the bread. Try not to do anything once after work. Or spend a "blank weekends": it will help you to tune in a new way and a new week.

5. Find yourself in stream.

The state of "flow" - the term psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi), a special state, which is achieved through a complete fusion of man and his activities, when, instead of the fatigue he felt a surge of energy. In a state of flux, we do not notice the time, forget about the hunger and thirst, not mindful of the social roles, dissolving in action, which seems to us important and interesting. No matter how you personally call a state of complete immersion in a favorite thing, the main thing - Find, mark for themselves is a condition that will be in tune with the fact, as evidenced by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

6. A two-minute meditation

Masachusetskogo Institute team compared MRI brain of people before and after meditation. It turned out that after the meditation session, part of the brain that is responsible for compassion and self-awareness has increased, while the part that is associated with stress, decreased. Studies show that meditation helps "program" our brain, which increases the level of happiness.