Your Brain's Plasticity and Happiness.

Your Brain's Plasticity and Happiness.

February 11, 2009
BE HAPPY ZONE
By Lionel Ketchian

For nine years I have been telling you how to be happy and the benefits of happiness. Now, I can scientifically unveil more secret benefits to your being happy. The new word for you to learn is "neuroplasticity."

The definition of Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life. Neuroplasticity allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to compensate for injury and disease, and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or changes in their environment. Neuroplasticity is also called brain plasticity or brain malleability.

All those articles I have been writing about your being happy, acting as if you are happy, learning all you can about how to be happy, have a concrete reality to them. The more you do it, the more it is set in concrete. Well, maybe not really in concrete, but in your brain. The more you practice happiness, kindness, compassion, peace and other well being traits, the more you entrench those neural pathways in your brain. You physically create a channel, so to speak, and your alter your brain. The great thing about the neuroplasticity of your brain, is that it becomes easier for you to create the emotions you want to experience.

Our brain is our seat of perception. What the brain will focus on, is what the brain will create as our default behavior, like happiness or unhappiness. The reason happiness is a decision, is that it serves to create the filter for the brain, to understand what to focus on. Our conduct and abilities are fighting for brain position and capacity. Every time we respond with happiness, we create more room in the brain for the capacity to experience happiness. This outcome is called competitive plasticity. To explain this another way, what you think about expands.

We have had many ideas about why we become unhappy or depressed. Some have said that it is brain chemistry that creates certain undesired states of mind. The new science of neuroplasticity may have some very powerful answers, allowing us to become happier and stay happy.

One of those researchers working on the answers to these questions is Richard Davidson a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also the director of the school's Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior.

Davidson said, "It used to be — not that long ago, in fact — that science was sure that our brains were hard-wired, that our happiness had a set point, that our brains could not regenerate. Now we know that our brains can regenerate, and that they're "plastic," able to create new neural connections not just when we're old, but as we age. We were all taught that the brain is different from other organs in the way it changes over time. We thought the process was one of irrevocable death. We now know that view is definitively wrong. The brain is capable of generating 7,000 to 9,000 cells a day."

Psychology and psychiatry have often focused on the ways in which we aren't happy. Davidson feels we should be able to learn happiness from those of us who can do it better, since, as humans we have widely varying abilities to regulate our emotions.

Since the early 1990's, after being contacted by the Dalai Lama, Davidson has studied the biological effects of what happens in the brains of Tibetan monks, who have practiced meditation techniques for an average of 34,000 hours each.

As a result of studying monks during meditation, Davidson found that "neuroplasticity," (which is the notion that we can enhance brain function through purposeful mental training) can change conventional psychotherapy, which hasn't been proven to have a scientific basis.

The effects of both increased well-being and compassion can be measured in terms of better physical health, Davidson reports. After an eight-week mindfulness meditation course via the Internet, meditators showed increased immune responses compared to the non-meditators. That could mean in the long run, he says, fewer people needing to use our overworked health-care system.

The old adage that states - "Use it or lose it," is true and is exactly what we are talking about. With regards to your happiness the very same thing apply's. The more you use it, the more you have of it. Use your happiness more and you will begin to lose your unhappiness.

THE UNHAPPINESS CONSPIRACY!

THE UNHAPPINESS CONSPIRACY!

January 28, 2009
BE HAPPY ZONE
By Lionel Ketchian

People are conspiring against you and they are engaged in a "system" that is "designed" to take your power away. I call it The Unhappiness Conspiracy! If you like "intrigue," this story is for you! It may cause you to want to take action to change things, so you can take back control of your power.

The plot thickens because you are not going to believe who is behind this conspiracy. The "story" of this conspiracy will amaze you. Everything we know is part of The Unhappiness Conspiracy. Government, politics, wars, religion, justice, psychology, medical, news reports, businesses and advertising commercials. Without giving it much thought, you could probably add many more categories to this list.

First you will have to understand the "arrangement" that is made against you. There is a complete "system" at work against you, and you will need to learn the "format" for the conspiracy. If you don't learn how the "scheme" works, you can't get free. There really is a "method" to the madness, but you need the ability to decipher it.

The Unhappiness Conspiracy is a "pain plan." There is plenty of preparation for it and a complete "strategy" to make it all work out "unhappily." The idea has been to keep you unhappy. The Unhappiness Conspiracy is alive and well because it breeds on thoughts of your fear. It maintains it's power by manipulating others to hand over their power, using your unhappiness as their tool of choice. The Unhappiness Conspiracy only works because people go along with it. People do this willingly because they don't know how it conspires against them. The Unhappiness Conspiracy needs the cooperation of each and every one of you. That means you...most especially you! Without you, The Unhappiness Conspiracy would collapse, because the scheme would be revealed.

Do you know who the prime suspects are? Let's play CSI; lets do a Crime Scene Investigation. We have people who are experiencing unhappiness. This is a crime and we have to get to the bottom of it to find out...who done it! When we question the suspects, we find no evidence linking anyone to this unhappiness crime scene but the suspects themselves. We find that the suspects have committed the crime all by themselves. Why would they commit a crime against themselves?

Let's investigate this further. There is a human being who wants something. They can't seem to get what they think they want at the moment. What do they do? They commit a crime, they become unhappy! It's an open and shut case. It is the basic motive for all crimes. Who stands to gain from getting what they wanted? You do! You were the one who wanted something, or did not get something you wanted! As a result of not getting what you wanted or getting something you didn't want, you did the crime! You made yourself unhappy.

As they say, "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime." Unhappiness is a crime, and it is punishable by a lifetime of unhappiness. Anyone who is unhappy has imprisoned themselves for a life sentence. I know it doesn't seem fair, but who says life is fair for the unhappy!

So if you want to know the facts about The Unhappiness Conspiracy. Pay close attention. You Are the Unhappiness Conspiracy! The conspiracy is strong and real as long as you feed it with your negative thoughts about the unhappiness story you keep with you. It is time to rid yourself of the negative "story line" so you can get rid of The Unhappiness Conspiracy.

If you are ever going to be free, then you need to become aware that The Unhappiness Conspiracy is going to include you. Why do others join in The Unhappiness Conspiracy? The reason is, they do not know they are responsible for doing it. They are not aware they are dong it. They do not realize the consequences of their actions. Most of all, they are not conscious of being unhappy. In fact, only a happy person is conscious.

So you are under a spell of The Unhappiness Conspiracy. The real crime is that you have put yourself there. Some good news for you is that if you have put yourself there, then you can take yourself out of there. Your parents, teachers, schools, businesses, religious institutions and the world has made you think you must be unhappy to get what you want. You were happy when you were a child. Become a child again and free yourself. Cast off the chains of illusion and crawl out of the cave of craving. It is time to stand up strong and be counted amongst the happy. As few as we are The Unhappiness Conspiracy is being threatened with extinction by the happy. The numbers of happy people are growing stronger every hour and every day. Join Us, and Become One Of The Happy Freedom Fighters Overcoming The Unhappiness Conspiracy!

There is another conspiracy that has always been in effect. You are witnessing the birth of "The Universal Happiness Conspiracy." When you can live simply and happily you will have everything you need and really want. Realize you have enough and you have just added more to your life. Don't be fooled into thinking, I am just a dreamer. "The Universal Happiness Conspiracy," is a worldwide international movement sweeping the entire world. It is complete, present and infinite and becoming widely accepted and very common indeed! When you are happy the universe conspires to give you what you need.