Spring Cleaning for the Soul: Rewire Your Brain for Happiness
Likely, your list of Spring cleaning activities does not include rewiring your brain. However, if asked, most of us would list being happy as one of the essential goals in our lives. Research on happiness indicates that only 10% of happiness is accounted for by life circumstances, with genetic differences accounting for 50%, leaving us with 40% of happiness within our control.
While rewiring our inner world may be much more daunting than cleaning our closets, it will be worth the effort. To help you get started on this critically important task, you can practice these four areas while doing your more traditional Spring cleaning activities. You may find that you are more productive and motivated and may even enjoy them.
Take Control of Your Thoughts
We have hundreds of thousands of thoughts each day. We are so accustomed to all this noise in our heads that we barely even notice it. Our mind is so busy that we rarely see what is happening around us.
The first step is to become aware of the chatter and internal dialogue. As you reflect on your thoughts, see if you can uncover reoccurring themes. Then, determine if these themes are primarily negative or positive. For example, are they filled with worry messages, replaying bad experiences, or projecting negative consequences into the future? It is incredible how just becoming aware of our thoughts is the start of rewiring our brains towards happiness.
Limiting Beliefs
How we think of ourselves…who we believe we are…is often one of the most resistant obstacles to changing our behavior. When we believe our behaviors are unchangeable, we easily give up and say, “I knew I could never do that.” One way to begin might be to become aware of the silent messages you send to yourself. Tip: These messages become more noticeable when we experience a setback or are thinking of giving up.
Seek Out and Savor Positive Experiences
Our brain preferentially scans for, registers, stores, recalls, and reacts to wrong things (or the negative aspect of situations and people). In other words, we are wired for negativity. It takes an active, conscious effort to internalize positive experiences and emotions. Focusing on positive experiences is not about suppressing adverse events or avoiding challenging issues. But it is about focusing on what is good and allowing them to become part of your awareness. When you take the time to seek out and intentionally savor positive experiences, you are able to boost your outlook right then and recall the moment(s) for the future.
Self- Affirmations
A self-affirmation is a positive statement of how we envision our best self or some aspect of what we desire in our lives. The power of these statements lies in connecting them to what is meaningful to us. In other words, they need to focus on our most important values. That’s why mindlessly repeating statements without connecting to the meaning does not bring about the change we seek. This brief practice will help you develop personalized affirmations that work for you.
Unlike other spring-cleaning activities, rewiring our brains will take time and practice. The activities described here are just a few ways we can be on a path to live every day like it is the first day of spring.
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