Teaching your brain to be happyTeaching your brain to be happy
All In The Mind
Happiness is paradoxical. What we think will give it to us - invariably doesn't. When we think we've got it - we invariably haven't. We're not even good at predicting what will make us happy people. From languishing to flourishing - can even the most troubled mind be primed for happiness? A panel of international trailblazers in the study of emotion, positive psychology and Buddhism get earnest about pleasure.
30:05•16 Jun 2007
Teaching Your Brain to Be Happy: Science, Buddhism and the Art of Flourishing
Episode Overview
- Negative emotions can be functional; what matters most is how you respond to them after they arise.
- Happiness as an enduring state is different from brief pleasurable feelings and requires ongoing mental training.
- Temperament and genetics set a starting point, but most people can still improve their level of wellbeing.
- Reframing your circumstances and working on your attitude, even in extreme situations, can lead to genuine peace of mind.
- Daily practices such as listing personal strengths, cultivating purpose and serving others can steadily raise life satisfaction.
“The only thing that matters is that you train to be better than yourself yesterday.”
What are the common struggles and victories in addiction recovery? Here, happiness takes centre stage as a mental health topic rather than a fluffy buzzword. Recorded at the Happiness and Its Causes conference in Sydney, this episode brings together a big-hitting panel to ask whether you can actually train your brain to be happier – even if life feels pretty dark.
Psychologist David Matsumoto kicks things off by arguing that so-called “negative” emotions aren’t villains to be wiped out; they’re functional, automatic reactions that help you survive. The real skill, he says, lies in "what we do about them later on" and how much we allow those emotional "neural networks" to run the show. Psychiatrist Professor Graham Burrows talks genetics, temperament and hard limits, but still insists that "there isn't a person in this room who can't improve their life".
His practical trick? Get people to write a list of their strengths and read it every morning – classic cognitive behavioural work: "If you think miserable thoughts, you'll feel miserable and become miserable. If you think positive thoughts... you'll become a positive person." From a very different angle, Venerable Rabina Korten shares stories from the Liberation Prison Project, where people on death row learn to swap anger, guilt and shame for meaning and self-worth.
One woman, wrongly imprisoned for 17 years, reframed her cell as a cave and herself as a monk, deciding that the only thing she could change was her attitude. Positive psychology researcher Professor Corey Keyes challenges the idea that “not being ill” equals being well, explaining why so few adults are truly flourishing and how our hedonic age has us chasing feeling good instead of functioning well.
Rounded off with psychiatrist-author Dr Howard Cutler and his experience with the Dalai Lama, this conversation blends science, Buddhism and sport psychology to ask a simple but demanding question: are you willing to train your mind as seriously as your body or career?
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