week 7 post 1

Week 7 post 1

Mental awareness

How to Trick Your Brain for Happiness

By Rick Hanson

Fact one: As the brain changes, the mind changes, for better or worse.  For example chronically stressed people release more cortisol and that eats away at the hippocampus which makes it hard for them to have good memory

Fact two: As the mind changes, the brain changes.the flow of different neurochemicals in the brain will vary at different times. For instance, when people consciously practice gratitude, they are likely getting higher flows of reward-related neurotransmitters, like dopamine. Research suggests that when people practice gratitude, they experience a general alerting and brightening of the mind, and that’s probably correlated with more of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine.

In other words, what flows through the mind sculpts the brain. I define the mind as the flow of immaterial information through the nervous system—all the signals being sent, most of which are happening forever outside of consciousness. As the mind flows through the brain, as neurons fire together in particularly patterned ways based on the information they are representing, those patterns of neural activity change neural structure.

People who maintain some kind of regular meditative practice actually have measurably thicker brains in certain key regions.

Fact three: You can use the mind to change the brain to change the mind for the better.

“self-directed neuroplasticity.” Neuroplasticity refers to the malleable nature of the brain, and it’s constant, ongoing. Self-directed neuroplasticity means doing it with clarity and skillfulness and intention

Take in the good: 

1)Let a good fact become a good experience

2)Really savor this positive experience.

3)Finally, as you sink into this experience, sense your intent that this experience is sinking into you

Benefits of training the mind for happiness

-resilience in response to disease (shelly taylor 1984)

-resilience in response to trauma (bonanno 2009)

Potentially toxic thoughts

1. Perfectionism
1. Praising for internal attributes (cultivating a fixed mindset) rather than effort( growth mindset) associated with anxiety (dweck, 2006)
2. priming the “ideal self” to dejection (higgins et al., 1986)
3. Perfectionism in young women: “the triple bind” (hinshaw, 2009)
2. Social comparison (festinger, 1954)
1. Upward comparisons reduce self perceptions
2. Downward comparisons reduce perceived value of others 
3. Materialism
1. -buying/thinking about experiences boosts happiness more than buying thinking about material goods (gilovich, 2003)
4. Maximizing (schwartz et al., 2002) 
1. Trying to maximize pleasure in our decisions is associated w less happiness
2. Satisficing associated with greater happiness

optimism, as defined in the scientific literature, as the expectation that you would have that the future is socially desirable, good, and pleasurable.

 Optimistic people

• Report higher levels of subjective well-being and happiness (ferguson and goodwin, 2010)
• Report higher levels of positive emotion (chang and sanna, 2001)
• Have higher resting vagal tone(overis et al., 2009)
• Optimism measured in 1945 predicts better health 35 years later (vaillant, 2012)

How to satisfice instead of maximize

• Outline your criteria for success.
• Choose the first option that meets your criteria, or stop working the moment the pre-decided “finished” signs appear
• Once the decision is made or the job done, focus on the positive aspects of the choice or accomplishment.

Embrace the choices you make.

Misconceptions about mind training

1. We are who we are: immutable products of genes and circumstances
1. TRUTH- our minds are malleable, ongoing life experience shape our brains and who we are
2. Its brainwashing
1. TRUTH- science based techniques that are strictly voluntary
3. Over optimism and blinds from reality
1. TRUTH - mindfulness should make you more attuned to reality not blind to it 

Why we need self-compassion Kristin Neff

We are basically super hard on ourselves and tend to think we need sacrifice and punishment

Quiet the inner critic

The Three Components of Self-Compassion:

Self kindness v. self judgment

Common humanity v. isolation

Mindfulness v. over identification

Kindness is more than just hearts and flowers. Kindness has a very active component to it. It means when you’re kind to yourself, you really want to comfort yourself when you’re suffering, you want to alleviate your suffering, you want to soothe yourself

Overcoming Objections to Self-Compassion:

This is a big one: confusion with self-pity. And it is annoying to be around people

who are lost in self-pity, isn’t it? When we give the gesture of self-pity, it’s also

really dramatic, overly dramatic, right?

Most of us are incredibly hard on ourselves when we finally admit some flaw or shortcoming: “I’m not good enough. I’m worthless.”]

treat ourselves with the same kindness, caring, and compassion we would show to a good friend—or even a stranger, for that matter.

I wasn’t making myself a better person by beating myself up all the time. Instead, I was causing myself to feel inadequate and insecure, then taking out my frustration on the people closest to me.

unlike self-esteem, the good feelings of self-compassion do not depend on being special and above average, or on meeting ideal goals. Instead, they come from caring about ourselves—fragile and imperfect yet magnificent as we are

In one study my colleagues and I conducted, for instance, undergraduate students were asked to fill out measures of self-compassion and self-esteem. Next came the hard part. They were asked to participate in a mock job interview to “test their interviewing skills.” A lot of undergrads are nervous about the interviewing process, especially given that they will soon be applying for jobs in real life. As part of the experiment, students were asked to write an answer to that dreaded but inevitable interview question, “Please describe your greatest weakness.” Afterward they were asked to report how anxious they were feeling. Participants’ self-compassion levels, but not their self-esteem levels, predicted how much anxiety they felt. In other words, self-compassionate students reported feeling less self-conscious and nervous than those who lacked self-compassion, presumably because they felt okay admitting and talking about their weak points.

We also found that in comparison to self-esteem, self-compassion was associated with less social comparison and less need to retaliate for perceived personal slights. 

•  Self-compassion tends to decrease cortisol and increase heart rate variability.
• linked with less rumination and perfectionism and fear of failure.
• cope more effectively with life stressors such as academic failure or divorce, childhood maltreatment, or chronic pain.
• willing to acknowledge their negative emotions as valid and important.

happiness is rich and inclusive of negative experiences. 

Self compassion is linked to being more compassionate of others as well 

researchers in China looked at how self-compassion relates to how people judge their own moral transgressions. Chinese university students imagined themselves engaging in morally wrong behavior—like breaking traffic rules, keeping money from a found wallet, or plagiarizing for a test—and then rated how acceptable the behavior was on a scale of 1-9. also filled out a self-compassion questionnaire that measured how much they respond to perceived flaws in themselves by being kind to themselves 

 the more self-compassionate the students were, the less acceptable they rated the moral transgressions.

Happiness Practice #6: Self-Compassionate Letter

Mine, identification

Overly emotional, Do not feel adequate in school. Makes me feel sad, stressed, and frustrated because I try so hard to be on top of both of those things 

Someone else might say that my emotions are my strength and while some people might judge me for it, it opens up my mind to others and helps me to see the world with a more compassionate eye. Someone else might say just because I am not conventionally smart, I am curious and work hard and that is what matters in the end. Many people who I am close to feel this same type of frustration and it even causes depression in some people, It is very human. I understand that how i was raised has caused me to be very compassionate, many of my close friends going through tough things and I understand that i was raised by extremely smart people hence my standards are much higher. How can you make time for yourself liz? How can you become more mindful?

Flow 

-an intrinsically rewarding or optimal state that results from engagement w/ daily activities

- linked to happiness 

Feeling flow

• Arises from the right balance of challenge and skill level
• Is exhilarating, satisfying, and happiness producing 

When your in a state of flow, you:

• Completely focused on task at hand
• Forget about self, others, and the world around you 
• Lose track of time
• More creative and productive

Being bored has low productivity, flow is high, frazzle is low

Can Schools Help Students Find Flow?

By Jill Suttie

 Despite high-profile educational initiatives like No Child Left Behind and the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” grant competition, many students in the United States today seem to be sleepwalking through their education.

2008 study led by Judith Harackiewicz of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, found that when students had their interest sparked during an introductory psychology class, they were more likely to sign up for additional psychology courses in the future, regardless of how interested they were in the subject before the class started.

 In a 2003 study published in School Psychology Quarterly, he, Csikszentmihalyi, and other researchers tracked high school students’ engagement during their school day by giving them beepers that went off at various points in the day, signaling the students to rate what they were experiencing and feeling at that moment They found that students were most engaged in school while taking tests, doing individual work, and doing group work, and less so when listening to lectures or watching videos. In addition, the students were most engaged and reported being in a better mood when they felt that their activities were under their own control and relevant to their lives. The researchers conclude that teachers can encourage more flow in their classrooms through lessons that offer choice, are connected to students’ goals, and provide both challenges and opportunities for success that are appropriate to students’ level of skill

 2011 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association but not yet published, Shernoff and colleagues followed 140 students in five different classes to observe what kinds of activities and teacher instruction produced the most flow. They found that, more than any particular type of activity, achieving flow was determined by the mix of challenge and support teachers provide: Engagement was high when students were appropriately challenged by complex goals and high teacher expectations but also supported through positive interactions with their teacher.

What Mel Brooks Can Teach Us about “Group Flow”

By R. Keith Sawyer’

Csikszentmihaly discovered that extremely creative people are at their peak when they experience “a unified flowing from one moment to the next, in which we feel in control of our actions, and in which there is little distinction between self and environment; between stimulus and response; or between past, present, and future.” 

KEYS TO FLOW

• The groups goal (shared mission)
• Close listening
• Keep it moving forward
• Complete concentration
• Being in control
• Blending egos
• Equal participation
• Familiarity
• Communication
• Potential for failure

Types of goals associated with happiness

1. “Non-zero” goals, which encompass the welfare of others, promote life satisfaction; “zero-sum” goals, commitment to career success, material gains seem detrimental to life satisfaction (headly 2008)
2. Goals that increase feelingsIs Autonomy competence relatedness (connection to others) lead to Greater happiness (Sheldon et al 2010) 
3. Intrinsic goals, such as deep and lasting relationships, are associated w greater happiness; by contrast, extrinsic goals, like achieving fame are associated w less happiness (Niemiec, 2009)

Optimism: the expectation that the future will be socially desirable, good, and pleasurable.

Maximizers:people who try to squeeze the greatest amount of benefit and pleasure out of every choice or opportunity.

Self-compassion:quieting one's inner critic and replacing it with a voice of support, understanding, and care for one’s self--in other words, treating yourself with the same kind of compassion that you show to other people.

Flow:the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it

Intrinsic goals:inherently satisfying to pursue because they are likely to satisfy innate psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, competence, and growth

Extrinsic goals:Goals that are focused on attaining rewards and/or praise from others--they are a means to an end, not inherently rewarding in and of themselves

Happiness Practice #7: Best Possible Self

In my journal