Hardwiring Happiness, By Rick Hanson

Have you had any good experiences recently? For some, this may be hard to answer because our brains are so caught up on the negative events in our lives. In the book Hardwiring Happiness, Rick Hanson discusses the topic of happiness. He argues that we can rewire our brains by focusing on the positive. Our brains have a negativity bias, which stems from our prehistoric ancestors. At that time, focusing on the negative was crucial because it may be a threat to survival but this mindset is no longer needed today. Hanson proposes a method called "H.E.A.L." which stands for having a positive experience, enriching, absorbing, and linking the positive and negative. By learning about our brains and following the HEAL method to take in the positive

Over the millions of years our ancestors struggled to survive in an environment filled with dangers and learning quickly from bad experiences was necessary to stay alive. This developed a negativity bias which makes our brain more attentive to bad experiences, react intensely to it, and store it in our neural structure quickly. Hanson writes, “Even when you feel relaxed and happy and connected, your brain keeps scanning for potential dangers, disappointments, and interpersonal issues”(35). Because our brains try so hard to find bad things around us, it is hard for us to take in the small happy experiences we have in our daily lives. To achieve a sense of ease, it is crucial for us to overcome the negativity bias built into our brains. To do this, we can rewire our brains to focus on the

The HEAL method is a process Hanson developed to help hardwire our happiness and it stands for having a positive experience, enriching it, absorbing it, and linking positive and negative material. The positive experience can be small, such as calling your friend, but we need to make sure that we stay with it for a while (enrich) and let it land in our mind (absorb). The last step is optional and it tells us to cancel out or replace negative thoughts using the positive thoughts we gained in the first three steps. According to Hanson, “as your positive mental states become positive neural traits, you’ll gradually rest in a happiness that emerges naturally inside you” (77). By overcoming the negativity bias in our brain using the HEAL method, we can achieve unconditional happiness which can make our lives much more joyful and