Dr. Rick Hanson: Take in the Good

[Music] well it's an honor to be here and I'd like to talk with you today about how you can use your mind alone what you think about how you feel where you put attention to actually change your own brain for the better and to get into that I'd like to start with a little personal story growing up I was very young going through school and I had a lot of experiences of being sort of rejected pushed aside I was this shy skinny nerdy total dork of a kid you know my kids say dad you're such a dork and I go yeah but you're gonna work for one one day so be nice then anyway so you know the truth is I had lots of those usual school experiences of being rejected put down you know pushed around and so forth tiny tiny stuff compared to what so many people go through but they had an effect those little bad things added up and they left residues behind over time I you know felt empty inside we all have a normal need to feel included recognized appreciated valued and so forth but for me those supplies were more like kind of a thin soup so I ended up healing in a way like I had a kind of hole in my heart then in my early twenties I stumbled on something that seemed amazing to me them and still seems amazing to me today which is that I began to realize that if a good fact happened some little ordinary thing you know someone was nice to me they hired me for something they wanted me on their football team that was one of the best of all stuff like that that if I just stayed with the experience not brushing it off not rushing on to the next thing not denying it it just sort of stayed with the experience that was based on that good fact then I started gradually feeling better in a fact bit by bit I was filling that hole in my heart years later as a neuropsychologist I began to realize that what I was doing was actually changing my own brain you know you've probably noticed the same thing yourself that if you stay with something even for just a few seconds better yet 10 20 30 seconds in a row it actually feels like it's kind of sinking into you that's because in the saying from brain science neurons that fire together wire together in other words what we think about actually changes neural structure busy connections called synapses between neurons become more sensitive new connections get built busy regions active regions in the brain get more blood supply's because they need you know more oxygen and glucose and parts of the brain that are not active connections that are not active wither away in a process called neural Darwinism you know this capacity of the mind to change the brain for the better is a very hot area of research today and I'll just mention a couple of studies a1 one of my favorites is on these London taxi cab drivers you know they have to memorize the spaghetti snarl of streets there in London and at the end of their training their hippocampus a part of the brain that does visual spatial memory is measurably thicker they've built synaptic connections there because they work that muscle in a sense like going to the gym and so it developed more function as a result or in a second study comparing long-term meditators to people who don't meditate at all a personal question how many of you meditate at least a minute a month or more including prayer some kind of thing that's a low bar no more personal questions promise all right so but you know what I'm talking about you know you kind of sit down you're relaxed you mellow out well you're changing your brain when you do that as this study showed that meditators compared to controls people who don't meditate had measurably thicker neural cortex in the prefrontal regions of the brain that are involved in controlling attention being mindful and in proportion to the build up of structure that they had produced by working that muscle as it were they became more able to concentrate to pay attention you know at home and work life all together as you can see from these examples you know we can use the mind to change the brain to change the mind for the better and that's the power essentially of self-directed neuroplasticity and I think we need to use that power ourselves to change our own brains for the better because if we don't other forces will do it for us you know pressures at work at home other people the impact of technology and media or mother nature hers that's because we've inherited a brain that's the product of 600 million years of evolution in the nervous system you know mother nature is great at passing on genes for hunter-gatherer stone-age life but these tendencies in the brain today are in effect of design flaws in certain regards for life in the 21st century one of the main ones is the negativity bias what scientists call the negativity bias of the brain for example you know you in the wild you've got to go to carrots and you've got to avoid sticks carrots matter but if you don't get a carrot today probably have a chance at a carrot tomorrow but if you fail to avoid that stick today Wow no more carrots forever you know imagine some little creature living you know back in Jurassic Park times that was all mellow you know I've been listening to Sanjay Gupta really just kind of relaxing checking out the light on the Li so it's all good Wow got eaten you know you didn't notice right the shadow overhead or the crackle in the brush nearby this signals some kind of threat all right the ancestors who live to pass on their genes are nervous and kind of irritable and we're their great-grandchildren you know sitting on the top of the food chain today armed with nuclear weapons you know all right rule one in the wild eat lunch today don't be lunch today so it's no wonder we have this negativity bias right it continually is scanning for bad news you know because that's where threats come from as they say in journalism if it bleeds it leads and then when the brain finds that bad news it sucks it in with specialized memory systems you know once burned twice shy but positive experiences unless there are a million-dollar moment right they have standard-issue memory systems which means that unless they're very very novel or intense they need to be held in short-term memory buffers for 10 20 30 seconds in a row to transfer to long-term storage and since we rarely do that positive experiences tend to flow through our brain like water through a sieve while negative ones get caught every time in a fact the brain really is velcro for negative experiences but Teflon for positive ones think of a relationship you know with somebody at home or work you know 10 things happen in the day 5 are mildly positive or neutral ones mildly negative what's the one you remember when you're falling asleep right it's the one usually that's negative all right it's the one that sticks to the velcro the bright you know the negativity bias was great back in the day it was great for keeping early humans alive you know sure it produces lots of stress and stress is really bad for long-term health and therefore longevity but when most people were dead by their 30th birthday right it didn't really matter the short-term benefits of the stress that came from this negativity bias outweighed the long-term consequences but these days you know people are living longer I think about my dad born in a ranch in North Dakota 19 1892 still going strong sharp his attack looking good very successful with the ladies you know 92 and 72 you know we were living longer we want to live long and prosper these days the long-term cost of the negativity bias are not worth the short-term benefits you can kind of see the overall pattern here you know mother nature's tilted towards survival and passing on gene copies but in effect in significant ways she's tilted against quality of life tilted against long-term health and tilted against longevity these tendencies these circuits are present in our brains today you know caveman brains cavewoman brains in the 21st century they're influencing us and if we don't take charge of them they're going to continue to take charge of us a great way to take charge of this you know caveman cavewoman brain and you know compensate for some of its design flaws for the 21st century as well as a great way to build up strengths inside build up resources inside and if you want fill a hole in the heart is to take in the good they're just three simple steps in the first step we look for good facts and we've let them become good experiences right good facts are all around even in a difficult life you know ours are blooming coffee tastes good people are nice you know ain't dead yet right we're not looking at the world through rose-colored glasses you know we already are looking at the negative all day long you know there's no shortage of focus on the negative right we're trying to help ourselves to see the truth to see the facts of the whole picture the whole mosaic including the tiles that are factually good and then when we see those good facts we feel them we try to feel them rather than brushing them off or rushing on to the next thing to want or to worry about we let them fill our bodies and our minds so they can gradually sink in so then what we do is we savor the good experience for 10 seconds or more you know we kind of hang out with it we let it be there we give ourselves over to it we be a friend to it so it has a chance to to come in to us you know by extending the experience as long as possible by making it as intense as possible and as whole bodied as possible we get as many neurons firing together as possible so they start wiring together as well and then we sense and intend that it's sinking in we prime memory systems to do it in real life we do this taking and the good very quickly you know these steps kind of mush together but to clarify them you know I want to pull them apart and identify one two three what's involved here so in a moment I'll be quiet for 15 seconds and you can do this as well you know right now if you will if you if you like bringing to mind something perhaps that you're grateful for you know some real good fact in your life and then helping it become a good experience and knowing what that's like to let a good fact become a good experience that you're sinking into and it is sinking into you for the next 15 seconds okay fifteen seconds can seem really long sometimes can't it I'm often struck by how much change a few seconds can make in my own mind or the mind of another person and I think of that as the law of little things you know it's lots of little bad things usually they get us to a bad place and it's gonna be lots of little good things that get us to a better one and to me that's really hopeful because it's the little things that we have power over we have the capacity to influence in our life but to use this power right to take action for ourselves to be on our own side to be for ourselves not against other people but actually kind to ourselves we need to understand what we're doing and this is where I think appreciating why we taking the good can be really helpful so the first reason to take in the good is that it's good for us you know if we're continually pouring out and pouring out and pouring out we need to refuel ourselves we need to replenish ourselves from time to time in little pit stops of life otherwise you know if we don't take in the good periodically at those pit stops we're gonna end up running on empty it's a fact that mother nature in many ways is tilted against our happiness so if we tilt towards seeing the good facts that are out there we're just leveling a playing field stuck in taking in the good is good for other people you know much research has shown they were more able to and more likely to treat each other well be patient be productive in a cooperative environment if our own cup runneth over and it helps to remember that taking in the good is good for the whole wide world you know this is where I think about a Native American teaching story once heard in which an elder a grandmother was asked toward the end of her life what she had done that had led her to being so wise so respected and so loved by other people and her answer was this she said well it's because I know that in my heart are two wolves one of love and one of hate and that everything depends on which one I feed each day you know even now you know every time I think of this story or talk about it kind of gives me the shivers you know who among us does not have a wolf of love or a wolf of Haida No I know I have both including the wolf of hate we have these two wolves in our heart because we evolved them our ancestors lived in small hunter-gatherer bands they bred mainly inside the bands and they competed intensely with other bands for scarce resources genes were passed on that promoted better cooperation within the band and better aggression between the band in effect a wolf of hate and the wolf of love are stitched into human DNA we can feel these wolves today you know any time we set a distinction between us and them you know when we look at them as not like us you know not my tribe the wolf of hate pokes its nose up and starts looking around for danger and then if we feel mistreated or you know disrespected or threatened or desperate altogether then the wolf of hate jumps up and looks for someone to howl at or bite you know these wolves were helpful back in the day right the wolf of hate in particular but today the wolf of hate breeds you know anger and alienation it breeds ulcers and heart disease and it breeds needless conflicts at home and work and in a world altogether in which we've got seven billion people crowded together in this planet when we see others as them and to humanize them and fear them and attack them eventually it often comes back and you know hurts us what are we going to do we cannot kill the wolf of hate if we try to kill the wolf of hate if we hate the wolf of hate that just feeds the wolf of hate we need to restrain that wolf and stop feeding it with fear and anger and meanwhile we need to feed the wolf of love we do that not in some kind of wussy I'm from California kind of way but because you know feeding the wolf of love makes us stronger and actually makes us more able to deal with life right and there are lots of ways to feed the wolf of love we feed the wolf of love by taking in the good of everyday small experiences a feeling included seen liked appreciated even cherished and loved we take in the wolf of love or parm cream feed the wolf of love by for example recognizing the good and other people you know and feeling less threatened by them as a result we can feed the wolf of love by cultivating compassion and kindness in our heart and then sensing that those experiences are sinking into us we can also feed the wolf of love by recognizing the ways that we are in fact actually believe it or not the final taboo a good person you know not a perfect person no halo is required but fundamentally a good person and we can feed the wolf of love by recognizing the good in the world that is and the good in the world that can be particularly these days in the faces of so many messages of you know darkness and despair but to do this to feed the wolf of love we have to be strong we have to be strong enough to stand against the evolutionary tendencies of our brain the draws toward the negativity bias and we have to be strong enough to stand against the forces around us locally and globally that tend to trigger us into fear and anger you know we need to be strong enough to take in the good that feeds the wolf of love each day so thank you very much really appreciate you being [Applause] [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Chicago Ideas

Views: 60,770

Keywords: brian, health, wellness, chicago ideas week, take in the good

Id: 1LDDzhDIqcM

Length: 16min 57sec (1017 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 07 2013