How to Retrain Your Brain
for Happiness

There is a long standing myth that your
brain is "hardwired" at an early age and
then very difficult to change. The good
news is that this myth is not true; your
brain retains its ability to learn, to be
trained, throughout your life. I'll explain
how you can take full advantage of this in a
moment...

Dr. Michael Merzenich, a professor at the
University of California at San Francisco,
has studied a phenomena that has long
puzzled us. If we can change, why don't
we? Just like a rat who has maneuvered a
maze 100 times, you have habits that have
driven changes into your brain. Even when
those habits are not fulfilling, it is still
very difficult for the average person to
change them.

Make no mistake, when you learn a new skill it
really does change, or distort, your brain. Dr. Merzenich
says that a highly skilled specialist, such
as a surgeon or musician, has pathways in
their brain that show up on an MRI while
they are performing. A trumpet player, for
example, has enlarged representations in
their brains for the areas that control
their lips, breathing, and fingers.

You, too, have thousands of pathways you've
carved into your brain to accommodate the
tasks you've formed into habits. These
habits can range from beneficial ones, such
as exercising daily, to ruinous ones, such
as smoking. Can you guess what habit of
yours, however, about which I am most
concerned?

I'll give you three guesses. And the first
two don't count.

Of course, I am most concerned about the
pathways you've created for your
seriousness. You can easily identify them. Any
time you feel stressed and unhappy you're
following an ingrained habit of seriousness
that you created in your brain through years
of repetition.

Don't feel bad; you're not alone. Your
brain's pathways to seriousness were forged,
just like mine, by well-intentioned parents,
teachers, and other authority figures. These
authority figures were only passing along
what they had been taught - that becoming an
adult means learning to get serious.

Your authority figures were only half-
correct; becoming an adult means learning to
take your responsibilities seriously. But
not yourself! Taking yourself seriously
leads to high levels of stress. And stress
is not only responsible for 80% of your
doctor's visits, but it is also the
foundation for almost every physical ailment
or condition that bothers you.

You already know that seriousness causes
stress and that stress is killing you. So
how can you change that? How can you escape
your unending quest for happiness that you
never quite achieve? How can you return to
the life of resiliency, vitality, health,
and energy that you knew so well as a
child?

Dr. Merzenich offers a solution for us that
I endorse wholeheartedly: we must continue
learning. As children, we are constantly
involved in behavior-based learning, but
somewhere as an adult we begin to trade
being active for learning. This universal
tendency to stop active learning is what
creates the myth that our brains are
hardwired as a child and then difficult to
change later.

It's not difficult to change our behaviors
and habits as we're older, we just don't do
it! Dr. Merzenich recommends studying a new
foreign language or learning to play a new
musical instrument each year, just to
continue building the neural pathways as you did in
your childhood. I don't disagree, but first
I want you to immerse yourself in The Fun
Factor and build new pathways of fun,
happiness, health, and vitality to replace
your pathways of seriousness.

Like musicians, you'll soon have new
enlarged and distorted areas of your brain. Except
the areas will be those associated with
happiness, joy, and freedom - even under
your toughest circumstances!

Next week I will tell you about some amazing
research that arose out of a study of
smokers who quit. And I'll also tell you
why reading The Fun Times each and every
week is so important for your health and
happiness.

Your Attention Please!
How to escape the 97% of people who fail to
reach their goals. Fun Times subscriber,
Arina, is our newsletter sponsor this
month. She believes, like I do, that you
were born with the ability to turn your
dreams into tangible reality. And she has
prepared a special website just for US! Please
visit her and reward Arina for her generous
sponsorship. Follow the link below:
How to Set and Achieve a Goal

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Some Humor for the Week

"Don't be afraid of missing opportunities. Behind
every failure is an opportunity somebody
wishes they had missed."
Lilly Tomlin