What Makes You Happy?

Cover story what makes you happy? As a New York Times best- selling author heads to New Zealand for a series of workshops on how to hard-wire our brains for contentment, calm and confidence, Donna Chisholm explores the science of happiness. DONNA CHISHOLM IS NORTH & SOUTH’S EDITOR-AT-LARGE. GETTY 32 | NORTH & SOUTH | FEBRUARY 2015 NORTH & SOUTH | FEBRUARY 2015 | 33 showing how we can use the neuroplas- ticity of our brain – its ability to change through experiences – to learn happiness and contentment in the same way we can learn to play the piano. But where once the old Indian guru’s advice “Don’t worry, be happy” might have seemed an sychiatrist Tony Fernando is unattainable, easier-said-than-done on Wellington’s Willis St when piece of happy-clappery, the scientific P he spots the young homeless evidence is growing to prove our minds man, sitting on the footpath, hunched really do have it over our (grey) matter. under a black hoodie. In the five cups of soft tofu-like tissue “There’s a supermarket down the that make up our brain, 10 trillion syn- street, do you want me to get anything apses are firing, connecting roughly 100 for you?” he asks him. It’s a rare question billion neurons. Active synapses become and the man, who looks in his 20s, is more sensitive and new ones start grow- briefly taken aback. “Oh, can you get me ing within minutes; less active connec- some muesli bars?” Not beer, smokes or tions wither and die. It’s relatively new a pie, but muesli bars. Why? Because they thinking – as recently as 30 years ago, last a long time without going off, and neuroscientists believed adult brain cells the pieces can be rationed, he says. couldn’t regenerate. That’s now changed Further along Willis St, on his way to with the saying, “Neurons that fire to- New World, Fernando happens on a gether, wire together.” second man sitting on the footpath. His The term “Buddha’s Brain”, popular- cap reads, “I love potatoes.” The doctor ised by Hanson’s book, was first coined GETTY asks if he, too, would like anything at by University of Wisconsin professor of the supermarket. “A pie!” the man says. psychology and psychiatry Richard At the supermarket, shopping for the Davidson, who demonstrated the func- two men, Fernando is happy. Far hap- tional and structural differences in the pier than if he was doing it for himself. brains of meditating Tibetan monks. “I added some bits. Adding the bits was His collaboration with the Dalai Lama more fun.” The muesli bars are on spe- began more than 20 years ago, when the cial – two packs for $5, so Fernando Tibetan spiritual leader invited him to buys two. He buys a chicken pie, two put Buddhist practices to scientific test. bottles of upmarket mango and orange He ultimately sent eight of his most juice – the sort he never gets himself experienced meditators, who’d had because they’re too dear – two Tip Top 10,000 to 50,000 hours’ experience, to Trumpets and two packs of three Davidson’s lab for brain scans and EEG Ferrero Rocher chocolates. He adds a testing. $1.50 chocolate bar for himself. Psychiatrist Tony Fernando. In 2004, Davidson showed how “com- As he hands out his gifts, he tries to passion meditation” enhanced activity video the men’s reactions in his mind, in the left prefrontal cortex of the monks’ recording how their gratitude lifts him brains – the area associated with positive in return. “I felt warm, content, mean- emotions, such as happiness. The monks, ingful.” He writes about the experience merican neuropsychologist that didn’t actually happen, like, ‘Gee, whose results were compared with those that night in his gratitude diary. Cost of Rick Hanson, author of the I haven’t had a paralysing stroke yet of untrained students, had higher levels the shopping? $22. The payback in hap- A New York Times best-seller today. Woohoo! It’s great! The power of brain impulses known as gamma piness? Priceless. Hardwiring Happiness, is firing like an didn’t go out – thank you.’” waves, which are connected to higher Fernando, who is doing a PhD in com- excited synapse down the phone line Our conversation is less than two min- mental activity and awareness. They passion in medicine at Auckland from California, on the eve of his coming utes old and Hanson is already basking were “extremely large” increases, David- University, was in Wellington that day New Zealand tour. in three things he’s grateful for. But son said, “of a sort that has never been to present a lecture, “The Science of If any brain is wired to find the good then, it’s what he does. Since 2009, reported before in neuroscience litera- Happiness”, to a group of public hospital in life, it is Hanson’s, as he launches into when he published Buddha’s Brain: The ture”. Those who had completed the specialists. He told them how the brain the interview with the energy and en- Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, most meditating hours showed the great- can be trained to make us happy and thusiasm of a new puppy. “I just thought Love and Wisdom, Hanson has made a est brain changes. that kindness and compassion are the how kind of neat it is! That we’re talking career out of helping the rest of us “What we found is that the trained best and most sustainable ways to and you’re 10,000km away and you change the wiring of our brains so we mind, or brain, is physically different GETTY achieve happiness. “We sit,” he said, “on sound like you’re just on the other side can be happier. from the untrained one,” Davidson said. Top: The Dalai Lama has collaborated with scientific researchers for a goldmine of happiness.” of my office door. So many things we Hanson and a growing body of scien- This showed that strengthening neural more than 20 years. Above: A meditating Buddhist teacher wears an array On Willis St, he walked the talk. take for granted, like all the bad things tific researchers internationally are systems isn’t fundamentally different of EEG sensors, used to measure brain activity, in Richard Davidson’s lab. 34 | NORTH & SOUTH | FEBRUARY 2015 NORTH & SOUTH | FEBRUARY 2015 | 35 tion, the insula, which we use for tuning into ourselves and others, and the hippocampus. In January last year, Time magazine called it the “Mindfulness Revolution” – “the science of finding focus in a stressed-out, multitasking culture”. Mindfulness is top of Hanson’s recom- mendations for hardwiring happiness but he says it’s only part of the story. He wants us to focus also on the little things that make life worth living and the happiness they bring, whether it’s appreci- ating acts of kindness or the beauty of a garden, or observing the cosy content- Rick Hanson wants us to focus also on the ment of the family cat snoozing. little things that make life worth living. f we think of the mind as a garden, he says, mindfulness alone would I be akin to observing it. To make positive changes, though, we need to do more – pulling weeds and planting flowers, he calls it. While this doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with the practice itself – “it’s wonderful” – he’s sometimes seen the downside, in those who assume that qualities such as compassion or resilience are somehow inherent in mindfulness itself. “They think the strengths will grow on GETTY their own, or that feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, envy or anger will just fade away if they practise mindfulness.” The original saying of guru Meher the mind rests upon,” Hanson says. If you he could turn a small event, “a few guys found the children had sustained in- Baba, “Don’t worry, be happy” also in- keep resting your mind on “self-criticism, saying, ‘Come on, let’s go get a pizza’, creases in wellbeing. cluded two more important words that worries, grumbling about others, hurts or a young woman smiling at me”, into The foundation is also about to pilot GETTY have been dropped from the modern and stress”, your brain will be shaped a good experience that he held on to, an online “wellbeing game”, which has phrase: “Make efforts.” into greater reactivity and vulnerability rather than brushed off. “In effect, I was historically run for only a month every “You grow mental resources like “You grow mental resources like to anxiety and depression. Resting it on taking in the good, a dozen seconds at October, in several workplaces starting toughness, resilience, grit, optimism or toughness, resilience, grit, optimism or the good – pleasant feelings, the things a time. It was quick, easy and enjoyable. this summer. Participants in the game self-confidence by converting positive you do get done, physical pleasures – And I started feeling better.” compete by seeing who can log up the self-confidence by converting positive experiences to neural structure. You means that over time your brain will take most hours involved in the foundation’s experiences to neural structure.” have to have that emotional experience, a different shape, “one with strength and n New Zealand, Hanson will meet five paths to wellbeing – being active, stage one, but stage two, you have to in- resilience hardwired into it”. the Mental Health Foundation, connecting, taking notice, learning and stall it into your brain. If it doesn’t con- It’s tempting to suspect that Hanson’s I which runs a mindfulness pro- giving.

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