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 hap- piness 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 com­ passion 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. vert from short-term memory to long- attitudes – at 62, he describes himself gramme in 14 schools and wants to The project leader, Christchurch-based term storage, it’s only a pleasant passing as feeling “really awash in wellbeing” expand it into workplaces and healthcare. Carsten Grimm, did his psychology mas- from strengthening muscles with phys- hours to contemplate the meaning of experience; it has no lasting value.” – stem from a happy upbringing and a “We’re detecting a hunger for it from ters paper on the orientations to happi- ical exercise. life, but want to be happier. He says you So, how do we do that? Hardwiring lucky life. Not so, he says. “There was different organisations and professions,” ness, first described by influential US Crucially, the brain usually can’t dis- don’t have to be a monk to lay down Happiness spends more than 200 pages in my family a lot of unnecessary bick- says foundation CEO Judi Clements. psychologist Martin Seligman (who’s tinguish between the experience of an helpful neural pathways. For example, explaining how to put the theories into ering, judging and criticising. That “We don’t suggest mindfulness is the widely credited as the father of the pos- actual event and imagining the same London cabbies memorising “The practice, but in essence it comes back sounds trivial, and compared to what answer to everything, just that it’s a itive psychology movement). In 2005, thing. In 2003, an Ohio university study Knowledge” map of the capital have to what Fernando did in Wellington so many people go through, it is trivial. very valuable technique, to be able to Seligman and others proposed that the showed people who simply imagined been found to have thicker neural layers – putting a kind of mental video camera But personally I really withdrew. I ex- manage emotions and avoid that scat- first route to happiness was through laughter or crying triggered their brains in the hippocampus, the area of the into our brain so we can record the perienced a tremendous amount of tered, frenetic thinking we are so often pleasure, the second through meaning in the same way as an actual happy or brain that also helps make visual-spatial good thoughts and feelings, then put rejection and loneliness.” prey to. Children are told to pay atten- and the third through engagement. sad event. memories. Mindfulness meditators, says them on freeze-frame or slow-mo to In college, he says, he stumbled on the tion, but aren’t told how to.” Grimm’s study investigated whether In Hardwiring Happiness, Hanson Hanson, have increased grey matter in play and replay them, turning a fleeting first experience of what would become Preliminary results from independent those orientations were grounded in the offers a step-by-step guide for those of three key regions – the prefrontal areas event into an experience. his life’s work. As a nerdy, skinny, be- research on the outcomes, three way people behaved every day, and us who may not have a spare 50,000 behind the forehead that control atten- “The brain takes its shape from what spectacled outsider, he says he found months after the programme ended, traced the activities and corresponding

36 | NORTH & SOUTH | FEBRUARY 2015 NORTH & SOUTH | FEBRUARY 2015 | 37 happiness scores of 173 people. Parti- ural cycle, makes it pass much more cipants completed an online question- quickly. Happiness is made much eas- naire and Grimm texted them three ier, because you’re not trying to be times a day for a week, asking what they happy.” were doing and how “pleasurable, mean- Consedine says he’s not disagreeing ingful and engaged” they felt. with Hanson and Davidson’s theories “The idea is we all have a dominant about rewiring our brains to change our route to happiness, so my original outlook on the world. “Sure, it’s hypo- thinking was if this is true, then per- thetically possible, but at this stage we haps the pathway to happiness is sat- don’t have the evidence for it. To talk in isfying that dominant orientation be- this language is risky, because the brain cause it matches.” What he found, changes all the time. To systematically though, was that those who strongly shift the set points of how we respond

GETTY oriented to all three routes to happi- emotionally to the world takes time.” ness were the happiest, suggesting it’s The problem is figuring out whether BRAIN TEASERS better to have balance than focus on the differences in the brain activity and the one you most identify with. structure of the kind Davidson observed o, if happiness is all about changing the ways our synapses fire, The behaviour that got the biggest in the monks are a cause or a conse- what can researchers at the pointy end of brain research tell us ticks in all three boxes was sex, while GETTY quence of their lifestyle. He points out S about what they see in the lab? caregiving or volunteering scored high- that up to 50 per cent of happiness is the Associate Professor Johanna Montgomery, principal investigator ly for meaning and engagement but The behaviour that got the biggest result of our genes, not our environment. at the Synaptic Function Research Group in Auckland University’s lower for pleasure. Facebooking, sur- ticks was sex, while caregiving “Some babies are happy and some babies Centre for Brain Research, says while Rick Hanson’s theory – that prisingly, while common, scored near are grumpy and that goes right through changing our brain activity at a synaptic level changes our behaviour to bottom on all three counts, only scored highly for meaning and life.” And, in our environment, it’s not – is a logical explanation based on studies from other animals, we beating “being sick” in the overall hap- engagement, but lower for pleasure. about how rich we are or where we live. haven’t yet got the technology to prove it scientifically in humans. piness ratings. “The ‘happy’ countries are countries like While MRI scans show increased blood flow to different Denmark, where they smoke, they drink areas of the brain with positive stimuli, she says that’s a long n Hardwiring Happiness, Hanson and have the worst weather on the plan- way from showing the synaptic connections themselves are makes the point that, in evo­ moment all we can do is ride out the paradox is the possibility that happi- et. In general, their expectations for strengthening, although logic suggests that would be the case. I lutionary terms, the brain is wired storm and any kind of looking around ness comes from not trying to have it, happiness are lower. They don’t expect In the lab, when scientists want to make synaptic connections to look at the negative and that negative for good news or something else to be but from just being in life.” to be happy, so they exceed expectations and communication stronger, they induce repetitive experiences stick more readily than grateful for is total bullshit.” Consedine, who’s researched emo- much more often.” Indeed, one study electrical stimulation, mimicking the high-frequency firings positive ones. Pain pushed away too quickly just tions for 20 years, says what makes found American multimillionaires rated that happen naturally in the brain every second. He says because of this evolutionary goes “underground” and returns to bite happiness interesting from a scientific their happiness levels, on average, You can think of the synaptic firing connecting the neurons in “negativity bias”, our brains are like us, he says. “There’s a normal rhythm and philosophical point of view is that around 5.8 on a scale of 1-7. Calcutta slum our brains as something akin to a telephone line, she says, with the Velcro for bad experiences and Teflon where you feel the pain, you bear it. it’s “incredibly valued” by Westerners dwellers rated theirs at 4.6. hormones released in response to good or bad emotions – such as for good ones. “We learn faster from The best ‘positive’ you may be able to who are leveraging Eastern techniques, Consedine says he’s not sold on the adrenaline, cortisol, dopamine or oxytocin – acting to regulate the pain than pleasure.” register during this time is that you are such as Buddhist meditation, but idea that “happiness is all there is”. activity of the line, like weather. More is known about the impact The brain rapidly sensitises to nega- surviving, it’s not killing you. But at Eastern populations, including “I’m a friendly person but I wouldn’t on brain activity and memory of fear and stress than the effects tive stimuli in a way that it does not some point – the Goldilocks point – you Buddhists themselves, “aren’t particu- describe myself as a happy person. I of the “happiness” hormones. For example, prolonged stress or sensitise to positive ones. Stress releas- can start letting it go; you can say, ‘I larly concerned about being happy”. take satisfaction out of life from the post-traumatic stress, and the resulting increase of corticosteroids, es cortisol, which acts on the amygdala don’t need to keep thinking about this,’ “What the Dalai Lama says basically meaning I derive from work and family. alters synapse plasticity in different ways to a positive experience. in the brain, our internal alarm bell, or maybe, ‘This hurts too much and I boils down to ‘kindness is everything’. I certainly have never been prone to Post-mortem studies have also shown that the hippocampus making it ring more readily and more need to move on.’” Kindness is a state of mind and a pat- seeking hedonic pleasure.” in the brain of people with depression is often atrophied, with loudly. Cortisol also overstimulates and tern of behaviour, but it’s not the same The big question, he says, is whether fewer neuronal connections. But is that cause or effect? kills neurons in the hippocampus – the ack at Auckland University, thing as happiness. The Eastern ap- we should be actively trying to be happy The Centre for Brain Research is developing the ability to area that can inhibit the amygdala and health psychologist and proach, of mindfulness and meditation, at all and “that’s unclear to me”. And, grow living brain cells from tissue taken immediately after calm it down. Trying to hard-wire the B associate professor Nathan is not designed to make you happy; yes, there are downsides to happiness. death, and Montgomery says studying neurons which have positive experiences is about levelling Consedine, who is supervising Tony that’s not the goal. The paradox is you A study by a Yale graduate published in actually “experienced” the condition could provide some an already uneven playing field. Fernando’s PhD, greets our relentless become less negative and more positive November, for example, showed that important insights. “Bridging the gap between what is happening However, don’t confuse what Hanson quest for the secrets to happiness with a – ie, happier – as a function of accept- people who were happier were less em- at a synaptic level and what is happening at a behavioural is preaching with “positive thinking”, jaundiced sigh. ing emotions as they come. The idea pathetic. Consedine says that’s probably level is the next frontier of neuroscience research.” though it may sound superficially “The more you chase it, the less you permeating that approach is that part because happy people are strongly mo- Centre director Professor Richard Faull says we may never similar. get it,” he says, quoting studies showing of the reason a negative response – be tivated to stay happy, because it’s “in- be able to prove it, but that doesn’t mean the effect isn’t real. “I don’t believe in positive thinking. people who value happiness are, in fact, it anger, jealousy, sadness, fear or anx- nately pleasant”. “Engaging empathi- “The fact that your mind – who you are, your whole future I think it’s hooey.” Fixating only on the less happy. “The primary mechanism iety – lasts is that you’re investing huge cally with other people typically vision, how you feel about yourself, your enthusiasm and your positive means losing sight of “the seems to be that when you value things, amounts of energy trying to make it go involves engaging with their distress passion – actually changes how your brain works is irrefutable. whole mosaic of reality”, he says. “If it creates an implicit expectation that away. This effectively adds fuel to the and that’s going to negatively impact But it won’t ever necessarily be explained by science.” we’re just absolutely red-lining on an outcome will be good and then you fire. Leaving it alone and just observing your own happiness.” physical or emotional pain, in that set yourself up for disappointment. The it, and letting it come and go in a nat- Well, unless you’re Tony Fernando,

38 | NORTH & SOUTH | FEBRUARY 2015 NORTH & SOUTH | FEBRUARY 2015 | 39 KEN DOWNIE

Above: Health psychologist and associate professor Nathan Consedine. Right: People who have lower expectations of happiness may be more likely to achieve it.

who was training to be a Catholic Bene- dictine monk in the Philippines before switching to medicine. He became in- terested in researching happiness after GETTY reading the Dalai Lama’s Art of Happiness 10 years ago. He picked it up Consedine points out up to 50 per at an airport only because it was co- cent of happiness is the result of our authored by a psychiatrist, but he has genes, not our environment. been following its teachings ever since. With neurotransmitters associated with various types of happiness already iden- tified – serotonin, which controls mood; dopamine, which is involved in excite- ment and reward; and oxytocin, which oxytocin felt more connected to their teacher once told him, “If you want to is linked to bonding – he says it’s con- group, but became more tribal and ag- soar like a dove, you need two wings ceivable we’ll one day see a “happy pill”. gressive towards outsiders. As the New – one mindfulness and the other com- Drugs such as anti-depressants and York Times noted, oxytocin had turned passion.” anti-anxiety medications don’t make out to be the hormone of the clan, not For now, that’s enough for Fernando. us happy – if and when they work, they universal brotherhood. Whether he’s changing the way his simply return us to our natural mood But if a safe, effective happy pill came brain fires along the way doesn’t re- baseline. on the market, would someone like motely bother him. “My goal is not to While the perils of taking illegal drugs Fernando need it, or take it? The Dalai be neuroplastic,” he says. “My goal is to for the highs they bring are well known, Lama was asked the same question once, feel at ease and at peace.” + trials have also shown the potential risks Fernando says. “He said yes. If you could of trying to harness the power of our take a pill to make you genuinely happy, • For information on Hanson’s natural neurotransmitters. Research why wouldn’t you?” workshops in Auckland, Wellington published in Science a few years ago In the meantime, he’s doing his best and Christchurch in late January, go found participants given intranasal from the inside out. He says a Buddhist to rickhanson.net.

40 | NORTH & SOUTH | FEBRUARY 2015