Have you heard of the happiness set point?
Positive Psychologist, Martin Seligman, interviewed lottery winners and quadriplegics and the research found that eventually their happiness reverted back to the same point after the event, as before the event. Seligman found that happiness is 50% genetic set-point, 10% environment and 40% voluntary action.
What does this mean for us? It means we do all have different levels of general happiness purely because of our genes, but it also means we can do something about increasing that. And, rather than spending our life trying to improve our environment, which includes our income, house, relationship, appearance etc, that will only ever improve your happiness maximum 10%… instead what we should focus on how we think, which has a 40% capacity for improvement.
So how do we improve our mind processes, our thoughts and thought patterns?
We can change the way our mind works because of neuroplasticity in the brain, we can literally change the way the brain is shaped by repeatedly practising thinking another way. I personally really struggle with ‘positive thinking’, I believe in toxic positivity, nothing makes me feel worse when I’m sad than when someone says ‘think positive!’ If I could, I would.
It’s not about forcing fake positive thoughts. What we resist persists, so if you feel sad or angry let it come up. If we push emotions down our body will express them in other ways and force us to listen through illness or panic attacks, for example. If we don’t listen to the whisper, you force the body to shout. So, instead of denying emotions, tune into them. Check in with yourself. Ask yourself, how am I? Where is my body calling my attention, what emotion is there, and so what do I need? Yoga Nidra is designed to guide you through this process which can be done in group classes or 1-1 sessions. Yin Yoga are slow relaxation classes, designed to release tightness in the body which includes suppressed emotions. Yoga is a form of emotional inoculation. Like getting a flu jab, you experience a little bit at a time and the body learns the tools to cope with it, so that those emotions don’t sweep you off your feet off the mat. A yoga class should guide you to explore your emotions a little at a time and share tools to overcome. That’s the difference between a yoga instructor (focuses on physical body), and a yoga teacher (focuses on the body mind connection).
So we can change the way we think, not by just being positive and suppressing emotions, but by welcoming our true emotions and learning to become comfortable with them, so that we are no longer scared of ourselves. The best feeling in the world is knowing you could be anywhere and have the tools to be okay. Yoga can help you with this, emotion is short for energy in motion. Move your body to change your energetic frequency and that will change the emotions you feel. Changing your posture, changes your mindset. Changing your breath changes the oxygen levels in your blood which changes your chemical state. Change the pathways in your brain by observing your thoughts and placing them where you want them. Learn to master your mind rather than it master you. Work on you and you can change your happiness by 40%. Don’t waste time focussing on the externals, that will only ever impact your happiness by 10%. And, there is now evidence to prove that epigenetics exists, we can change our genetics by repetitive action, so by practicing a new way of being we could also impact that 50% genetic set point too!