In this week’s Success Newsletter, I would like to reveal the ways that happiness makes you smarter, more creative and even more productive than when you are in a neutral, negative or stressed state.
First a quick update:
The Breakup Test
Are you heartbroken, angry, lost, lonely, confused, depressed, hung up, or pining over your ex? Do you know how your ex is truly affecting you and do you want to benefit from personalized advice, action steps and revelations? Take my free breakup test and get your own personalized report.
Are You Being Treated Poorly? Who Is Controlling You?
Have you been fooled into chasing perfection and perfectionism? Are you obsessed and fully reliant on being the ideal that society has created and set for you? Do people treat you badly? “You teach others how to treat you” says Behavior & Relationship Expert Patrick Wanis, PhD. You have conscious control; you can set your boundaries, so why do you let others treat you poorly? Are you a people-pleaser? Watch my video
Now, let’s talk about the ways that happiness makes you smarter, more creative and even more productive than when you are in a neutral, negative or stressed state.
Did you know that when you are experiencing negative emotions such as anger and anxiety, your brain narrows your actions into the fight or flight response?
And did you know that the opposite is true?
When you are experiencing positive emotions, you become more resourceful, more creative and smarter.
Positive emotions broaden your actions in an empowering manner.
Positive emotions flood your brain with dopamine and serotonin which activate the learning centers of your brain. The result is you’re able to process new information, retrieve it faster, think faster, become highly skilled at problem solving, discover new possibilities and ideas, and your eyesight even improves – your peripheral line of vision expands.
Studies also reveal that when you are in a positive emotional state versus when your brain is at a negative, neutral or stressed state, you become 31% more productive, 37% better at sales, and if you are a doctor, you become 19% faster & more accurate at correctly diagnosing a patient.
“Fun is at the core of how I like to do business, and it has informed everything I’ve done from the outset. More than any other element, fun is the secret of Virgin’s success.”
– Richard Branson
How, though, do you shift into a positive emotional state? How do you become happier, more often?
Your genes and your environment are your master, until you decide to take control.
Your genes make you predisposed to alcoholism, depression, creativity, intelligence and so forth; your environment is what happens to you after birth and results in emotional or psychological baggage.
However, you can rewire your brain; you can change your results via your behavior. If you, like most people, believe that your external world will determine your levels of happiness, then you make yourself helpless and victim to the external world. The truth is that the way your brain processes the external world will determine your happiness.
“90 percent of your long-term happiness is predicted not by the external world, but by the way your brain processes the world.” – Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage
“What we found is that only 25% of job successes are predicted by IQ, 75 percent of job successes are predicted by your optimism levels, your social support and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat.” – Shawn Achor
The way to shift and rewire your brain is to constantly re-prime it. Mental priming refers to unconsciously preparing your brain to look for & notice certain things, and to feel and act in certain ways.
3 Quick Action Steps
1. Prime Your Environment
What message do you get currently from your environment (office, home, car, bedroom)?
What do you need your environment to look like so that it enhances a positive emotional state in you? What colors inspire joy or happiness in you? Which photos, paintings, art prints or quotes bring you instant joy?
Prime your environment to bring you the emotional state you desire.
2. Prime Your Mind
You have around 60,000 thoughts a day? What are your dominant thoughts? To what do you constantly expose yourself? If you spend time reading/watching the news, then your brain is going to believe that the world is rife with murder, corruption, diseases, pain and natural disasters, and, you will believe that the news accurately represents the ratio of negative to positive in the world. i.e you will believe there is more bad than good in the world.
Instead, make conscious choices about what you will expose your brain to; will it be enhancing or destructive? Is what you are about to read or watch something that will add to your positive emotional state or something that will trigger negative emotions? Remember, you get more of what you focus on!
3. Prime Your Emotions & Team
Your team is not limited to the people with whom you work; your team consists of the people who make up your support circle or network. Studies reveal that “the greatest predictor of your success and happiness during a time of challenge, every single time, is your social support network.”
Everyday, as soon as you open your email inbox, write an email of 2 sentences or less praising, thanking or acknowledging someone in your social network. Repeat this exercise for 21 days. It will change for the better the way you feel, and the way others feel and respond to you. Praising and thanking people in your circle creates a positive emotional state in you because your brain identifies the help, love and support that you have; it creates a positive emotional state in others because it helps others to experience and feel validation, recognition and appreciation, and; you recognize that you are significant and can impact others. If you choose to do this regularly it will become a habit and you will experience more happiness.
Read about 5 things you can do everyday to make you happier. Remember, the goal is to be happier, more often; it is not to try and be happy 24 hours a day which is not realistic or humanly possible.
If you need help to change your mind – the way you look at the world – and to let go of the past as well as limiting or painful subconscious beliefs, book a one-on-one session with me.
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I wish you the best and remind you “Believe in yourself -You deserve the best!”
Patrick Wanis Ph.D.
Celebrity Life Coach, Human Behavior & Relationship Expert & SRTT Therapist
Anointed “The Woman Expert” by WGN Chicago, Patrick Wanis PhD is a renowned Celebrity Life Coach, Human Behavior & Relationship Expert who developed SRTT therapy (Subconscious Rapid Transformation Technique) and is teaching it to other practitioners. Wanis’ clientele ranges from celebrities and CEOs to housewives and teenagers. CNN, BBC, FOX News, MSNBC & major news outlets worldwide consult Wanis for his expert insights and analysis on sexuality, human behavior and women’s issues. Wanis is the first person ever to do hypnotherapy on national TV – on the Montel Williams show.