I recently came across an interesting blog, by Walter Chen, about ways to rewire our brains for positivity and happiness.  I liked the post and decided to share it, following a recent conversation in a coffee shop.

My coffee shop conversation was a chance encounter and chat, not a formal coaching session, but I found myself in a gentle coaching mode.  My companion was in a low place and reflecting that “Life is the Pits”.  The conversation turned to how everything he experienced at work and in life generally was always pretty negative.  In particular, he was unhappy with relationships with others.  The discussion went to negative after negative and so I tried to turn the conversation to identify what it was the made him happy and how he would like to feel, what his goal would be.

This conversation was not dissimilar to a couple of others I have had over the past year.  I thought it important, therefore,to share Walter’s post, to provide some thoughts about how we can work positively to move into happier space.  The post is at  http://blog.bufferapp.com/how-to-rewire-your-brains-for-positivity-and-happiness and talks about four ways to improve how we think more positively about life:

–  Scan for the 3 daily positives

–  Give one shout-out to someone daily.

–  Do something nice.

–  Mind your mind.

I am not going to repeat Walter’s description of each of those here.  I will leave it to you to review his post, it is worth a read.

I am not advocating that the techniques advocated by Walter will bring about guaranteed transformation.  There is much scientific evidence that we can rewire our brains to behave differently and think more positively.  There is also scientific evidence that some of our behaviours are genetically based and hard wired in.  That is, there is much in terms of our behaviours that we can change but some that we cannot, it is inherently us.  At the bottom line, however, I suggest that if you always feel “Life is the Pits” there are a number of techniques to try to se if you can turn at least some, if not all, of that around.

There are many other great techniques that can help us think more positively, including a number in Martin Seligman’s book “Authentic Happiness” .  I am happy to suggest other areas of reading for anyone interested.

Photo:   Elenarts/Shutterstock.com

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