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Don't worry, be happy

Every now and again I receive a bunch of books from publishers and mostly they get relegated to our little library, but one caught my attention this week: Hardwiring Happiness by neuropsychologist Rick Hanson (Random House Struik).

I firmly believe the increase in drug use – both recreational and prescription – is an indication of how desperate we are to be happy. Turns out it’s not only the increased demands on us, along with stresses, both professional and personal, that’s to blame – it’s our ancestors as well. 

Dr Hanson says that, thousands of years ago, our struggle to survive meant our ancestors learned primarily from their negative experiences which created permanent (but not unchangeable) negatively wired neural pathways in our brains.

This negativity bias is "like Velcro for bad experiences but Teflon for good ones", meaning basically that we discard good experiences and dwell on bad ones.

His book, based on neuroscience research, teaches you how to replace negative pathways with positive ones by "dwelling" on the good. It can be as simple as relishing the cozy feeling of a favourite sweater, pleasure in a cup of coffee or the satisfaction after finishing a task.

By doing this daily you change a negatively hardwired brain to a positive one, and the reward is a life full of confidence, ease, comfort, self-worth and feeling cared about. Who doesn't want that!

This, in turn, makes you better equipped to manage challenging areas such as parenting, procrastination, healing trauma, work conflict and transforming relationships.

A good friend of mine always responds to my excessive worrying with the words "Laura, it’s only thinking that makes it so", and his words are finally making sense, even if he doesn't understand the ancestral fight-or-flight link himself.

Focusing on other news, it seems we've hit a nerve with our article on the new product: Quorn. It's produced entirely from mycoprotein, a type of fungus, and extremely high in protein, which makes it a hit with vegetarians.

It has, however, also received a bad rap for causing allergic reactions in some, while others are questioning the logic of creating "faux" food in factories when there are so many natural options available. Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments.

Have a great week and start hardwiring that happiness!

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