Changing The Way We See Life To Take Care Of Ourselves

We think that happiness comes suddenly, as if it didn’t depend on us. Happiness, however, like the body, must be trained. We take care of ourselves physically, doing sports or eating healthy, but little from a mental point of view. Training the brain is as important as training the body. Our way of seeing life is undoubtedly the best tool to take care of ourselves.

If we see life as something external to us, it means that we are putting our well-being in the hands of luck or chance. This point of view goes further, it seems that we can be happy or feel good only based on the moments of joy that life offers, as if we were not able to build them ourselves.

Thoughts are what ultimately lead us to have a balanced lifestyle or not. The thoughts that alter the rhythm of our life are the ones we need to train in order to control them, just as we train the body by going out for a run. Thoughts form our habits, our character, therefore, if we want to take care of ourselves mentally, we begin to devote ourselves to our thoughts.

Consumerism has sold us the idea that to be happy we must have a house with the latest furniture, a new car and a beautiful body. According to psychotherapist Russ Harris, if we reach external goals or goals, we will be happy, but for a short period of time.

A life based on personal values, on the other hand, offers us a broader look at reality. In this way, we will not only enjoy the goals, but also everything that goes with them. We talk about values ​​such as gratitude, adventure, fun or curiosity. Let’s talk about taking care of ourselves.

Neurotransmitters and happiness

When we think, our brain segregates certain chemicals, called neurotransmitters, which are responsible for activating or inhibiting our moods. Neurotransmitters are thinking for our system to function in a healthy and balanced way. If we think properly, the brain will secrete a certain type of neurotransmitters; if we think in a negative and not very adaptive way, the brain will secrete another type of substances or even the same ones, but in different proportions.

If we close our eyes and draw the profile of someone we love, our brain segregates dopamine, oxytocin, etc. Our body will feel love and this chemistry will keep cells healthy. But if we think of something that gives us anxiety, then the brain secretes stress hormones.

Thought creates a habit and this habit activates the substances that make us happy or sad. If our thoughts are automatic or irrational, we will get used to activating a certain neurotransmitter and eventually the process will be automatic. This happens every day, in fact many times we activate the neurotransmitter that does not correspond to the situation in which we find ourselves.

For example, if we are experiencing a negative situation, proper thinking will make us feel sad, producing a drop in serotonin in our brain. The irrational aspect would be to have happy thoughts in sad situations, since the serotonin level would rise and arouse cheerfulness in the wrong context.

The same goes for situations where adaptive thoughts are supposed to be cheerful. By having the automatic habit of secreting sadness hormones, we will feel sad even if we receive good news. You can’t always be happy, but even then you can be happy.

Happiness is a much broader concept than happiness. It means finding a path and giving meaning to one’s life. Being happy is a way to take care of the brain, to keep it active, balanced, to keep its cells healthy.

Taking care of yourself with thoughts

People use common processes when they process the information with which they form their thoughts. Numerous scientific researches have shown that human beings, when they think, make a series of mistakes or biases that they are not aware of. These biases prevent us from analyzing the information from a correct and balanced perspective.

Wrong and distorted thoughts cause us to come into conflict with ourselves, with others and with society in general. This raises the levels of GABA, the stress neurotransmitter, which makes us negative, suspicious and irritable. For this not to happen, a good idea is to train the brain to think correctly, with exact, rational judgments, using all the information available.

Taking care of ourselves, paying attention to what we think and how we think is the true path to happiness, in fact if we think correctly, without being carried away by distortions, our brain will secrete hormones and neurotransmitters that will lead us to well-being. Serotonin, noradrenaline and oxytocin are the “responsible” for our happiness. The only way to raise its levels naturally is to take care of our thoughts.