Happiness is in your left hemisphere

The true home of our feelings and emotions does not sit in the heart, but in the brain. What’s more, as recent studies reveal to us, a good part of your happiness is in the left hemisphere. Thus, whenever we feel enthusiastic, full of energy, positivity and hope, the area that presents greatest neuroactivity is precisely the left prefrontal cortex.

By itself, the topic is still interesting. Daniel Goleman talked about it in an article in the New York Times and explained, for example, how in recent years neuroscience, psychology, Buddhism and spirituality were joining forces to find answers from seemingly distant disciplines.

It is known that in May 2000 a meeting that was as productive as it was gratifying took place. The Dalai Lama met with the best neurologists and psychologists of the moment with a purpose. With a high and practical goal: to know how Buddhism handles negative emotions, to know what happens in the brain of a person accustomed to practicing meditation and using (apparently) a mental approach based on kindness, altruism and the happiness.

That meeting lasted five days, in a remote setting in Dharamsala, India. The truth is that it was very fruitful for one of those scientists. Dr. Richard Davidson, director of the Affective Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, and author of books such as The emotional profile of your brain, He left there with a working hypothesis.

Happiness is in your left hemisphere

Dr. Richardson is famous for his research in affective neuroscience. After years of work and analysis in his laboratory at the University of Wisconsin, he repeats in his lectures a phrase, the same comment: the basis of a healthy brain is kindness. Today, he also presides over the Healthy Minds Research Center at the same university and it is also common that every so often we are surprised with a new revelation.

For example, in 2008, when one of his studies focused on demonstrating the relationship between neuroplasticity and meditation techniques. That is, those people accustomed to carrying out this practice for a good part of their lives (it is not enough to start meditation from one day to the next) have greater electrical activity, a greater ability to concentrate, learn and generate new neural connections. .

On the other hand, if we refer to his book The Emotional Life of Your Brain from 2012, we found one of his most interesting theories. The one that simply tells us that happiness is in your left hemisphere of the brain. Let’s see more data about this idea.

The frontal lobes and our emotions

Throughout our evolution as a species, that mass of one billion neurons located inside our skull has become more specialized. Thus, saying that happiness is in your left hemisphere is nothing more than a way of expressing how and in what way our positive emotions have also developed over time.

For example, Not long ago the idea was assumed that this entire universe of feelings and emotions was housed in that most primitive area of ​​our inner brain, the same one that in its day received the “reptilian” label. It is in this area where, in fact, those older structures such as the limbic system are located, responsible for regulating all these emotional processes. However, it has been more than thirty years since neuroscience made another discovery. We already know that emotions do not remain exclusively in that deep cavern of the brain that is the limbic system.. In fact, this structure is directly connected to the frontal lobes (involved in more complex thinking such as executive functions).

Distress, stress and anxiety are in the right hemisphere

Dr. Richard Davidson already started from this base. That is, he already knew the relationship between the limbic system and the frontal lobes. However, after a few years of research and through MRI tests he was able to see something very striking:

Functional images revealed that When we feel distressed, stressed or depressed, the most active areas of the brain are the circuits that converge in the amygdala, as well as in the right prefrontal cortex.This zone, the right prefrontal cortex is linked to hypervigilancesomething very common in those moments when we experience high stress.

The left hemisphere and positive emotions

Happiness is in your left hemisphere or, more specifically, in your left frontal lobe. Thus, when we feel calmer, optimistic, relaxed as well as hopeful, the right frontal lobe presents less activity, in contrast to the intense neuronal activity of the left area.

It is a striking fact, a reality that neuroscience considers valid and that can undoubtedly serve us to carry out some reflection.

If happiness is in your left hemisphere, how can I stimulate this area?

Dr. Davidson points out that to modify the activity of our brain, the best thing is to improve our thoughts, our mental activity. This It is something that therapeutic approaches such as cognitive-behavioral therapy support, a framework that is more than ideal for treating depression, anxiety, phobias, stress, etc.

Likewise, if happiness is in your left hemisphere and you want to “silence” this hyperactivity in the right brain lobe area, it is advisable to practice the following dimensions:

Meditation. Kindness. Altruism.Dedicate time to rest.Cultivate friendship.Have a goal, motivation.Be enthusiastic.Be positive, believe in hope.

To conclude, regardless of where a certain process, quality or competence is located, there is an aspect that we cannot leave aside. It is we who can modify and optimize our brain processes. We who have the obligation to move through that more relaxed, open and flexible line of life where we can establish the authentic neurological foundations of happiness.

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