Our way of seeing life is the best way to take care of ourselves

We think that happiness is something that will come to us suddenly, as if it did not depend on ourselves. But happiness, like our body, must be trained. We take great care of ourselves physically, playing sports, eating healthy, but very little mentally. Training our brain should be just as important as training our body. Our way of seeing life is without a doubt the best way to take care of ourselves.

If we see our life as something external to us, we will be leaving our well-being in the hands of luck or chance. This point of view is very widespread, it seems as if we can only be happy or enjoy situations in the moments of joy that life brings, as if we were not capable of making them ourselves.

Thoughts are what ultimately lead us to have a balanced or unbalanced life.. The thoughts that unbalance us are what we have to train to be able to have control over them, in the same way that the body is trained to go for a run. It is thoughts that form our habits, our character and therefore, If we want to take care of ourselves mentally, let’s start taking care of what we think.

The consumerist society has sold us the idea that to be happy we must have a house decorated with the latest trends, a new car and the best body in the pool. According to psychotherapist Russ Harris, it is true that if we obtain external objectives or goals we will feel happy but for a short period of time.

Instead, A life focused on personal values ​​offers us a broader view of reality. In this way we not only enjoy the objectives, but also what accompanies them. We talk about values ​​such as gratitude, adventure, fun or curiosity. We talk about taking care of ourselves.

Neurotransmitters and happiness

When we think, our brain secretes chemical substances, called neurotransmitters, which are responsible for activating or inhibiting moods. Neurotransmitters are designed to keep our system functioning healthy and in balance. If we think in an appropriate way, the brain will secrete a specific type of neurotransmitters; If we think in a poorly adaptive way, the brain will secrete other types of substances or the same ones in different proportions.

If we close our eyes and draw the profile of someone we love, our brain secretes dopamine, oxytocin, etc. What our body will feel will be love, and that chemistry brings health to the cells. But if we think about something that causes us anxiety, we will secrete stress hormones.

By thinking we create a habit, and that 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 we will end up doing it automatically. This happens to us every day, in fact we often activate the neurotransmitter that does not fit the situation in which we find ourselves.

For example, if we are in a negative situation, the right thought will make us feel sad, producing a drop in serotonin in our brain. The irrational thing would be to have happy thoughts in sad situations since serotonin would rise and produce a state of joy in the wrong context.

The same is true in situations where adaptive thoughts should be happy. By having the automatic habit of secreting sadness hormones, we will feel sad even if we are receiving good news. You can’t always be happy, but you can still be happy.

The happiness It is a broader concept than joy. It encompasses finding a path and meaning in our lives. Being happy is a way to take care of our brain, to keep it active, balanced and to keep its cells healthy.

Take care of ourselves thinking

People use common processes when processing the information with which we form our thoughts. Numerous Scientific research has found that humans, when thinking, tend to make a series of mistakes or biases of which we are not aware. These biases prevent us from analyzing information from a correct and balanced perspective.

Biased and distorted thoughts cause us to enter into conflict with ourselves, with others and with society in general. This increases the levels of gaba, a stress neurotransmitter, making us more negative, suspicious and irritable. To prevent this from happening, a good idea is always to train our brain to think correctly, with exact, rational judgments and using all the information available.

Taking care of ourselves, paying attention to what we think and how we think about it is the royal path to happiness, since if we think correctly without getting carried away by distortions, we will secrete in our brain a series of hormones and neurotransmitters that will lead us to well-being. Serotonin, norepinephrine and oxytocin are the “culprits” of our happiness. The only way we can secrete them naturally is by taking care of our thoughts.

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