Happiness

 Book Chapter Review

Book Title : The Willpower Instinct

Book Chapter: The Brain's Big Lie: Why We Mistake Wanting for happiness

Nowadays, most of the people think that life is unfair. Although we have put so much effort, we can’t get back our expected return. Results is not what we expected.  We work so hard because we want to have a good life. We set our life goal high such as high income, buy luxury car and the list goes on. It is undeniable that money is important for us to have a good quality of life. However, have you trying to slow down your pace and think are you happy? Give yourself 5 minutes and think about it. Happiness is the element of successful life.  Happiness is amazingly simple. Today I am going to share with you how to make yourself happy and become better of self-control.

Brain is designed to crave for happiness naturally. We receive the information easily from this digital world. We receive it from our sensory organ. When we observe a picture such as delicious food, beautiful lady poster and luxury item, our brain will release dopamine and trigger our reward system. We will start to seek for item or action to made us happy. It compels you to seek satisfaction. When you go shopping, we can observe a lot of beautiful sexy girl models outside the clothing store. When you observe it, you will trigger you to go into the store because it is irresistible! Your brain will direct you there because of dopamine-rush. At that moment, please pay attention and be mindful at that moment. Try to identify your wants and choose the item carefully. It can help you to avoid the disruption of dopamine on your judgement. 

Dopamine release is a natural behavior brain. It makes to seek for happiness. you can get the reward easily after you have completed the action. For example, you feel satisfied after you get high score in a game. However, if you fail to achieve a score you want? you will keep trying until we get a high score. There is bad side of dopamine because it can lead to addiction. Some people can stop playing but some people keep playing until they get the high score. It is out of control behavior and it may affect their life.   

We need to use our dopamine wisely. It can help us to begin difficult task. Most of us procrastinate the difficult task.  You can use the power of dopamine to motivate you to start the first step. For example, there is two weeks left for exam and you want to motivate yourself to start study. You can put a holiday destination picture in front of you to motivate you study because you are going there after exam is finished!  You can also go to quiet and nice café to kick start your revision plan. This is because you feel satisfied after you are feeling relaxed and happy there.  

 

Dopamine-release is just a hormone. It can help you to success in life or it may bring negative consequences into your life. It depends on how you are going to use it. Everyone of us has different level of satisfaction. There is one way to measure it. Firstly, allow yourself to indulge in certain action such as watching movie. Indulge it mindfully. Is it meet your expectation? Some people can satisfy easily when they receive reward. Some people are unsatisfied and realize that there is huge gap between expectation and reality. Exercise it regularly and you can adjust your expectation and made you seek happiness easily and get better self-control.

Self-control is essential in our life. Happiness is simple. You just need find a own way and smart way to experience it. It is a long journey. Take your time to seek for own happiness!