Do you need a reason to be happy?
Joseph O'Connor
Founder, Neuroscience Coaching Centre - Taking Coaches to the Next Level
Fascinating things, emotions.
One morning, (maybe this morning) you woke up feeling great. The weather is just…weather. Could be sunny, or raining, hot or cold. It doesn’t matter. You still feel great.
You bound down to breakfast, happy to be alive. There’s your favourite music in your mind and you may be whistling, or even singing.
Someone asks, ‘Hey, what’s the good news?’
What do you say?
It seems like you need a reason – because that would be…reasonable.
Not to have a reason would be…unreasonable, and we can’t have that.
So, while you probably answered ‘No,’ to the question at the top of the email, in practice, you probably feel ‘Yes… because (fill in the blank).’
Thought and Emotions work together, and we don’t get one without the other, but they originate in very different parts in the brain.
We pay a lot of attention to managing the so-called negative emotions, for example, anger and fear, in ourselves and others.
(Actually, there are no negative emotions, they all have an important job to do. Some feel more pleasant than others, that’s all.)
With these emotions we avoid the triggers if we can, and manage the emotion so it doesn’t cause trouble. This tends to make us overtly analytical and look for triggers for all emotions. We know our emotions can interfere with our thinking – but sometimes our thinking interferes with our emotions.
You can be happy for a reason, but you don’t need a reason to be happy.
Come and explore the more of the neuroscience of emotions and values in the free,
live webinar on Wednesday 27th April at 2 p.m. UK time?
Register here: https://www.coachingthebrain.org/values-webinar/?