Being angry all the time (kinda makes you stupid)
I’m not sure at what point being happy or optimistic became synonymous with being stupid or naive, but the whole thing is so fucking backwards it hurts. If you want to know how COVID got so politicized, or why our country feels like it’s on the brink of civil war-look no further than anger and the social media that perpetuates it. Put simply, we’re not using our fucking brains.
People who are perpetually angry love to say things like “if you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.” And while it’s true-there is a lot of fucked up shit going on these days, sitting around and being angry all the time isn’t helping-in fact it’s making everything so much worse.
When we’re angry we operate from our lizard brain, the cavemanic fight or flight mode that was needed when we were dodging fucking wild animals to survive. These days though, our biggest threat is humanity and the only reason it actually is a threat is because we are angry, afraid, and kind of stupid. To make matters worse, we’re all way too stubborn to admit that we don’t actually know shit. Social media makes us feel like we do, it plays into the caveman brain.
From a spiritual perspective we say that you become what you think about, so we must be careful to think happy, positive thoughts-even when the world around us seems to suggest we should do otherwise. Thankfully though, there’s science to back this shit up. The rapidly growing fields of neuroplasticity and positive psychology are showing us a few things. First, it’s possible to change the structure of our brain. We can form or reorganize synaptic connections, we can rewire our brains to see things differently. This means if we’re always pissed off, our brain gets wired to be efficiently pissed off. If instead we try to be happy, our brain gets rewired to be efficiently happy.
The other thing we’re learning is that being happy, does in fact make you more intelligent. Study after study shows that we are better problem solvers when we are in a good mood. It’s the ability to work on our thoughts and emotions that separates us from our caveman ancestors. It’s evolution. There was a time when being dumb and angry kept us from being eaten alive. Now being dumb and angry is the thing that eats us. Knock that shit off. If you’d like to know more about neuroplasticity I’d highly recommend reading The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Anchor. If you’re reading this blog, I’m assuming you can read. Generally speaking, we should probably read more books and less newsfeeds.
Anywho…I’m off to work on my happiness for the day. I hope that you will put some serious time and effort into your happiness as well. It’s not selfish, it’s the prerequisite for making positive change in the world. Remember, being happy doesn’t make you naive or stupid-being constantly angry however, probably makes you dumb. Let’s be happy, and smart.
xoxo