Change Your Life: Living Skillfully

It’s an old joke. A man hurrying along a New York street asks a passing musician, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?”

The musician replies, “Practice, man. Practice.”

photo credit: t_a_i_s

But Carnegie Hall isn’t the only destination that can be reached by practice. Regular practice can take us in the direction of our dreams.

I say this because more and more evidence is emerging that what have long been thought of as “traits” or “set points”, psychological capabilities that exist at a stable level for each person, may actually be changeable through regular practice. This includes desirable qualities like happiness, empathy and gratitude.

The idea behind this is neuroplasticity, the relatively recent realization that adult brains continue to adapt and change. I’ve mentioned several times before Sharon Begley’s book Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, which is all about this concept. In particular, it’s about the meeting of neuroscience and Buddhist meditation practice and what they have learned from each other.

What we see in studies of meditators is that their brains change, far beyond what used to be thought possible, and that the more experienced they are – the more they have practiced, in other words – the greater the measurable change. Both the structure and the function of the brain are changed by long-term, regular meditation. And according to a couple of recent pieces of research, meditation isn’t the only practice that does that.

photo credit: maHidoodi

In “Getting off the hedonic treadmill, one step at a time: The impact of regular religious practice and exercise on well-being“, Daniel Mochon and colleagues write about the cumulative effect of small boosts to happiness through regular practice, and how this can change the “base level” of happiness that we experience. Happiness is relatively stable over the long term, with major triumphs having little permanent impact (though major tragedies apparently can degrade our base happiness level). What Mochon et al. found, though, as they report in the Journal of Economic Psychology, is that regular practices such as attending religious services, yoga or exercise have a cumulative positive effect on wellbeing.

And linking into the American Thanksgiving holiday, Brain Blogger reports on studies of gratitude, an attitude associated with wellbeing, positive feelings, and helping others. Brain Blogger contributor Jennifer Gibson writes:

A leading professor of psychology, Robert Emmons, published a book last year outlining 10 tips for increasing feelings of gratitude. He found, through years of research, that people who regularly practiced gratitude exercised regularly, complained of fewer illnesses, and reported better overall well-being and quality of life. His research is consistent across all populations, including age groups, health conditions, and socioeconomic status.

Emmons’s most important suggestion is maintaining a daily gratitude journal…

photo credit: Paul Worthington

And there is the “practice” part. Whether it’s maintaining a gratitude journal, looking after your body with exercise or your soul with regular religious practice, or practicing mindfulness or compassion meditation, a regular practice will change you. Of course, a daily practice of complaining, eating poorly, being sedentary, being angry, or avoiding addressing your issues will change you too. There’s a very famous story of an old Native American who talked about the two dogs that fought within him constantly, the black dog which was his worst impulses and the white dog which was his best impulses. He was asked, “And which one tends to win?”

“The one I feed,” he answered.

photo credit: .Baz

I struggle with maintaining a regular practice myself sometimes, which is largely why I created a self-hypnosis script for it. (I sell it in my webshop, in the Transformation Skills 2 series, and it’s also on the CD accompanying my forthcoming book, Changing Health Behaviours.) But if you already have a regular practice, or have been thinking about starting one, be encouraged by the research which indicates that you’ll be strengthening your capacity to be your best self.

Technorati Tags: self-improvement, practice, regular, traits, psychology, setpoint, neuroplasticity, happiness, training, brain, mind, change, personal change, journalling, meditation, gratitude, thankfulness, wellbeing

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