Smile Power VS Anxiety Depression & Misery

The power to control our happiness lies entirely within our ability to choose what we focus on, not in external circumstances or other people's actions. We can rewire our brains away from judgment and negativity toward appreciation and joy through deliberate, consistent practice.

• Our emotional states determine how we perceive the world around us
• Research shows smiling activates brain patterns associated with ease and happiness
• Positive emotional states improve cognitive function, problem-solving, and relationships
• Happiness correlates with better health outcomes and longer life expectancy
• We've been trained by society to focus on judgment, disagreement, and negativity
• The brain builds strong neural pathways to misery through years of practice
• Happiness requires redirecting attention to what brings joy, beauty, and interest
• Building new neural pathways requires consistent practice and persistence
• You alone control your focus and therefore your emotional state

Focus your attention on aspects of life that naturally elevate your state, and practice this daily until it becomes your new default.

https://capitaldistrictneurofeedback.com/conditions-treated/depression/

Follow us on Socials:  Facebook - Instagram - X - Contact Dr. Randy Cale at https://capitaldistrictneurofeedback.com  -  Where We Are: Map -  

Chapters

• 0:00 Louis Armstrong's Profound Message
• 2:27 The Power of State Management
• 4:56 The Choice to Focus on Joy
• 7:42 Breaking Habits of Judgment
• 9:59 Practice Your Way to Happiness

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:33

Do you hear Dr Louis Armstrong in the background? I think he's got an important message for us here today, and it's one that goes much deeper than it appears. So what does Louis say? Louis says when you're smiling right, you're smiling what happens? The whole world smiles with you. Okay, that might seem a little hokey, but there's a deep truth to what Louie's offering us here and I want to make that point very clear. If you've ever walked out into the world, I know you have.

Speaker 1: 1:20

All of us have right, and we're being a grump on that particular day, we notice the whole world seems to be grumpy. When we bring sadness or we bring anger or frustration, what happens? We get it back, we get it back, we get it. It sort of multiplies. What happens, we get it back, we get it back, we get it. It sort of multiplies. In a sense, we can only find in this world what we're perceptually ready to see or experience in that moment, and that's going to be dictated by the state that we're in, the emotional state that we're in. So when we're smiling, when we're genuinely smiling, the world smiles with us, and we have good data to support that. It comes from so many different areas. So of course you may have read that research. When we smile, we activate certain muscles and we have to employ certain neuronal activity in the brain that has to do with more ease and happiness. It's just the way it works. We also know that when we're smiling, when we're genuinely happy and we know this from the neurofeedback literature, we know this from psychological studies over the years that inevitably our brain works better when we're in a better state. We think better, we focus better, we remember better, we have better relationships, we see the world in lighter ways and we have understanding, we have insights, we solve problems better. And we also get another benefit. It's another way the world smiles with you when you're smiling, that is, we live longer, we're not as susceptible to illnesses and disease, we have better long-term relationships, we stay in marriages longer, we stay in our jobs and find more fulfillment. We enjoy our community and our neighborhood more and more. So all these benefits come to us when we smile genuinely, smile at the world.

Speaker 1: 3:18

Now, what does it take to genuinely smile? Well, we know what it takes to genuinely frown find frustration, find anger, judgment. We simply look at something and we disagree with the way. It is Pretty much. That's simple, right. This brain has an opinion that you shouldn't be that way, or that person shouldn't be that way, or they shouldn't have mowed their grass that way, or they shouldn't have passed that policy. Or this person shouldn't be in government, or that person shouldn't be in government, or it's endless. Turn on your TV, pick up the phone, it's endless, right. So all it takes is a judgment that I disagree with what is, with what is happening, and I can find misery pretty quickly.

Speaker 1: 4:04

And guess what? Most of us are pretty well trained to do that. It's habitual. Our parents, teachers, now the media, just about everything that you're exposed to, encourages a perspective of disagreement, talking about a discussion of something we don't like and a perpetuation of that theme, which equals misery, misery, misery. So we know how to do misery, we know how to do it well.

Speaker 1: 4:38

Misery, misery. So we know how to do misery. We know how to do it well. We practice that a lot and we can move into states of anxiety because we can have fear and we practice fearful thoughts long enough, we can become depressed and then really depressed.

Speaker 1: 4:50

So it's interesting because the meaning behind Louis Armstrong's song smile and the whole world smiles with you has this profound depth, because it's really about if you recognize that you actually do have control over your smile. You control it. Nobody else controls it. You cannot blame your husband, your wife, your kids, your neighbor, your mom, your dad, the government what do you see on TV? You cannot blame anything for taking away your mojo, your smile, your happiness. So once you recognize the opposite side of that, which is you have the power, you have the power. You have the power to choose to smile, and the genuine smile comes from recognizing that you can choose what you focus on in the world.

Speaker 1: 5:46

Now, if I focus on something that inherently makes me miserable and I'm going to be miserable and, trust me, I'm not encouraging you to look at something that makes you miserable and try to find a way that makes you happy. Don't do that. It won't work. It just doesn't work. A lot of therapy tries to do that. It's a very, very, very tough mountain to climb.

Speaker 1: 6:11

Instead, elevate your state. It's all about state management. So, if you can elevate your state by changing what you focus on and focus on the things that you appreciate, focus on the things that you enjoy, focus on what makes you laugh, what makes you smile, focus on if you have memories that make you smile, focus on those, but mostly look at it the world, see this amazing, beautiful world. Listen to the sounds that make you smile, look at the sights that make you smile, put your feet on the planet, feel the pulse of the earth and and let it inform you, so to speak, of the state that you deserve the state of happiness, the state of joy, the state of appreciation. So I'm covering lots of points here, but all in service of one primary idea, and that is that you can choose what you focus on.

Speaker 1: 7:04

Don't give that power up to anyone, anything, something that's happened in the past or something you fear in the future. This moment, the only moment you can control, and in this moment, instead of letting your brain do what it was likely habitually trained to do from parents, teachers, society, media to judge and to feel that there's something you disagree with, your brains gonna do this, by the way, it's what it's just natural. So you can't look at what you don't want, remember you look at what you enjoy, what you appreciate, what you're interested in. You can even think about what you do want, what you're excited about, and then let that smile emerge, practice it. Think about the number of hours, the number of days, the number of years that you have practiced judgment, disagreement, frustration, railing against what you don't want, don't like, disagree with. Things should be different, things should have been different, things will be different, but it's not Any of these ideas. They've been practiced over and over. You have these neural pathways that are like 20-lane paved highways in your brain, to misery for some of you, right. So if we're going to carve a path in the jungle and turn this into a highway, we've got to practice. We've got to go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and that's your job.

Speaker 1: 8:37

Your goal is to practice looking at what makes you smile, what makes you feel good. Where do you see love? Where do you see beauty? Where do you see interest? What kinds of movements do you like to dance? Do you like to walk? Do you like to play a sport? What will make you feel good and do more of that? Focus on that, use the power of your attention to focus on the aspects of life and practice it, practice it, practice it, practice it, practice it.

Speaker 1: 9:07

If you practice for five years or 10 years or 20 years, judging in ways that bring misery, anxiety, upset, frustration, whatever version, well, you don't really need 20 years to undo that, but you will need a bit of time, and so practice is required. So Louis Armstrong might be a good way to begin to practice, right. So listen to Louis and then begin to look at the world in ways to find what makes you smile, and if the cynic arises inside of you, that's fine. You can succumb to the cynic, because that cynic's judging this just like it's judged everything else and misery awaits. No problem if that's what you want, but if you want to smile and have this whole world smile with you, then access the power of your attention. Focus on what makes you smile, where you find beauty, where you find interest and spend your time there. You will feel better. This I know. Take care.