Faked a smile; Genuine happiness arrived.

This is a phenomenon that is completely real. I’m not sure what it says about our brains, though. I mean… the part of your brain that was unhappy was at the meeting wherein the other part of your brain announced that everyone was going to not only ignore the unhappy part, but actively work against it. In short order, with no other changes, the unhappy part of the brain changes its mind and joins everyone in happiness.

It makes sense that the part of our brains wherein reason resides should govern the part wherein emotions dwell. That said, we live in a culture wherein nearly everyone makes their own feelings of paramount importance. What if doing that is exactly the wrong approach to living a happy life and maintaining a happy society?

via psychiatry.org

Rumination involves repetitive thinking or dwelling on negative feelings and distress and their causes and consequences. The repetitive, negative aspect of rumination can contribute to the development of depression or anxiety and can worsen existing conditions.

When a person who is in a depressed mood ruminates, they are more likely to “remember more negative things that happened to them in the past, they interpret situations in their current lives more negatively, and they are more hopeless about the future.”¹ The preoccupation with problems also makes it difficult to move beyond to allow for a focus on problem solving. Even in people without depression or anxiety, rumination can contribute to negative emotions. This can become a cycle where the more a person ruminates, the worse they feel, which then contributes to more rumination.²

A study in the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom looked at the connections between a person’s circumstances and past experiences and development of depression and anxiety. Researchers, led by Peter Kinderman, Ph.D., found that the most important way that a person’s past experiences, such as traumatic life events, led to depression or anxiety was “by leading a person to ruminate and blame themselves for the problem.”³ “Depression and anxiety are not simple conditions and there is no single cause,” Kinderman noted in a statement. “Whilst we can’t change a person’s family history or their life experiences, it is possible to help a person to change the way they think and to teach them positive coping strategies that can mitigate and reduce stress levels.”