If you could have been in my NYU mental health for musicians’ class a few weeks back, you would have heard a vociferous answer to my question:  “what is the brain good for?”  They roared:  Safety.  And, indeed it is.  But we can’t expect to wake up in the morning happy – that is not its job.  What it is not good for is making us happy unless we train it.

That’s done by creating small micropractices.  To become more compassionate, when you walk past a few complete strangers each day, just say to yourself “I wish you well”.  To become happier requires more gratitude.  For that, think of three people you are grateful for each day and before getting distracted or hopelessly busy, close your eyes, see their face one at a time and say to yourself why you are grateful for them.  These are only a few of the micropractices that we can create to get our brains helping us attain happiness, gratitude and compassion.

Our brains are smarter when we teach them what we need.

If this resonates with you, pass it along