Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume - 3, issue 12, I June 2019 | Page 23

Interestingly, if they are forced to exercise, they don’t get the same benefits,
because without choice, the exercise itself is a source of stress.
So make more decisions. Neuroscience researcher Alex Korb sums it up
nicely
We don’t just choose the things we like; we also like the things we
choose.
Okay, you’re being grateful, labelling negative emotions and making more
decisions. Great. But this is feeling kinda lonely for a happiness prescription.
Let’s get some other people in here.
What’s something you can do with others that neuroscience says is a path to
mucho happiness? And something that’s stupidly simple so you don’t get lazy
and skip it? Brain docs have an answer for you…
4) Touch People
No, not indiscriminately; that can get you in a lot of trouble.
But we need to feel love and acceptance from others. When we don’t it’s
painful. And I don’t mean “awkward” or “disappointing.” I mean
actually painful.
Neuroscientists did a study where people played a ball-tossing video game.
The other players tossed the ball to you and you tossed it back to them.
Actually, there were no other players; that was all done by the computer
program.
But the subjects were told the characters were controlled by real people. So
what happened when the “other players” stopped playing nice and didn’t
share the ball?
Subjects’ brains responded the same way as if they experienced physical
pain. Rejection doesn’t just hurt like a broken heart; your brain feels  it
like a broken leg.
In fact, as demonstrated in an fMRI experiment, social exclusion activates the
same circuitry as physical pain… at one point they stopped sharing, only
throwing back and forth to each other, ignoring the participant. This small
change was enough to elicit feelings of social exclusion, and it activated the
anterior cingulate and insula, just like physical pain would.
Relationships are very important to your brain’s feeling of happiness. Want to
take that to the next level? Touch people.
One of the primary ways to release oxytocin is through touching. Obviously,
it’s not always appropriate to touch most people, but small touches like
handshakes and pats on the back are usually okay. For people you’re close
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