This video is a Tedx talk by Mithu Storoni about happiness and how to be able to find pleasure in the smallest things in life. Storoni says that we think of happiness as cause and effect, and that happiness is never a consequence of an event but rather the experience of an event. She described a study done on mice by putting a happy mouse in a cage with a grumpy mouse, but over time, the happy mouse loses its ability to feel happiness. The video also talks about how brains have the ability to regrow by giving it the right nutrition, and showing your brain challenged and novelty.
I think the most interesting part of this talk was when Storoni said that after weeks of the happy mouse being around the grumpy mouse, its brain actually got smaller. The idea that without happiness and pleasure our brain actually decreases in size is something that I would like to look into further. I also like the fact that even though it is possible for both a mouse and human brain to regrow after it shrinks from unhappiness. I think the idea of being able to grow your happiness is inspirational.
An article related to this post is on theguardian.com titled Chronic depression shrinks brain’s memories and emotions. The article reinforces everything that was mentioned in the Ted Talk, including the idea that the “damage” to your brain after depression can be reversed. The article says “the hippocampus is one of the unique areas of the brain that rapidly generates new connections between cells, and what are lost here are connections between cells rather than the cells themselves”.
Nicole Laing
Yoga Spring 2020
(Wednesdays 8:30-11:50 am)
In this ted talk Mithu Storoni discussion how the brain can grow and shrink based on the amount of happiness felt. She used the example of a study using mouse brains but expressed that these results can happen in human brains as well. She also said the people put in disguises to fit in with society expectations. The same way she discussed happiness causing a positive reaction, Storoni also discussed stress having a negative reaction on the brain.
Storoni’s image of the rational and emotional parts of the brain being in a fight of tug of war really struck a chord with me. As that’s an analogy that I’ve been using to explain my anxiety and it’s symptoms to my parents and relatives. One of the things Storoni talking about was the concept of our inner child, who need to be given care in order to achieve the goal of happiness, this is a concept that I like to think about a lot and portray in my artwork.
Happiness is the key to sustaining life. If we are not happy/trying to find things that make us happy, then we are doing it wrong. Obviously, we all go through phases where happiness is hard to come by, especially in difficult times like this, but its the effort that counts and in the end will prevail.
I find her analogy of the our brains being like plants to be spot on. Before this analogy, Storoni talks about how when we are under stress, our synapses don’t fire causing us less happiness, minimal to no growth of brain cells which can cause us to be in a rut. However, we will always get through it with time. She demonstrates this with her plant analogy. If a tree falls and squishes the plant (stress), that will definitely hurt the plant. However, one episode of stress will not damage the plant forever, just like our brains. Just like the plant, our brains will bounce back from stress.
It is so important to remember this during this trying time. Everything is stressful but its important to find the little things that bring us joy as well as remembering that good times are ahead.
In this video, there is a study that can’t be done on humans, but can be done with mice. The happy mouse will eventually stop feeling happiness and pleasure. The mouses brain shrunk, and this can happen in humans too when happiness is no longer present. The hippocampus makes the rational decisions. The emotional part of the brain which is the amygdala is trying to play a tug of war with the rational side of the brain and if the amygdala takes over, everything you feel and see has a more negative perception.
Chronic/intense stress stops formation of brain cells. The stress put on the mouse in this study caused the mouses brain to shrink, but when you subject the mouse to a non-stressful situation, the mouses brain will start to grow. Exercise has been shown to start helping the brain form synapses.
I found this video really really interesting, and it made sense how it connects to class because the studies show that meditation makes happier people.
I found this video very easy to follow and I think that the scientist made things very easily broken down and related the studies in the mice to everyday scenarios that us humans go through each day, especially students being stressed out the majority of the time, it helped me realize why i feel a certain way sometimes and how there is such an emphasis for us to decide that we can just put things into a different perspective and it can change everything.
In this TED Talk, Mithy Storoni explains how to ‘grow’ happy. She explains that happiness does not come from the events themselves but from our experience and interpretation, there is often the battling rational and positive interpretation and emotional, negative interpretation. We see happiness as optimism and deriving joy and pleasure from the tiniest things in life, but often it feels like we cannot control these thought processes. Storoni explains a study done with mice to show how we can ‘grow’ happy. When the mice are under high social stress, their brain shrinks and looses synapses. There is a tug of war between the emotional and rational brains and when the emotional side wins, is when we see negative outputs.
Storoni then makes the connection that we can grow our brains much like how you grow a plant. One factor of growing the brain is through nurturing the brain with rest, nutrition, and exercise. It is also important to challenge the brain which causes us to rise to the occasion as well as exposing ourselves to new environments. Both of these causes the brain to form new synapses, which will not shrink when placed under stressful situations. Lastly is attention, Storoni mentions the DMN, which is essentially your brain creating your autobiography but it can not differentiate emotional and rational perception. When you take control over your story, you are able to create fewer negative chapters. As humans, we have a urgent need to belong and fit in as well as staying true to our individuality. This creates great conflict because by living in accordance to outside influence will halt one’s personal growth, leading them to feel unhappy. In order to grow, you need to continue challenging and pushing yourself and understanding that you have complete control over making your story a happy one.
In this video, neuroscientist Mithu Storoni discusses the complexities of happiness. She first states that happiness arises from the experience of an event rather than being the direct cause of that event. She then goes on to discuss the science behind happiness and unhappiness by calling attention to a perpetual tug-of-war that is always raging on between the “rational brain”, consisting of the pre-frontal cortex and hippocampus, and the “emotional brain”, which consists of the amygdala. The emotional side of the brain is always trying to pull us into negativity and anxieties, and if this side happens to be winning that tug-of-war, one will experience everything in an unhappy light. Storoni then goes on to compare our brains to plants, in that they both require the proper nurturing and the presence of enriched environments, which involve sufficient challenges and novelties that promote growth. In order to grow, brains must also become familiarized with bestowing their attention on challenges and rational things, rather than emotional things. Connecting all of this back to happiness, we must constantly give ourselves the chance to grow in order to see our lives as happy ones.
I’m a little bit on the fence about this video, as I feel like Storoni didn’t form a super clear argument and seemed to kind of go all over the place. Also, I think it’s important to note that her strategies for being happier can only apply to people who do not suffer from mental illnesses, which often greatly affect the way people process things. However, the part that did resonate with me was the discussion about the rational vs emotional brains, as I feel like I use a similar metaphor of a tug-of-war when thinking about my own happiness. It’s always been very helpful for me to separate my thought process into logical ones versus emotional ones because then I have an easier time trying to dismantle any negative emotional thoughts.
(https://medium.com/personal-growth/your-emotional-brain-is-usually-smarter-than-your-brain-thinks-8d76db29c5f8) This source goes more in depth about the emotional and rational sides of the brain and argues that the emotional side is absolutely necessary, even though we are usually told to fight against it. Although it is undoubtedly true that being too emotional is not ideal, our actions seem to show that our emotions often take the lead, even in what we may first think of as rational decisions. The source makes an interesting metaphor about the emotional brain being the elephant and the rational brain being its rider, calling attention to the fact that even though the rider seems to be in control, the elephant can truly go wherever it wants in the end. The same is true with the emotional brain.
omlinkblog 
This video is a Tedx talk by Mithu Storoni about happiness and how to be able to find pleasure in the smallest things in life. Storoni says that we think of happiness as cause and effect, and that happiness is never a consequence of an event but rather the experience of an event. She described a study done on mice by putting a happy mouse in a cage with a grumpy mouse, but over time, the happy mouse loses its ability to feel happiness. The video also talks about how brains have the ability to regrow by giving it the right nutrition, and showing your brain challenged and novelty.
I think the most interesting part of this talk was when Storoni said that after weeks of the happy mouse being around the grumpy mouse, its brain actually got smaller. The idea that without happiness and pleasure our brain actually decreases in size is something that I would like to look into further. I also like the fact that even though it is possible for both a mouse and human brain to regrow after it shrinks from unhappiness. I think the idea of being able to grow your happiness is inspirational.
An article related to this post is on theguardian.com titled Chronic depression shrinks brain’s memories and emotions. The article reinforces everything that was mentioned in the Ted Talk, including the idea that the “damage” to your brain after depression can be reversed. The article says “the hippocampus is one of the unique areas of the brain that rapidly generates new connections between cells, and what are lost here are connections between cells rather than the cells themselves”.
Nicole Laing
Yoga Spring 2020
(Wednesdays 8:30-11:50 am)
Well written and supported essay OM ☮️
In this ted talk Mithu Storoni discussion how the brain can grow and shrink based on the amount of happiness felt. She used the example of a study using mouse brains but expressed that these results can happen in human brains as well. She also said the people put in disguises to fit in with society expectations. The same way she discussed happiness causing a positive reaction, Storoni also discussed stress having a negative reaction on the brain.
Storoni’s image of the rational and emotional parts of the brain being in a fight of tug of war really struck a chord with me. As that’s an analogy that I’ve been using to explain my anxiety and it’s symptoms to my parents and relatives. One of the things Storoni talking about was the concept of our inner child, who need to be given care in order to achieve the goal of happiness, this is a concept that I like to think about a lot and portray in my artwork.
Everything said about the brain growing and shrinking from certain experiences reminded me of how parents (including my mother when I was smaller) play classical music for their babies so that their brains develop faster or something like that.
https://www.babycenter.com/0_the-mozart-effect-classical-music-and-your-babys-brain_9308.bc
Keep nurturing your inner child Namaste 🙏🏽
Brian Halliday
Happiness is the key to sustaining life. If we are not happy/trying to find things that make us happy, then we are doing it wrong. Obviously, we all go through phases where happiness is hard to come by, especially in difficult times like this, but its the effort that counts and in the end will prevail.
I find her analogy of the our brains being like plants to be spot on. Before this analogy, Storoni talks about how when we are under stress, our synapses don’t fire causing us less happiness, minimal to no growth of brain cells which can cause us to be in a rut. However, we will always get through it with time. She demonstrates this with her plant analogy. If a tree falls and squishes the plant (stress), that will definitely hurt the plant. However, one episode of stress will not damage the plant forever, just like our brains. Just like the plant, our brains will bounce back from stress.
It is so important to remember this during this trying time. Everything is stressful but its important to find the little things that bring us joy as well as remembering that good times are ahead.
Namaste 🙏🏽
In this video, there is a study that can’t be done on humans, but can be done with mice. The happy mouse will eventually stop feeling happiness and pleasure. The mouses brain shrunk, and this can happen in humans too when happiness is no longer present. The hippocampus makes the rational decisions. The emotional part of the brain which is the amygdala is trying to play a tug of war with the rational side of the brain and if the amygdala takes over, everything you feel and see has a more negative perception.
Chronic/intense stress stops formation of brain cells. The stress put on the mouse in this study caused the mouses brain to shrink, but when you subject the mouse to a non-stressful situation, the mouses brain will start to grow. Exercise has been shown to start helping the brain form synapses.
I found this video really really interesting, and it made sense how it connects to class because the studies show that meditation makes happier people.
I found this video very easy to follow and I think that the scientist made things very easily broken down and related the studies in the mice to everyday scenarios that us humans go through each day, especially students being stressed out the majority of the time, it helped me realize why i feel a certain way sometimes and how there is such an emphasis for us to decide that we can just put things into a different perspective and it can change everything.
Namaste 🙏🏽
Emily Lomberg
In this TED Talk, Mithy Storoni explains how to ‘grow’ happy. She explains that happiness does not come from the events themselves but from our experience and interpretation, there is often the battling rational and positive interpretation and emotional, negative interpretation. We see happiness as optimism and deriving joy and pleasure from the tiniest things in life, but often it feels like we cannot control these thought processes. Storoni explains a study done with mice to show how we can ‘grow’ happy. When the mice are under high social stress, their brain shrinks and looses synapses. There is a tug of war between the emotional and rational brains and when the emotional side wins, is when we see negative outputs.
Storoni then makes the connection that we can grow our brains much like how you grow a plant. One factor of growing the brain is through nurturing the brain with rest, nutrition, and exercise. It is also important to challenge the brain which causes us to rise to the occasion as well as exposing ourselves to new environments. Both of these causes the brain to form new synapses, which will not shrink when placed under stressful situations. Lastly is attention, Storoni mentions the DMN, which is essentially your brain creating your autobiography but it can not differentiate emotional and rational perception. When you take control over your story, you are able to create fewer negative chapters. As humans, we have a urgent need to belong and fit in as well as staying true to our individuality. This creates great conflict because by living in accordance to outside influence will halt one’s personal growth, leading them to feel unhappy. In order to grow, you need to continue challenging and pushing yourself and understanding that you have complete control over making your story a happy one.
Well stated and supported OM
In this video, neuroscientist Mithu Storoni discusses the complexities of happiness. She first states that happiness arises from the experience of an event rather than being the direct cause of that event. She then goes on to discuss the science behind happiness and unhappiness by calling attention to a perpetual tug-of-war that is always raging on between the “rational brain”, consisting of the pre-frontal cortex and hippocampus, and the “emotional brain”, which consists of the amygdala. The emotional side of the brain is always trying to pull us into negativity and anxieties, and if this side happens to be winning that tug-of-war, one will experience everything in an unhappy light. Storoni then goes on to compare our brains to plants, in that they both require the proper nurturing and the presence of enriched environments, which involve sufficient challenges and novelties that promote growth. In order to grow, brains must also become familiarized with bestowing their attention on challenges and rational things, rather than emotional things. Connecting all of this back to happiness, we must constantly give ourselves the chance to grow in order to see our lives as happy ones.
I’m a little bit on the fence about this video, as I feel like Storoni didn’t form a super clear argument and seemed to kind of go all over the place. Also, I think it’s important to note that her strategies for being happier can only apply to people who do not suffer from mental illnesses, which often greatly affect the way people process things. However, the part that did resonate with me was the discussion about the rational vs emotional brains, as I feel like I use a similar metaphor of a tug-of-war when thinking about my own happiness. It’s always been very helpful for me to separate my thought process into logical ones versus emotional ones because then I have an easier time trying to dismantle any negative emotional thoughts.
(https://medium.com/personal-growth/your-emotional-brain-is-usually-smarter-than-your-brain-thinks-8d76db29c5f8) This source goes more in depth about the emotional and rational sides of the brain and argues that the emotional side is absolutely necessary, even though we are usually told to fight against it. Although it is undoubtedly true that being too emotional is not ideal, our actions seem to show that our emotions often take the lead, even in what we may first think of as rational decisions. The source makes an interesting metaphor about the emotional brain being the elephant and the rational brain being its rider, calling attention to the fact that even though the rider seems to be in control, the elephant can truly go wherever it wants in the end. The same is true with the emotional brain.
– Sofia Gandolfo
Well stated and supported, thanks for the link, ☮️