How to Wire Your Brain for Happiness

July 29, 2025

Recently, I was reading about the faulty switch investigation in the Air India plane crash and the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education. It's a wild world we live in. Though if you've studied any history, you realize that it's always been a wild world to live in! Maybe the difference now is how fast things are changing.

I reflected on this as I took my favorite morning cup of English Breakfast tea outside on our deck. The temperatures were mild, and I could hear airplanes successfully crossing the blue skies. The moon was still out, and a hummingbird zipped by.

I've noticed that focusing on simple moments of ease can help quiet the mind and return awareness to the present moment. They may seem inconsequential, but moments like this pop up every day that can bring us a bit of joy and contentment. We just tend not to focus on them due to our brain's negativity bias.

What is the negativity bias?

The negativity bias is the brain's tendency to give more attention to negative experiences than positive ones. This bias is a survival mechanism—to pass on their genes, our ancestors needed to be alert to threats, dangers, and conflict. Our brains evolved to look for these things, even in modern day when we are unlikely to be eaten by tigers!

How can we lighten the load of this negativity bias?

Neuroscientist Rick Hansen outlines four steps for “taking in the good” in his book Hardwiring Happiness.

Strengthening the muscle of taking in the good doesn’t mean denying or ignoring negative feelings. It simply means balancing out the scale.

Here are Hansen’s four steps:

Have a positive experience.
That first sip of tea (or coffee). The warmth of the sun. A hummingbird flitting across the sky.
Enrich the experience.
Stay with it for 5–10 seconds (or more). Let it fill your mind and body with awareness. How do you feel?
Absorb it.
Sense the experience sinking into you. Imagine yourself changed—if only a little—for the better.
Link positive and negative material (optional)
This is a more advanced step in which positive and negative material are held in awareness at the same time. Keeping the positive experience in the forefront, it gradually eases or even replaces the negative, bringing a sense of wholeness.

You can practice noticing small, positive experiences anytime—while waking up, just before bed, or in the middle of a busy day.

In a world where the negative tends to dominate, this practice is a gentle way to bring the positive forward for more moments of happiness, joy and contentment.

If you’d like to read more, I recommend Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence by Rick Hansen.

What positive moments did you notice today?

Author: Katie Weaver

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