Laurel Mellin - Wired for Joy

Review by (guru) Ro Bennett on show 29th July 2010
This is an excellent book. In describing it, John Gray, the author of Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus writes: Wired for Joy offers a brain-based solution to stress and practical tools that are the missing link in health care.’
Laurel Mellin the author is an associate clinical professor of family and community medicine and paediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. She directs the national research coordinating centre for emotional brain training (EBT) in the University’s Centre for Health and Community. Mellin has conducted research on the method and has trained psychologists, physicians, and other health professionals to use the tools in their practice.
In Wired for Joy, Laurel Mellin presents a simple yet proven way to train your brain to move through stress and back to joy. Her method focuses on rewiring the emotional brain - the cauldron of our stress - rather than the thinking brain, which has been the focus of most other stress-busting methods.
Based on the cutting-edge science of neuroplasticity, Mellin outlines the five emotional states of the brain. For each state, she presents a specific tool that easily and quickly switches the brain back to well-being-in essence retraining your brain to be in joy more moments of the day.
Eighty percent of health problems today are due to the downstream effects of stress. And because an overload of stress leads the brain to become wired for extremes of emotions, thought and behaviour, you can see its negative effects in every area of your life. Stress symptoms include anything from high blood pressure, to heart disease, to addictions, to chronic anger, so learning to break free from stress could dramatically improve your mood, your relationships, your health - and your life.
With the 5 simple tools in Wired for Joy, you can finally change the wiring that triggers your stress, instead of focusing on its symptoms. And once you make that switch, life becomes easier and more rewarding; your stress symptoms - depression, anxiety, over-eating - tend to fade and you experience a new sense of freedom in your life.

I found the book really interesting and easy to read. Laurel Mellin describes our three brains the Reptilian Brain - survival instincts, the Mammalian Brain which deals with emotion, connection and rewards and the Neo Cortex which is the thinking, planning and deciding part of the brain. She then explains how they function
...everyone of our emotions, thoughts and actions is a wire, a string of nerve cells or neurons that link together in a particular pattern. Each person has about 100 billion neurons and each one connects with 100 to 100,000 others to create wires or circuits. They are the basis for all learning; that is carrying forward the experiences of the past so that our responses to the current moment and the plans for the future are adaptive and keep us in the game of life.
She then goes on to describe a brain state:
Wires trigger you, but what happens then? The brain reorganizes itself to respond to the level of stress that it encounters. Each area of the brain is more effective in processing a particular level of stress, so the brain determines which area should be dominant and in charge. Then it shifts energy to that part of the brain. That area then takes over for as long as the brain is in that state.
She says that there are 5 brain states -
1=feeling great; 2=feeling good; 3 =feeling a bit stressed; 4 = feeling definitely stressed and 5 = you’ve lost it. If we tend to be in a particular state much of the time then that has become our default state and there’s a quiz you can take to see which brain state is your norm.
Then the author gives you practical tools to use for each brain state. She demonstrates how to utilise these with anecdotes and also by telling the story of a fictional family which is a composite of various people she has treated.
Sample:
Check In There is a universal body posture that is a sign of positive emotion, usually with shoulders back, head up, perhaps even a smile on the face. You are energised, vibrant and intensely alive. You are your best, most powerful and positive self. Those specific body patterns draw upon a sensory modality, proprioception, which provides feedback to the brain on the status of the body. Each time you arrange your body in that posture and facial expression, the brain interprets these signals as confirmation that you are in joy. Even if your mood is negative, shifting your brain informs your brain that you are in joy.
This is just a small technique, but a powerful one because it is brain-based and universal. If you take a deep breath and assume Body at 1, your mood lightens and that can be contagious to others in, for instance, a tense meeting where everyone is standing around with arms folded protectively across their chests and are emotionally closed down, or a family meeting where everyone is defensive, stressed and extremely tense.

Score a joy point - life is a series of moments, so the more moments you choose happy thoughts, the happier life you will have.


Brain Area: Prefrontal Cortex Target circuits: Emotional Brain
Time required: 10 seconds




Step Purpose
Becoming aware of breathing Easier access to emotions
Assume Body at 1 Body sends brain message of well being
Create a moment of pleasure Surge of Reward. Ease stress
Choose one:
Thought of a happy time
Mental picture of loved one
Words you most need to hear
Compassion for self/others/ all living beings
A pleasurable sensation
Web site: www.ebt.org

Ro Bennett
happycastaway@btinternet.com