Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life

catastrophic
effect and causes the person to become very 
depressed, whereas a right - side stroke has a laissez - faire effect 
and causes much less depression.
•
The relative inhibition of the left PFC and the relative activa-
tion of the right PFC are associated with depression (O ’ Doherty, 
Kringelback, Rolls, Hornak, and Andrews, 2001).
•
The left PFC is associated with positive emotions and is 
action - oriented.
•
The right PFC is associated with negative emotions and is 
passive - oriented.
•
Language, making interpretive sense of events, and generating 
positive and optimistic emotions are all products of robust left 
hemispheric functioning.
•
Instead of putting details into context, depressed patients are 
overwhelmed by a global negative perspective. The right hemi-
sphere favors global thinking.
•
Behavioral activation (the left PFC) is one of the principal 
therapies for depression.
Thus, making an effort to put yourself out there helps you lift 
depression. In fact, “ putting on a happy face ” is actually helpful. 
Here ’ s how it works: There are neural pathways that link the facial 
muscles, the cranial nerves, the subcortical areas, and the cortex. 
Information fl ows down from the brain to the face and also back 
up again. For example, if you contract the muscles on the right side 
of your face, that activates your left hemisphere, which creates the 
likelihood of a positive emotional bias. In contrast, if you contract 
the muscles on the left side of your face, that activates your right 
hemisphere, which creates the likelihood of a negative bias. 
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52 Rew i r e
Yo u r
B r a i n
Mona Lisa
The connection of the right facial muscles to the left hemisphere 
and the left facial muscles to the right hemisphere is called
contra-
lateral functioning
. 
Think of
Mona Lisa
. The right side of her face is smiling, but the 
left side of her face indicates a neutral or negative emotion. This 
difference can be seen more clearly if you paste together two left 
sides of her face and two right sides of her face. 
Since the left hemisphere processes more positive emotions and 
the right hemisphere processes more negative emotions, those emo-
tions are refl ected in each side of the face. 
Thus, when you force a smile or a frown, you ’ re triggering the 
feelings associated with happiness or sadness. By smiling or frown-
ing you send messages to your subcortical and cortical areas that 
resonate with happy or sad feelings. So put on a happy face — it 
helps you to feel better! 
In addition to being linked to sad feelings, the right hemisphere 
is also generally more passive. The left hemisphere, in addition 
to processing positive emotions, is associated with action. Taking 
action helps people to feel less depressed, whereas inaction or 
passivity creates sad feelings. People who are depressed under-
activate their left frontal lobes. If you are prone to feeling down 
more than up, activating your left frontal lobe by doing something 
constructive will help you to shift out of the chronic low emotional 
foundation. 
The left fi eld of vision corresponds to the right hemisphere, 
and the right fi eld of vision corresponds to the left hemisphere. In 
other words, when you look to the left, you ’ re activating your right 
hemisphere, and when you look to the right, you ’ re activating your 
left hemisphere. 
Sometimes you need a dose of detachment to move yourself 
beyond negative thoughts and emotions. In other words, you need 
to learn how to take things less seriously. Humor promotes neuro-
plasticity, and it is a wonderful treatment for what ails you. If you are 
sad, humor serves as a brief nudge from one mood state to another. 
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S h i ft i n g
Le ft
53
Avoid tear - jerker dramas, because they promote a tearful mood. Try 
watching comedies to help you detach from negative thoughts and 
feelings. Comedies allow you to lift out of the sad state you were 
in and move into another, happier state. In this sense, humor is 
a soothing method of detachment, especially if the humor is not 
degrading to another person.
Humor Chemistry 
Humor is a boost to your biochemistry. It helps to lower the levels of 
the stress hormone cortisol while it increases immunoglobulin, nat-
ural killer (NK) cells, and plasma cytokine gamma interferon levels. 
Immunoglobulin consists of the antibodies that help the immune 
system to fi ght infections; it serves as one of the body ’ s primary 
defense mechanisms. NK cells seek out and destroy abnormal cells; 
they are a key mechanism for what is called