Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life

focusing
on the need 
to shift to other moods. However, focusing alone didn ’ t make it 
happen. She needed to make an effort to change her behavior until 
it became
effortless
to be in a new mood. Because she didn ’ t want 
to make the effort, because her chronic low emotional foundation 
demotivated her, the extra effort was critical. Thus, she had to do 
things that she didn ’ t feel like doing. 
Next I helped Brenda learn to
focus
on how and when she began 
to drift into a sulky reactive mode and to make an
effort
to shift into 
action. By tapping into her mirror neuron system, she was able to stay 
with the empathy that she had for her patients and let that serve as the 
central motivating force. Consequently, she restructured her effort to 
support the accreditation process so that she and her colleagues could 
be free to treat the patients as they deserved to be treated. 
I explained that a moderate degree of anxiety is useful to make 
neuroplastic changes. Brenda ’ s negative evaluation spiked her anxi-
ety enough to stimulate the necessary changes for her to get out 
of the passive (right frontal lobe) mode and shift to an active (left 
frontal lobe) mode. These changes helped to prepare her for the 
bumps that will inevitably come later in her life.
Taking Action 
Brenda learned to channel her anger about her situation into taking 
action to change it. When you can do something about what angers 
you, the situation can potentially change. Recent research suggests 
that anger stirs motivation and activates the left frontal lobe. This 
shift to the left frontal lobe helps you rebalance the activation of 
your two frontal lobes; in turn, you feel more positive about your 
situation in life. Rather than feeling helpless about your situation, 
doing something constructive puts you into an action mode. 
If you are down in the dumps or just plain depressed, become 
active. Taking action gets you going and makes you feel better. 
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S h i ft i n g
Le ft
67
I often say to people who are down in the dumps that the best 
prescription for depression is action. In contrast, passivity indi-
rectly promotes feeling bad. You generally won ’ t see the connection 
between your passivity and feeling bad. Being passive might even 
seem to be a good way to make yourself feel better, because you ’ re 
“ conserving energy. ”
Nevertheless, being passive doesn ’ t pay off. Even if you can get 
someone else to do things for you, there are major negative emo-
tional consequences. Passive - aggressive people tend to be more 
pessimistic than active, optimistic people are. They drift into a 
pessimistic mode because they sit back and let other people do for 
them what they can do for themselves, yet it ’ s never enough! 
When you feed your brain so that you can get out of an emotion-
ally depressed period, fi rst
focus
on the mood that you would rather 
be having. This focused attention will help you to be aware of the 
difference between the more positive mood state you want to be in 
and the negative one that you would like to abandon. 
Next you must make an
effort
to do things that will move your 
mood to a more positive one — from passivity to action, from your right 
frontal lobe to your left frontal lobe. You must make a rigorous effort 
to do what you don ’ t really want to do — for instance, going to the 
movies with your friends even though you ’ d rather stay home alone 
because you are in a bad mood. 
You should make an effort to prime positive moods, take action, 
and construct positive narratives. By wiring positive thinking and 
ensuring that you ’ re reconnected socially, you can make the new 
mood last. 
The need to focus comes into play again when you drift back into 
your old mood. Be alert so that you notice each time you begin to 
drift back into a passive and negative mood. You ’ ll have to make a 
concerted effort to do many of the things I ’ ve described. Eventually 
your efforts will change the default mood of your brain into a posi-
tive one. Soon you will begin to feel at ease with your new, more 
positive mood, and it will become