Living Your Truth Makes You Happy and Healthy
Neuroscience Shows That Living Your Truth Makes You Happy and Healthy
by Dr. Dragos
The Exciting Discoveries of Neuroscience
The discoveries of neuroscience reveal that when you embrace your truth, you are in a state of flow. Going in the pursuit of dreams means a long-term commitment to exploring, discover, ideate, innovate, do the work and grow aligned with what you value. When you are driven by what you love, you expand beyond your limits. You explore opportunities and solutions, and you connect with like-minded people. John Hagel, Chairman of Deloitte Touche, a major Silicon Valley-based research center, discovered the connection between exploration and connection.
When you explore, you engage in creative thinking and intense ideation sessions, you work, solve problems and overcome challenges. You develop your mind and reach beyond your limits. We meet our fundamental needs to have meaning and to have certainty when we explore.
When you connect, you bond with like-minded people who share your passion. You develop relationships based on trust with people who support you in the pursuit of your dreams. You learn from each other and get better faster together. We meet our fundamental needs to feel valued and to feel included when we connect.
When you explore, you connect with other people and form trust-based relationships. When you connect, these bonds empower you to explore bigger challenges together which in turn strengthen your relationships. A rock climber said that your mind and body are “under tremendous stress to get to the top. Your comrades are there, you’re all in it together. A bond like that with other people is in itself an ecstasy.”
Neuroscience Encourages Us to Explore and Connect
The brain’s two most powerful neurotransmitters – dopamine and oxytocin – are directly connected to the exploration and connection required in the pursuit of dreams. When we explore, the brain releases dopamine, a feel-good chemical that helps us focus more on the task at hand. Dopamine gives us a sense of pleasure and increases our motivation to pursue the anticipated reward.
The brain releases dopamine when we have an insight, creative thought when we discover the link between parallel ideas. In turn, this dopamine expands our thinking further, ideas spiral with one good idea leading to the next and the next. Dopamine drives us to explore and is associated with the process of discovery and the anticipation of reward rather than the actual reward.
Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that stimulates our thinking and keeps us doing what we love. The journey is meaningful and not pursuing it leaves us feeling empty. Dopamine focuses our attention and energy on distant goals and empowers us to develop the mind, the knowledge and the skills we need to get there faster. We take bigger risks when we live our truth because dopamine makes us more willing to explore new opportunities, to try new things and go beyond our comfort zone. We feel life has meaning, and we take total accountability for our results.
Connecting with Like Minds and Living Our Truth
When we connect and bond with other like-minded people, the brain releases oxytocin, a neurotransmitter that gives us a calm, soothing feeling. We trust others more, we have empathy and compassion, we share, and we are more generous. Bonding reinforces the release of oxytocin, which strengthens the human connection even further.
An incredible circle forms when we live our truth and go in the pursuit of dreams. When you listen just once to the calling of your heart, you begin to focus your mind on what you love to explore. Dopamine immediately kicks in to sustain your focus over long periods of time and through increasingly challenging work. Your mind, your heart and your actions are aligned.
Even if you don’t have a clue about what you are doing or any resources available, you connect with other people who share your passion, and you work together to reach success faster together. Oxytocin immediately rewards the human connection with feelings of trust, bonding, intimate friendship and generosity. We feel appreciated and valued by others, we feel that we matter and that we are part of something greater than us.
Interesting Truth About Brain Evolution
The brain evolves over time and transforms thoughts into habits. As dopamine and oxytocin are released more often because you focus your mind on your heart’s calling, and you do the work, the brain becomes even more adapted to pursuing your purpose more effectively. Living your truth literally, changes your brain. The brain becomes more efficient and sustains you to pursue your passion even further and get results faster. Nature designed us to live what we love, and all the problems that show up are not punishments from nature, but only the outcome of us living against nature.
About the Author
Dr. Dragos is an award-winning scientist, author, and speaker on six continents. He is the founder of The Amazing University, online teaching platform. It brings together the best minds in the world to inspire and empower one billion people in 140 countries to live their truth and transforms their dreams into reality anywhere they start. Forbes named Dragos’s team at Singularity University in Silicon Valley “among the smartest people in the world.” His work is translated into 20 languages. You can connect with Dr. Dragos at www.drdragos.co and join The Amazing University at www.theamazinguniversity.com
Good article, Thanks!