Joy is so much more than a moment of pleasure; it’s a practice that rewires your brain for greater ease, connection and wellbeing. In her new book, Jen Sievers shares an insight into how to grasp onto it to ensure you are living a colourful, juicy life.

Words & Illustrations Jen Sievers  Photo Adrienne Pitts

Often, we assume that the emotions we’re feeling are based solely on the facts of the situation we’re in, but that’s not the whole story. The parts of the brain involved in creating emotion translate those facts based on past experiences and learned behaviours. Having a basic understanding of how your brain processes information, and then learning practical tools to help you regulate your brain, and therefore your emotions, can be incredibly empowering on your joy journey.

1. The prefrontal cortex

This is the brain’s executive centre. This area sits behind our forehead and above the amygdala, and is instrumental in rational decision-making. The functionality of the prefrontal cortex is lessened when the amygdala is in distress, as this stops us from processing information effectively or accurately.

2. The amygdala

A little, almond-shaped structure that plays the role of the brain’s alert system. It evolved to protect us from immediate, life-threatening danger, and functions like a vigilant guard dog – scanning for threats and alerting us at the first whiff of danger. This type of alarm system is very useful if you’re being chased by a tiger, but much less effective when a minor event such as an angry email gets misinterpreted as a severe threat.

From birth, the amygdala keeps track of your life experiences, etching negative ones a lot deeper in your mind than positive ones. It’s known to plant negative self-talk seeds in our minds. Thoughts such as ‘you aren’t good enough’, ‘you are unlikeable’, or ‘you’ll never match up to them’ are deceptive messages, not reflections of reality. They’re the by-products of an amygdala in overdrive. Our job is to soothe the amygdala, to prevent it from falsely perceiving danger at every turn – from turning a nasty email into a ferocious tiger, and joy can be a very effective way of doing this.

3. The hippocampus

The hippocampus is like the brain’s memory bank – a library storing our life experiences so we can refer back to them later. It interacts closely with the prefrontal cortex, feeding it information to help us make clear, logical decisions. For the hippocampus to do its best work, the amygdala needs to be calm. Stress can make it difficult for the hippocampus to store or retrieve information clearly.

Joy practices (such as gratitude and mindfulness) pacify the amygdala, allowing it to stand down from its guard position. This relaxation facilitates the flow of information to the prefrontal cortex, empowering us to make thoughtful, composed decisions. Additionally, a calm amygdala enhances the hippocampus’ ability to archive and recall memories. Nurturing a calm and happy brain is not just a frivolous way of being happier – it is training our brain for better cognitive and emotional wellbeing.

Put simply, calming the amygdala helps us to make better decisions and improves our memory.

Turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks

Up until the 1960s, scientists believed that our brains stopped developing in adulthood. Since then however, we’ve discovered that our brains never stop developing. We can learn new behaviours, skills and develop new thought patterns through practise and repetition at any point in our life. We aren’t stuck with our default ‘factory settings’; we can change them! We owe this continuous development to the neurons in our brains, which create pathways from one area to another.

Just like pathways in a forest, the paths in our brain become clearer and deeper the more they’re used. The process of creating new paths is known as neuroplasticity. By introducing short, joy practices into our day, and repeating them often, we can create new paths and rewire our brains to be more positive and calm. At first, these may feel like unfamiliar back roads, but with regular practise, they can become super-highways that we take automatically.

To create new, more positive neural pathways, we must cultivate mind strengths such as calmness, contentment and caring. As we build the pathways of these positive traits, our brains eventually change how they work. Our old habits of reacting quickly or letting our minds chatter negatively to us all day long, slowly get replaced and repaired.

Just like pathways in a forest, the paths in our brain become clearer and deeper the more they’re used.

What effect does joy have on the brain?

When you experience joy, your brain lights up in the prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum, which are linked to reward, motivation, learning and decision-making. At the same time, your body releases a cascade of feel-good neurochemicals such as dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin. These not only improve mood, but also help regulate stress and support better emotional balance.

Over time, regularly experiencing joy helps form and reinforce positive neural pathways. These ’joy circuits’ make it easier for your brain to return to a calm state, stay open to new experiences and regulate emotions more effectively. In short, joy builds brain resilience. It trains your nervous system to spend more time in the rest-and-digest state and less time in fight-or-flight.

The body-brain connection

So much of how we feel at any given moment depends on the state of our nervous system. We often assign weight to feelings that can be explained by a dysregulated nervous system. I find the topic so fascinating, but I will only bore you with a little jargon. I find it useful to frame things, in my own experience, from the viewpoint of a nervous system that’s either calm or activated, because the state we are in absolutely changes how we feel and how we function at any given moment.

Our autonomic nervous system consists of two separate systems: the sympathetic and parasympathetic.

1. The sympathetic nervous system controls our body’s fight-or-flight response; it responds to danger (or the perception/thought of danger). When this system is engaged, our heart rate goes up, we experience breathlessness, our pupils dilate and perspiration occurs. Clearly, this response is unpleasant, and it’s not good for our health to be in this state for long periods of time.

2. The parasympathetic nervous system is sometimes called the rest-and-digest system. When this response is activated, our breathing slows, our heart rate drops to a normal level and our blood pressure drops. Our body is then in a state suited to rest and recovery. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, many of us spend more time than necessary in fight-or-flight mode. The accumulation of daily stressors activate the same response that, in ancient times, caused our nervous system to evolve to make us run away from a ferocious tiger.

Being tired and burned out can put us in a state of overwhelm and make it impossible to think clearly or feel motivated. In that case, rest can be the best medicine. Find your favourite way to do this. I’m not a napper, so I prefer to hang out on the couch and watch a juicy TV series. Maybe resting for you is closing your eyes and listening to a podcast, reading a book in the sun or playing with your dog. The key is to notice when your body needs a rest, and prioritising that.

This is an edited extract from The Art of Joy: A creative Guide to living a colourful, juicy life by Jen Sievers, $54.99. Published by Koa Press.