Science of Happy

https://www.lds.org/church/news/the-surprising-science-behind-supremely-happy-people?lang=eng&cid=facebook-shared

“Through MRI technology over the last 10 years, brain scans have become absolutely wonderful,” said Brother Smith. “Your frontal lobe is where happiness is located.” When someone is really sad, the right side of the frontal lobe lights up. And when someone is happy, the left part of the frontal lobe lights up. Happiness and sadness occur in different places of the brain.

Speaking about things that help the left frontal lobe come alive, Brother Smith said, “Meditation will fire up the left frontal lobe and flood your brain with dopamine.” There are 100 billion neurons in a person’s brain, and they talk to each other. To talk to each other they need neurotransmitters or chemicals. The three that make a person happy are norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine. Low levels of these chemicals may make a person unhappy. Returning them to normal levels may help some people.

I was reading a book called Mindsight, that talks about some of this neuroscience. In an oversimplified explanation, feelings  generated by the limbic system move through the right side of the brain, to the left. It's interesting that happiness would be in the prefrontal cortex. So many of the negative emotions that leave us susceptible to temptation come from the limbic system, overriding our higher cortical thinking.