From the depths of despair, we drag ourselves out of the darkness and into the light. The darkness must be recognized before it can be overcome. The darkness holds us without our conscious knowledge if we let it. We keep coming back to this topic of mindful awareness. Perhaps that will be the title of the bool, but I think we need something catchier.

Let's see if we can arrive at a new conclusion because we've discussed previously how it is unnecessary to be aware and think too much, Mr. Gump. I would have serious doubts that he would have any amount of mindfulness about what his body is doing. Maybe he is aware and has the ability to do despite the existence of those thoughts and feelings. It's hard to tell from the limited knowledge we have of Mr. Gump.

In keeping with our theme, we'll leave Mr. Gump out because he is an outlier. We can just delete that dot because he is messing up the data. It's not the reality that shapes us but the lens through which your brain views the world that shapes reality. Changing that lens changes the outcome. Our external world is not predictive of our happiness levels, long-term happiness does not come from the external. Can you guess where it comes from?

Ah ha! The long-term happiness is predicted by the way your brain processes the world. The absence of disease is not health. If happiness is on the opposite side of success, your brain never gets there. We think we have to be successful, then we'll be happy.

I took a lot of this recent information from Shawn Achor. Watch his TED Talk and learn something. The learning is not done by watching his talk; the learning is done by doing what he suggests in this talk. He suggests five strategies and techniques, actual tasks to perform over the course of 21 days. He suggests these activities to rewire the brain to scan the world for the positive instead of the negative.

I am a big fan of Mr. Achor, and his talk is hilarious! Strongly recommend watching his 12.5-minute talk.

Now that our detour is over, we have the topic of rising up to cover. Shawn has set the stage for a start. We can start with his happiness advantage to better equip us to handle the stresses of life and get out of the cultural ADHD that is so prevalent in today's society. If we start with happiness and brain training, we will have the advantage of being happy and seeing the stresses as challenges to overcome instead of roadblocks. We can use that boost in cognitive function to recognize the challenges and formulate plans to move beyond, to rise up from the depths.

I'll also take this opportunity to state, we can't get beyond our current situation with the same level of thinking that led us to this situation. To change our thinking, we must change our habits. Actions determine the lens through our brains see the world and respond to the various stimuli presented daily. We take the action to learn, and the learning is not schooling, not being able to talk about how these activities can foster internal happiness in the moment. Happiness is a state nearly independent from the external world. Our steadfast position for ourselves and our own sake can lend strength in the moment to move beyond and despite the challenges. Instead of shying away from the challenges, we rise up to the occasion and press forward.

Repeated actions to overcome and rise up create a pattern of stepping to the plate and swinging again. With this happiness and strength, there is no challenge that stands in our way. If we run from problems, our brain begins to think we can't handle difficult situations. The work is hard, but the work is worth it for our own learning.

This is Learning Made Hard.