The One Question That Steers You to a Happier Life

[Excerpted from You, Happier: The 7 Neuroscience Secrets of Feeling Good Based on Your Brain Type by Daniel G. Amen, MD]

You, Happier: The 7 Neuroscience Secrets of Feeling Good Based on Your Brain Type is written by psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and brain health expert Daniel G. Amen, MD. In this book, he reveals how to discover your brain type and tailor happiness strategies best suited to your brain type. This book also shows how to improve your overall brain health to consistently enhance your mood, protect your happiness by distancing yourself from the “noise” in your head, and make 7 simple decisions and ask 7 daily questions to boost your happiness.

Happiness comes from moving your life forward toward your life goals with meaning and purpose, based on your values, despite whatever obstacles are in your way. A happy life doesn’t focus on the past with regret or look to the future with fear. That’s why I love the song by pop sensation Ariana Grande, “thank u, next.” The lyrics are about learning from and being grateful for the past: “One taught me love, one taught me patience, and one taught me pain . . . thank u, next,” while focusing on the future with clarity of purpose, which in her case was connection: “One day I’ll walk down the aisle.”

Just as every great organization has core values, a purpose statement, and clearly defined quarterly, yearly, and 3- to 5-year goals, you should too. Yet, as I’ve found in my clinical practice, very few people are aware of their own core values, rarely get in touch with their deepest sense of meaning and purpose, and more often than not, lack clearly defined goals for the short and long term.

Guiding my patients to discover their own core values, purpose, and goals in the Four Circles (biological, psychological, social, and spiritual), and then making decisions that fit these 4 areas, is the last piece in the happiness puzzle. That’s what happened when I helped Laura Clery—an actress, comedian, and social media influencer—pinpoint her overall purpose with great clarity: “to deliver a little dose of happiness to others every day.”

In my book, You, Happier, I will guide you through the same series of exercises I did with Laura to help you find what satisfies your soul and directs your life. I’ll show you how to identify your core values, refine your sense of purpose (your why), and develop biological, psychological, social, and spiritual goals through an exercise I call the One Page Miracle (OPM), which will illuminate what you want to strive for in the Four Circles. The OPM is an excellent way to add clarity to your life and ensure you have a balanced life that will help you be happier.

In the book, you will learn how to:

• Clarify your core values in just 4 steps.
• Develop a clear sense of meaning and purpose by answering 6 questions.
• Create your goals in the Four Circles for the next 3 months, next year, and next 3-5 years and longer.
• Reminder to ask yourself every day this important question: “Does it fit? Do my thoughts and behaviors fit the goals I have for my life?”

If you want to join the tens of thousands of people who have already learned how to have a happier brain and a happier life at Amen Clinics, speak to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here.