Anxiety is another core human emotion, something that we all experience. Anxiety, in essence, is an emotion—heightened fear—and it can cause our stress response to kick in. It’s characterized by tension in the body, increased blood pressure, and mental worry. Anxiety can progress into a disorder, where it becomes chronic, with recurring intrusive t

The second circle is your brain’s reward system. This is a set of neural structures, or circuits, that activate when you experience happiness or pleasure. When the reward system comes online, it increases the probability that you repeat the behaviors that occurred prior to the event that sparked it.

including parenting, caregiving, and even community service.

people who participated in arts activities more than once a week, or who attended cultural events at least once or twice per year, had significantly higher life satisfaction than those who did not.

say, being asked by someone to repeat a word—causes our prefrontal cortex to marshal the brain into a cognitive process and response. Emotions, on the other hand, are processed in the limbic system deep in the brain and are not always consciously registered. Sometimes, our motor areas ignite faster than the prefrontal cortex is able to contextualiz

poem that truly resonates with us does so at a neurological level by stimulating the areas of the brain that are associated with meaning-making and the interpretation of reality.

That’s your brain pruning synapses that aren’t engaged in salient experiences. These synaptic connections atrophy from a lack of stimulation and then permanently disconnect.

Think of the arts as an activity that changes your biology, emotional state, and enhances your mental well-being.

Cognitive neuroscientists believe we’re conscious of only about 5 percent of our mental activity. The rest of your experience—physically, emotionally, sensorially—lives below what you are actually thinking. Your brain is processing stimuli constantly, like a sponge, absorbing millions of sensory signals.