In researching the upcoming Wired for Joy (released June 15, 2010) I became convinced that Eudaimonia, “the goal of a good life is excellence in the pursuit of fulfillment of personal potentials in ways that further an individual’s purposes in living. The brain science is fascinating in that with sufficient activation of the left prefrontal cortex associated with positive emotions from eudonic reward, the activation of the right prefrontal cortex associated with negative emotions ceases. What’s more, Davidson, 2007 is associated with an insufficient joy response, not enough of that left prefrontal activation.
Yet you can easily check this brain science for yourself by walking into the kitchen, and take out a bowl of sugar. Scoop up a spoon of sugar and place it on your tongue. Let the sugar melt in your mouth. What would you do for that pleasure? How much pain would you tolerate to have THAT? Now try it another way. Bring to mind your true love, or a moment during the last day when you did something really hard, that you were in integrity even though it was hard. NOtice what happens in your body, that surge of . . . joy, and the way that the stress disappears . . . melts away. Odd how that it: we were born to be rewarded by being good.
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