[Book Sip] Having Many Bad Days? ... 'The Brain Does Not Remember Happiness'

Editor's NoteSome sentences encapsulate the entire content of a book, while others instantly resonate with the reader, creating a connection with the book. We excerpt and introduce such meaningful sentences from books.

The author, who has researched the relationship between brainwaves and emotions for over 20 years, argues that "the main subject of human emotions is negative emotions." According to brainwave measurement experiments conducted by the author, even when people say "It's fun" or "I'm happy," positive emotions in the brainwaves rarely increased. Even if they increased temporarily, the effect did not last long. On the other hand, negative emotions such as "I'm annoyed" or "I'm anxious" increased immediately with just a slight trigger. The brain did not respond to others' gratitude, doubting "Is it sincere?" Through this, the author emphasizes that the human brain is very insensitive to positive emotions but highly sensitive to negative ones. The author shares 44 different brainwave experiment cases from daily life and teaches how to escape from 'mood violence' caused by bad emotions.

Humans have a variety of complex emotions such as liking, disliking, happiness, sadness, loneliness, excitement, annoyance, heart pounding, mood elevation, mood decline, concentration, restlessness, and more. People can relatively well recognize their own emotions, but it is difficult to accurately perceive others' emotions. Of course, one can imagine to some extent through nuances in speech or facial expressions, but there are still limits. Moreover, it is not easy for others to accurately understand one's emotions. Everyone has probably experienced frustration from failing to convey their feelings well despite many words or feeling hurt because others misunderstood them contrary to their thoughts. In fact, many people often do not fully understand their own emotions either. (...) This all happens because emotions are 'invisible.' What if we could make 'invisible emotions' visible? Captivated by this question, I focused on brainwaves as the key to visualizing emotions. - p.017-019

In other words, our brain has a troublesome tendency to quickly let go of comfort from good things but tenaciously hold on to discomfort and stress from things we dislike. If you think about it, there are hardly any days when you feel good all day, but days spent feeling annoyed are not rare. This is also because the brain's habit is that positive emotions do not last long, but negative emotions do. - p.035-036

Considering the characteristic of our brain being easily dominated by negative emotions, it is never someone else's problem and can happen to anyone. Emotions visualized through brainwaves clearly reveal that negative words can be a weapon that shatters a person's heart. Therefore, I believe that establishing effective measures against slander and defamation on social media is an urgent task for society. - p.070

Why does mood violence occur? Let's scientifically examine the mechanism. Through brainwave research, it was discovered that bad moods are directly transmitted to people around through brainwaves. This is the 'negative telepathy' emitted by the brain. An uncomfortable atmosphere and stress felt just by being there are caused by the negative telepathy emitted by the brain. - p.085

Humans, who have brains that sensitively detect and empathize with others' bad moods, can be said to be creatures that take on others' discomfort as well.

People tend to think they easily get along with those who share many likes and joys. However, when spending a long time together, it is also important to consider whether there are many common dislikes or intolerable things. For example, suppose you dislike dogs and your partner dislikes cats. Every time you see a dog you dislike, your stress increases. This is natural. But in fact, at that moment, your partner's stress is also increasing. Of course, this is because of the unpleasant brainstorm you emit. In other words, your partner is not someone who dislikes dogs, but the dog becomes a trigger that makes them feel bad. - p.105

The Brain Does Not Remember Happiness | Written by Mitsukura Yasue | Translated by Oh Si-yeon | RHK | 168 pages | 16,800 KRW