# Discover some of the laws that govern our brain > We tend to believe in what we see, in the way we see it and in the color in which we perceive it. So when we see a green vase, we don't hesitate to say... - **Author:** mireia-navarro-vera · **Category:** Adultos - **Published:** 2019-06-13 · **Updated:** 2019-06-13 - **URL:** https://elteuespai.com/en/discover-some-of-the-laws-that-govern-our-brain/ - _Translation pending clinical review._ --- We tend to believe in what we see, in the way we see it and in the color in which we perceive it. So when we see a green vase, we don't hesitate to say that it is a green vase. ***And what if I told you that there are as many realities as there are people observing it?*** Perhaps that way we would start to wonder whether we are really always right. **What we see is nothing more than the interpretation our brain makes of what is around us.** Only that. And besides, sometimes it strays very far from reality. I'm going to show you how our brain deceives us: ## 1. We see what we want to see I always use the same example: Hasn't it ever happened to you that you buy a white car and suddenly it seems to you that there are white cars everywhere? Or when you're pregnant and you start seeing pregnant women everywhere you go? And it's not that there is a baby boom that month, nor the biggest sale of white cars of the year, it's simply that **your brain knows that the car or the pregnancy is important to you and therefore decides to pay more attention to those stimuli than to others.** **We receive thousands of stimuli daily and our brain cannot attend to all of them**, it must **decide quickly what to pay attention to and what not.** The part it decides not to pay attention to you simply **WILL NOT see, for you it will not exist**. **The other part will be your truth**. Doesn't it seem incredible to you? Our brain decides every day what I am going to see and what I am going to think. To do so, it draws on our deepest beliefs (which not even we know about) such as: "without effort there is no reward" "without a university education you won't find a good job" "money doesn't buy happiness" … I could go on at length about belief systems and above all about the limiting beliefs that we all have, but we'll do that in another post. The thing is that **the brain decides,** according to what it believes is important to us, and if our tendency is to see things badly, it will focus on how bad everything is. **If two people look at the same news story about a terrorist attack** with hundreds of victims on the same TV channel, it can perfectly well happen that **one sees the catastrophe** and how the world is becoming a very unsafe place **and another person sees the number of volunteers who have come forward to donate blood** or to help in whatever way. **It's the same news story, the same truth with thousands of interpretations.** **Conclusion**: what you see is not reality, it is only the reality that your brain has assembled for you. The truth is much more complex than that. So think twice before saying that you are right about something. If you become aware, perhaps you can change what you see. ## 2. The law of least effort **How hard it is for our mind to leave the comfort zone**. "If you're already fine with this job, why look for something you like more, you have good hours, it's close to your home and anyway even if you don't like it much in the end you clock in and you leave". Does that sound familiar? It's your brain not wanting to spend much energy on something it doesn't know will turn out well or badly. It's not that it doesn't want to, it's that **it is governed by the law of least effort that has probably saved our species, many times, from extinction.** "The conservation of energy has been essential for the survival of humans, since it allowed us to be more efficient in the search for food and shelter, to compete for sexual partners and to avoid predators", explains Matthieu Boisgontier. Our brain evaluates costs-benefits and decides whether or not to act. Now you understand why it's so hard for you to go to the gym, right? Or to make changes in your life… Fortunately, the law of least effort has **another part of the brain** that **deals more with motivation, self-realization,** self-esteem and perhaps happiness. And when we've spent a while in off mode, sometimes something appears that moves us. Or someone. And then, after a period of effort, we feel better. There are studies ( Michael Treadway, a research psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School (USA) that describe how **dopamine, in certain regions of the brain,** helps us make an effort and **motivates us to carry out tasks that, in principle, the law of least effort would not do**. Our brain evaluates costs-benefits and decides whether or not to act. **Conclusion:** don't forget that **some thoughts you have**, that make you stay in the same situation (a job that doesn't quite…a relationship that seems like…I would love to play the piano but it's so many years that…) **are born from the law of least effort**, which although it has saved our species on multiple occasions, **sometimes sets traps for us.** Especially now that there are no longer lions in the streets. If you decide to do something and step out of your comfort zone, you will find an ally in your prefrontal cortex, which, filling up with dopamine, will help you make an effort to the end. ## 3. The survival of the species Your brain also thinks about survival, which is why we have fears. Fear has protected us many times from dangers that threaten our life. **The brain is not interested in the truth, it is interested in survival** Do you see a complete elephant? How many legs does it have? ![optical illusion face or vase](/images/blog/2019/06/cara-o-copa.webp) Do you see a vase or two faces? What is reality? Can there be more than one way of seeing things? If a hunter sees something move in some bushes and sees a leg, his mind will quickly reconstruct an animal, probably a potentially dangerous animal. That's how my mind acts, looking for dangers where sometimes there are none. **Does it surprise you now that when you think about a future event you see all the possible dangers of that situation?** I always say that we spend our lives seeing possible future problems that may never come and possible solutions to have on hand in case they do come. What a waste of time!! Our brain is programmed to survive, not to be happy. That's why the tendency is to distrust, to be pessimistic, to worry constantly…This is its tendency, to keep you on alert to prevent possible dangers. So, **are we condemned to think negatively?** No, our brain is moldable, it is made to adapt to the environment in which it lives, therefore we can change this tendency. ### Can I mold my mind? **It used to be believed that from the age of 7 the brain structures could no longer be modified**, that neuronal plasticity only occurred in childhood. **And we were wrong**. The brain always tries to find new paths to develop functions, for example, when we suffer a stroke and a part of our brain dies, during the following year the brain looks for another path to carry out the function it has lost and people walk or speak again, etc…although there will be functions that are not recovered, there are many others that are. This shows us how our brain always works to give the best of itself. **Neuronal plasticity does not disappear in childhood and this is great news.** It means that our brain is moldable. Nowadays it has been demonstrated that **smiling even without wanting to secretes endorphins**, that **surrounding ourselves with people who love us** and whom we love **has the capacity to change our brain**, that doing things for others secretes hormones that make us feel fulfillment, that **meditating 5 minutes a day** has the capacity to **build new neuronal pathways…** We psychologists spend our days helping people to think differently, to mold the mind, to create new neuronal pathways and we see the changes, almost as if they were miracles. So don't let yourself be carried away by the ancestral laws that govern our brain and become **the owner of what you think** again. To achieve this, there is nothing better than meditation and above all [**mindfulness**](/en/how-mindfulness-improves-your-life-and-your-childrens/). Easterners have been controlling their minds for centuries and we Westerners must learn from them. If we let it be the one that controls our thoughts, we already know what its tendency is and also the results it generates: fears, negativity, living alert to possible dangers, worries… **Remember your brain is not programmed to be happy, it is programmed to survive.** If you want to delve deeper into [how to direct your mind toward happiness](/en/discover-how-to-be-happy-in-a-simple-and-effective-way/), I recommend our post