The Secret Of Happiness
Is Positive Time Travel

Authored by William G. DeFoore, Ph.D.


Put this secret of happiness to work for you right now. Using a form of "time travel," you will actually change the structure of your neural networks, literally hard-wiring your brain for happiness...not just for the moment, but for the rest of your life.

Goodfinding, is the practice of gratitude, appreciation and optimism, and now you're going to learn how to expand those skills with nostalgia, savoring and anticipation.


How Does The Secret Of Happiness Work?

Why is it a secret? Only because you can't put in a pill, an app, or a quick fix technique. This approach to happiness works...and it needs to you to do a little work too.

And what does this have to do with time travel? You may not realize it, but you're time traveling all of the time. Your busy mind is always drifting through the past, present, and future. So, now let's make that work to your great benefit!

"Any time you need to be happier, just do some time travel...it's that simple."

Eric Barker


Okay, you're not actually traveling through time like the folks in the movies...but
your mind is almost constantly moving through your past and your future, with occasional brief stop-offs in the present.

This is how it works:

  • Your brain's default process is to scan for present threat, review your past for previous threats that my reoccur, and project possibilities for new threats into your future. While this is useful to avoid problems and to prevent repeating old errors, it can keep you in a constant state of anxiety, if you let it.
  • Since this default pattern has survival value and promises protection, our tendency is to overuse it. This brain pattern is actually left over from a time in our history when threats were far more prevalent than they are now.
  • We just don't need to be that hyper vigilant any more, but our brain still operates as if we did. Watch this video by Dr. Rick Hanson, to understand how negative experiences tend to take over, and how you can begin to add more and more positive ones.


As Dr. Hanson suggests, there are ways to expand and enhance positive memories and emotions, so that they ultimately override the negative ones.

So now, we're going to embark on positive time travel, as suggested in Eric Barker's excellent article, How To Use Time Travel To Increase Happiness.

How To Master Positive Time Travel

There are only three time zones to travel...past, present and future. And, as we've discussed, you're already doing that, all of the time, without being aware of it most of the time.

The secret of happiness is to make it positive, and how to master it so that you can use it to enhance your happiness.

Here we go:

  • Positive time travel to your past -- To make sure this builds happiness, the focus here is on all of the good things that have happened. The fun you've had, the joy you've known, the love you've felt and received...this is a good place to start. Then go on to reminisce, be nostalgic and grateful for all of the enjoyable travel, adventure and opportunities that have come your way.

Reminder Tips For Time Travel

Past - Gratitude and nostalgia are the best way to travel through your past.

Present - Appreciate and savor the goodness in your present moment.

Future - Optimistically anticipate the positive events and experiences you want in your future.

  • Positive time travel in your present moment -- Your present is like a time capsule that you are traveling in, leaving your past behind you, and always entering your future, without ever leaving the present moment. Mindfulness, for example, is almost entirely about being awake, aware and alive in your "now." One way to tune into the eternal moment is to pay attention to what you see, hear, smell, sense and feel, with an attitude of appreciation.
  • Positive time travel in your future -- This is where you get to be creative. With an attitude of optimistic anticipation, and a mental focus on the good things you want to happen, you make your future time travel extremely powerful and beneficial to your happiness. Visualize and imagine the experiences you want for yourself going forward. These processes represent an actual antidote to fear and anxiety.

Remember...you're doing this all of the time, whether you know it or not. Your mind doesn't have anywhere else to go except for the past, present and future.

You have many positive experiences in your past, just waiting for your grateful reminiscing. There is so much good in you and all around you, right now..in the precious present. And you have so much good to look forward to.

Discover the secret of happiness by purchasing your copy of our Goodfinding audiobook!


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