Underground Web World

12/04/2025

Malcolm Young. Photo by Bob King

11/28/2025

11/24/2025

Positive emotions can genuinely reshape the brain through neuroplasticity. Practices such as gratitude, mindfulness, kindness, and optimistic thinking increase feel-good chemicals like dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, and oxytocin, which support calmness, bonding, and emotional wellbeing.

Research shows that activities like gratitude journaling activate and strengthen the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in emotional regulation and decision-making, making positive feelings easier to access over time.

Optimism is linked to greater activity in the left prefrontal cortex, a region tied to motivation and long-term planning, and that repeated practice can shift the brain’s default patterns toward hope and possibility. In contrast, chronic stress elevates cortisol, which can harm vital brain structures such as the hippocampus, but cultivating positive emotions helps buffer against these effects.

In the end, when you focus on what’s good, your brain actually begins to rewire itself through neuroplasticity. This is the brain’s built-in ability to reshape its own neural pathways based on what you repeatedly think about, feel, or experience. The more you return your attention to something positive, meaningful, or safe, the more you strengthen the circuits linked to reward and emotional wellbeing.

It’s a lot like building muscle. Each time you practice gratitude, mindfulness, or a simple positive reflection, you’re reinforcing the pathways that help you notice and feel good more naturally. And of course the opposite is true too. When you continually dwell on stress or worst-case scenarios, the brain becomes more efficient at spotting threats.

Over time, your consistent focus becomes your default setting. If you train your awareness toward possibility and solutions, your mind starts to meet life from that place. This doesn’t mean pretending everything is fine when it isn’t. It means actively choosing to see the whole picture, including what’s supportive, nourishing, or hopeful. That conscious choice about where to place your attention is one of the most powerful ways to reshape your emotional patterns and the way your brain responds to the world.

11/20/2025

VIOLENT FORCE
Malevolent assault of tomorrow
November 1987
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Recorded at Karo Musik studio, Munster, West Germany, produced by Kalle Trapp, released by Roadrunner Records.

11/12/2025

Check out our D.C. Bands page (by area)!

One of the best lists of metalbands in the Washington, D.C. area by location.

11/10/2025

Great photography ♥️

11/10/2025

Here's a killer old MORBID ANGEL pic from back in the late 80's! Never stop the (Altars of) Madness...

11/05/2025

Richie Kotzen and John 5 will be here Wednesday with Vern Daysel! More info: https://www.ticketmaster.com/richie-kotzen-john-5-leesburg-virginia-11-05-2025/event/010062AD97857F21

11/05/2025

Artwork found on Pinterest ! 🐶

11/05/2025

10/30/2025

The alternative to Red Sonja. Dark warrior fantasy pin-up art by Clyde Caldwell.

10/30/2025

Here's another old photo of Quorthon from BATHORY, this was taken back in the classic "Blood Fire Death" album era...

(scan from Raw Magazine #9 - December 1988)