Tips On Happiness And How To Get Happy

Tips On Happiness And How To Get Happy https://ift.tt/2xo14oo June 29, 2019 · Tips,Happiness,life Happiness is so interesting because we all have different ideas about what it is and how to get it. I would love to be happier, as I'm sure most people would, so I thought it would be interesting to find some ways to become a happier person that is actually backed up by science. Did you know that happy people are healthier people? Studies consistently show that those with a "Glass half full mentality" can boast lower blood pressure, less stress, healthier body weights, and stronger hearts than their less optimistic neighbors. There's something to having a positive outlook on life. Exercise has such a profound effect on our happiness and well-being that it's actually been proven to be an effective strategy for overcoming depression. In a study cited in Shawn Achor's book, The Happiness Advantage 1, three groups of patients treated their depression with either medication, exercise, or a combination of the two. We've explored exercise in depth before, and looked at what it does to our brains, such as releasing proteins and endorphins that make us feel happier, as you can see in the image below. It turns out, it's also important for our happiness. Our commute to the office can have a surprisingly powerful impact on our happiness. The fact that we tend to do this twice a day, five days a week, makes it unsurprising that its effect would build up over time and make us less and less happy. While many voluntary conditions don't affect our happiness in the long term because we acclimate to them, people never get accustomed to their daily trek to work because sometimes the traffic is awful and sometimes it's not. Two Swiss economists who studied the effect of commuting on happiness found that such factors could not make up for the misery created by a long commute. If you want more evidence that it's beneficial for you, I've found some research that proves it can make you happier right now. Social time is highly valuable when it comes to improving our happiness, even for introverts. Several studies have found that time spent with friends and family makes a big difference in how happy we feel, generally. We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends. In an interview in the March 2008 newsletter to the Grant Study subjects, Vaillant was asked, "What have you learned from the Grant Study men?" Vaillant's response: "That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people." Actual changes in income, on the other hand, buy very little happiness. So we could increase our annual income by hundreds of thousands of dollars and still not be as happy as if we increased the strength of our social relationships. Participants were found to be substantially happier outdoors in all natural environments than they were in urban environments. One of the most counterintuitive pieces of advice I found is that to make yourself feel happier, you should help others. Spending money on other people, called "Pro social spending," also boosts happiness. Participants recalled a previous purchase made for either themselves or someone else and then reported their happiness. Participants assigned to recall a purchase made for someone else reported feeling significantly happier immediately after this recollection; most importantly, the happier participants felt, the more likely they were to choose to spend a windfall on someone else in the near future. So spending money on other people makes us happier than buying stuff for ourselves. As opposed to actually taking a holiday, it seems that planning a vacation or just a break from work can improve our happiness. In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks. Happiness --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/roger-keyserling/support

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