Count Your Blessings
Write down five things you are grateful for and see your happiness quotient go up, says Sonja Lyubomirsky, an experimental psychologist.
Hear the Music
When older people undergoing eye surgery listened to their choice of music, they had significantly lower heart rates and blood pressure, claims a study.
Have Faith
David Myers, a social psychologist at Michigan’s Hope College, says that faith provides social support, a sense of purpose and a reason to focus beyond the self, all of which help root people in their communities.
Seek Positive Emotion As a Path To Success
A team of psychologists concluded that happiness is often a result of positive emotions.
Identify With Your Heritage
A recent study showed that adolescents of Mexican and Chinese ethnicity maintained feelings of happiness despite daily stress when they had a strong sense of cultural identity.
Use a Happy Memory As a Guide
Scanning your memory bank and using material for reinventing yourself can be a key to happiness, says Barbara Becker-Holstein, psychologist and author of Enchanted Self: A Positive Therapy.
Play the Part of an Optimist
“Positive thoughts and behaviour have a positive impact on the brain’s biochemistry,” says psychologist Mary Ann Troiani. “[They] boost your serotonin levels and signal that you’re happy...”
Tell your story to Someone
Walker says that storytelling works best when there is a lot of audience diversity — it helps to tell the story many times to a variety of people.
Keep Your Expectations Realistic
Researchers in the British Medical Journal decoded the Danes’ secret of happiness. The lasting impact of the Danes’ victory in the 1992 European Football Championship has kept them in a state of euphoria since; and the nation, while satisfied, has shown low expectations for the coming year.
Visualise Happiness
Many psychologists ask people to imagine or picture what they would like in their life, creating a mental state that makes the person think that it is achievable. “If you experience that visualisation with your eyes closed, your mind doesn’t know if it’s real or unreal,’’ says Troiani.
Marry Happy
Research done by an economist at the University of Warwick suggests that if you’re married to someone who is happy, then you are happy as well.
Make More Money Than Your Peers Money can bring happiness especially when you make more than people in your age group, says a sociological study done in 2005 by researchers at Pennsylvania State University.
Source: TimesofIndia and Time Mag.