Did you
know that the ideal temperature for happiness - is 13.9 degrees Celsius?
Adjust your thermostat, and then read the tips on how to become happier.
Happiness - it's an extremely interesting topic because every one of us understands it differently. It is not surprising that the site is called Buffer happiness worth the number one. Therefore, it is natural that we are so anxious to achieve it.
Personally, I would like to feel happier, and I'm sure everyone would like it. So I thought it would be interesting and useful to find some easy ways to get a little happier, the effectiveness of which would be proved by science. Below are the top 10 ways to be happy from those I have been able to detect.
Perhaps you have already heard something about the article from New York Times, which said the scientifically proven benefits of 7-minute quick charge. So, if you thought before that you do not have time to do exercise, but now you no longer have any reason to give them up.
Physical exercise can greatly increase the degree of happiness and well-being, and scientists have long proven the effectiveness of exercise in the fight against depression. In one of the scientific experiments mentioned in the book Eykora Sean (Shawn Achor) titled "The advantage of being happy» («The Happiness Advantage»), depressed patients were divided into three groups: the first group of volunteers had to treat their depression using medicines from the second - with the help of exercise, from the third - with the help of medicines and exercise in the complex. The results of this study, I was very surprised. Although the patients of all three groups feel equally improved results of the final assessment of their condition were completely different:
Six months later, the patients of the three groups again underwent a medical examination conducted to assess the frequency of relapses. 38% of those treated solely with medication depression, again showed all the symptoms of depression. Those patients, who, along with taking drugs to exercise, too, showed the results are not too good - 31% of recurrences. A key finding were the results in patients being treated for depression with exercise: the relapse rate in this group was only 9%!
You do not have to suffer from depression, to feel the beneficial effects of exercise. They can help you relax, improve brain function and adjust the shape, even if you set a goal to reduce weight.
The authors of the study, the results of which were published in the Journal of Health Psychology, found that people who regularly perform physical exercise, more likely to be happy with your body, even if there are no visible changes take place:
The scientists assessed the weight and shapes people's perception of their own body in 16 men and 18 women before and after the six 40-minute sports and reading books, which were also divided into six sessions lasting 40 minutes. In both cases, weight and body shape is not changed. Meanwhile, after the sports people's perception of their own body has improved in several ways.
We have already studied the effects of exercise and found out how they affect the brain: in particular, they promote the release of endorphins, as evidenced by the picture below.
We all know that sleep helps our body to recover from the day's stress and that it helps us to be more focused and more productive. It turns out that sleep also affects our sense of happiness.
In the book «NutureShock» Po Bronson (Po Bronson) and Ashley Merriman (Ashley Merryman) explain exactly how sleep affects our positive attitude to life:
Negative stimuli are processed in the amygdala, and the positive and neutral memories are processed in the hippocampus. Lack of sleep is largely affects the hippocampus than in the amygdala. As a result, people who do not get enough sleep, at least remember the pleasant events and much more - about unpleasant.
In one of the experiments conducted by Walker, college students who regularly do not get enough sleep, they asked to remember the words from the list. They were able to remember 81% of the words with negative connotations - for example, the word "cancer." However, they were able to remember only 31% of the words with a positive or neutral connotation, like "sunshine" or "basket".
Publication of BPS Research Digest wrote about another study, which also shows that sleep affects our susceptibility to negative emotions. With the help of face recognition tasks, participants are asked to perform the experiment at different times of the day, scientists have tried to figure out how the subjects were influenced by positive and negative emotions. Those participants who had worked all day without a break for a short nap at the end of the day were more prone to negative emotions such as fear or anger.
With the jobs on face recognition, we have proved that those participants who were deprived of sleep a day, to a greater extent been subject to such emotions as anger and fear. Meanwhile, short naps blocked the negative reactivity, increasing the level of positive emotions.
Of course, for your well-being greatly influenced by the duration and quality of sleep.
The authors of another study tried to find out, as the morning mood of employees affects their work throughout the day:
Scientists have discovered that the morning mood of employees affects the productivity of their work throughout the day. The mood in which they came to work, influenced by their perception of the customer, as well as how they respond to the mood of customers.
Managers it is important to remember that the mood of their subordinates determines their performance, including the fact of how much work they can do and how well it is done.
First we have examined in detail the topic of sleep, trying to figure out how much sleep we need to do their jobs effectively.
The trip to and from work that we do every day can have a very tangible impact on our sense of happiness. The fact that we make this way twice a day, five times a week, stipulates that its effects will accumulate over time and make us less and less happy.
As the site says The Art of Manliness, long way to go to work - this is something that can have a huge impact on our quality of life, although we often do not think about it.
While many casual circumstances do not affect our happiness in the long run, because we adapt to them, people will never get used to their daily tedious journey to work and back, because sometimes the movement is normal, and sometimes - just awful . Or, as Harvard psychologist named Daniel Gilbert (Daniel Gilbert), «to ride in traffic - every day a new kind of hell."
Often we try to compensate for the long way to work, buying a big house or agreeing to a higher paying job, but it still does not help.
Two Swiss economist who studied the impact of commuting on happiness, came to the conclusion that these factors can not compensate for the suffering that we experience during long journeys to work.
On his deathbed, people often regret the fact that they spent with their family and friends, not enough time. If you want evidence that such communication is useful, I can cite one study, the results of which can help you be happier now.
Communication with loved ones is essential to happiness, even if we are talking about introverts. Several studies have shown that our happiness depends on how much time we spend with your family and friends.
I really like how it explains Daniel Gilbert of Harvard University:
We are happy when we have a family, we are happy when we have friends, and generally anything that makes us happy, one way or another connected with our family and friends.
Veyllant George (George Vaillant) is the leader of the study of life 268 men, which is held for the past 72 years.
During an interview with Veyllantom, which he gave in March 2008, in which he spoke of his large-scale study, he was asked: "What have you learned as a result of his study of life of men?" He replied, "The only thing that's really important in this life is your relationship with other people. "
He also shared some of the findings made by him in the course of the study, Joshua Wolf Shenk (Joshua Wolf Shenk) from the Atlantic, which relate to how social relations of men affected their sense of happiness:
He found that the ratio of men aged 47 years could tell about the features of their adaptation to old age more than any other factor. Good relationships with siblings, obviously, are the most important: 93% of men leading a happy life at the age of 65 years, at an earlier age had a close relationship with a brother or sister.
The study, whose results were published in the Journal of Socio-Economics, has proven that our relationships with loved ones are worth more than 100,000 dollars.
Based on the results of studies of British consumer panel (British Household Panel Survey) I came to the conclusion that increasing the level of social inclusion brings satisfaction from life, which is estimated at 85,000 pounds per year. The growth in real income, by contrast, is of little happiness.
I think that last sentence is especially important: "the growth of real income, by contrast, brings a little happiness." Thus, we can increase our annual income for hundreds of thousands of dollars and still not feel so happy as if we strengthened our relationships with loved ones.
Another study, of whom wrote in The Longevity Project, allowed to prove that the relationship between human beings and how we help others, are important factors in a long and happy life:
We found that if the participant experiment sincerely believes that he has close friends and relatives, on which it can count on in tough times, his health was quite strong. We hypothesized that participants who were convinced that their love and care for them, to live longer.
But our assumption was incorrect. Regardless of the size of the human environment, the main benefit from the relationship with the other person gets people to help others. Those who help their friends and family, gives advice and takes care of others, usually live to a ripe old age.
In the book "The advantage of being happy," Sean Eykor recommended to spend more time in the fresh air, to feel happier:
If you take the time to stroll down the street on a lovely day, it will bring you a lot of good. One study showed that 20 minutes in the open air in good weather, not only improve mood, but also to expand the boundaries of thinking and improve short-term memory.
This is very good news for those who worry about how to accommodate the new habits into our already busy schedule. 20 minutes - this is a relatively short period of time, so you can use it for a walk during a lunch break or a trip to work.
Scientists from the University of Sussex have also come to the conclusion that walks in the fresh air makes people happier:
Outdoor activities, close to the sea on a sunny warm day - this is the perfect kind of vacation for most of us. In addition, study participants felt much happier when you're outdoors, than when they surrounded the city skyline.
In 2011, the American Meteorological Society published a study that showed the temperature of the air at the time of walks has a much greater impact on our happiness than other variables such as wind speed, humidity, or the average temperature for the day. They also found that the best temperature for happiness - 13.9 degrees Celsius. So before you go on a 20-minute walk, carefully listen to the weather forecast.
The most paradoxical advice on how to be happy, it seemed to me that if you want to be happy, you have to help other people. 100 hours a year (or only 2 hours a week) are the optimal amount of time you can spend on helping others while enriching your own life.
If we return to the book Sean Eykora, we find there the following:
When scientists talked with 150 people on their recent purchases and acquisitions, they found out that the money spent on various activities and events - such as concerts and dinner together in a restaurant - bring people a lot more fun than material purchases, such as shoes, TVs or expensive watches. Money spent on other people - the so-called pro-social spending - also increase the level of happiness.
Recently, the Journal of Happiness Studies published results of a study aimed at investigating precisely this issue:
Experiment participants were asked to recall their last purchase made for himself or for another person, and then tell about the feeling of their own happiness. Later, they were asked to whom they would have spent the money you receive unexpectedly - at yourself or another person. Participants who had to recall a purchase made for the other person feel happier after the story about the purchase. More importantly, more than happy participants themselves felt, the more likely they suddenly decided to spend the money on someone else soon.
Thus, the money spent on other people, bring us more happiness than buying for themselves the most. How about having to spend their time on other? The purpose of the study, which was attended by German volunteers, was to find out how the volunteers felt when they were deprived of opportunities to help others.
Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but before the reunification of Germany, volunteering was extremely common in Germany. After the reunification of much of the infrastructure of volunteer activity disappeared, and people suddenly lost the opportunity to engage in it. A comparison of the feeling of well-being in these study participants and a control group of people whose lives are not such changes occur, we came to the conclusion that volunteering is beneficial to people, increasing the level of life satisfaction.
In his book titled "Flowering: a fantastic new look for the happiness and well-being» («Florish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being»), Professor Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania (Martin Seligman) explains how helping others can improve our quality of life:
We, the scientists found that when a man does good to others, it raises the level of his sense of well-being more than any other of his actions.
By itself, a smile can be a factor in the improvement of our health, but it is more effective if it is supported by positive thoughts:
Results of a new study conducted by researchers at Michigan State University, showed that officers working with clients who are insincere smile throughout the day, feel a worsening of mood and aversion to work, which in turn affects their performance. Meanwhile, those employees who smile genuinely, while experiencing positive emotions and thinking of something good - about a vacation in the tropics or the performance of their children - are in a good mood and are more productive.
Of course, you need to train to smile sincerely - that is, not only to smile to your lips, but also your eyes. The difference you can easily see in the mirror.
According to the authors PsyBlog, a smile can improve our attention and help us to better cope with cognitive tasks:
A smile makes us feel better, which also increases the flexibility of our attention and the ability to think holistically. When Johnson and his colleagues decided to test this hypothesis, they found that participants who were smiling more, better cope with the tasks at attention.
Smile - it's also a good remedy for the pain that we feel in the difficult moments of life.
Smile - it's one of the ways to reduce stress in difficult situations. Psychologists call this the facial feedback hypothesis. Even if you force yourself to smile without feeling positive emotions, it is enough to slightly improve your mood.
Obviously, planning a vacation or short break in the work can increase happiness. The results of the study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, showed that the highest levels of happiness are marked at a stage of planning a vacation where workers enjoy the anticipation of vacation:
The study found that the anticipation of the upcoming holidays contributed to increasing levels of happiness for a period of up to eight weeks.
After the end of the vacation, most people experienced a sharp drop in the level of happiness to the original performance.
Sean Eykor writes about it in his book as follows:
In one study says that people who only plan to watch your favorite movie, is thus increase the level of endorphins in the blood by 27%.
If you can not go on vacation right now, even if you can not just meet in the evening with friends, plan any event, even if it takes place only after a month or even a year. Then, if you ever need to feel happier, just remind yourself of that event.
We often hear that meditation - it's a great way to improve our concentration, mental clarity and focus, and regain peace of mind. Now it turned out that meditation is also useful to improve the level of happiness:
In one study, researchers from multidisciplinary hospital in Massachusetts studied the brain scans of 16 volunteers before and after 8 weeks of meditation. The findings, published in the January issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, proved that after the completion of those parts of the brain of volunteers that are associated with self-awareness and compassion, have increased, and those that are associated with stress, decreased.
That is meditation literally cleans and soothes our mind, so it is often called the most effective way to achieve happiness. According to Sean Eykora long meditation can make a person happier:
Studies show that in the moments immediately after the meditation, we experience the peace of mind and satisfaction, in addition we have a better understanding of themselves and are more likely to empathize. Studies also show that regular meditation can permanently increase the level of happiness.
The fact that we can actually change the structure of our brain through meditation, was the most surprising discovery for me, as if we ourselves are feeling right now, it will soon pass.
At first glance, this advice seems simple enough, but personally I found that, if followed, it can dramatically change a person's world. There are plenty of ways to express their gratitude: You can keep a log of where will record everything that you are grateful for, or find their own way of expressing gratitude for the assistance of the people around you.
As a result of the experiment, during which the participants had to write down in a notebook every day what they can be thankful, it was found that their mood improved just from what they have done:
The experimental results show that the deliberate concentration on someone else's good deed to a man may benefit emotionally and in terms of interpersonal relationships.
In another study, experts have tried using the letters of appreciation to learn how gratitude affects our happiness:
The experiment involved 219 men and women who have had three weeks to write three letters of gratitude.
The experimental results showed that writing letters of appreciation increased the feeling of happiness and satisfaction with life and reduced symptoms of depression.
With age, you will become happier.
Finally it is worth noting that with age, especially when we went through a period of maturity, we naturally become happier. Scientists do not fully figured out why, but they already have a few suggestions in this regard:
Scientists have found that if older people show images of persons or situations, they are usually better at remembering those which depicted the positive.
Other studies have shown that older people are trying to increase the number of their life situations that increase the mood: for example, they tend not to deal with those people who can frustrate them. Other scientists believe that older people do not learn to focus on the loss and disappointment due to unmet goals, and stick to their goals that promotes well-being.
So if you have previously thought that old age will make you unhappy, you should throw themselves from these sad thoughts: most likely in old age you will be looking at a lot of things with a much more optimistic than now
1. Exercise regularly - 7 minutes would be sufficient.
Perhaps you have already heard something about the article from New York Times, which said the scientifically proven benefits of 7-minute quick charge. So, if you thought before that you do not have time to do exercise, but now you no longer have any reason to give them up.
Physical exercise can greatly increase the degree of happiness and well-being, and scientists have long proven the effectiveness of exercise in the fight against depression. In one of the scientific experiments mentioned in the book Eykora Sean (Shawn Achor) titled "The advantage of being happy» («The Happiness Advantage»), depressed patients were divided into three groups: the first group of volunteers had to treat their depression using medicines from the second - with the help of exercise, from the third - with the help of medicines and exercise in the complex. The results of this study, I was very surprised. Although the patients of all three groups feel equally improved results of the final assessment of their condition were completely different:
Six months later, the patients of the three groups again underwent a medical examination conducted to assess the frequency of relapses. 38% of those treated solely with medication depression, again showed all the symptoms of depression. Those patients, who, along with taking drugs to exercise, too, showed the results are not too good - 31% of recurrences. A key finding were the results in patients being treated for depression with exercise: the relapse rate in this group was only 9%!
You do not have to suffer from depression, to feel the beneficial effects of exercise. They can help you relax, improve brain function and adjust the shape, even if you set a goal to reduce weight.
The authors of the study, the results of which were published in the Journal of Health Psychology, found that people who regularly perform physical exercise, more likely to be happy with your body, even if there are no visible changes take place:
The scientists assessed the weight and shapes people's perception of their own body in 16 men and 18 women before and after the six 40-minute sports and reading books, which were also divided into six sessions lasting 40 minutes. In both cases, weight and body shape is not changed. Meanwhile, after the sports people's perception of their own body has improved in several ways.
We have already studied the effects of exercise and found out how they affect the brain: in particular, they promote the release of endorphins, as evidenced by the picture below.
2. Sleep more, and you'll be less prone to negative emotions.
We all know that sleep helps our body to recover from the day's stress and that it helps us to be more focused and more productive. It turns out that sleep also affects our sense of happiness.
In the book «NutureShock» Po Bronson (Po Bronson) and Ashley Merriman (Ashley Merryman) explain exactly how sleep affects our positive attitude to life:
Negative stimuli are processed in the amygdala, and the positive and neutral memories are processed in the hippocampus. Lack of sleep is largely affects the hippocampus than in the amygdala. As a result, people who do not get enough sleep, at least remember the pleasant events and much more - about unpleasant.
In one of the experiments conducted by Walker, college students who regularly do not get enough sleep, they asked to remember the words from the list. They were able to remember 81% of the words with negative connotations - for example, the word "cancer." However, they were able to remember only 31% of the words with a positive or neutral connotation, like "sunshine" or "basket".
Publication of BPS Research Digest wrote about another study, which also shows that sleep affects our susceptibility to negative emotions. With the help of face recognition tasks, participants are asked to perform the experiment at different times of the day, scientists have tried to figure out how the subjects were influenced by positive and negative emotions. Those participants who had worked all day without a break for a short nap at the end of the day were more prone to negative emotions such as fear or anger.
With the jobs on face recognition, we have proved that those participants who were deprived of sleep a day, to a greater extent been subject to such emotions as anger and fear. Meanwhile, short naps blocked the negative reactivity, increasing the level of positive emotions.
Of course, for your well-being greatly influenced by the duration and quality of sleep.
The authors of another study tried to find out, as the morning mood of employees affects their work throughout the day:
Scientists have discovered that the morning mood of employees affects the productivity of their work throughout the day. The mood in which they came to work, influenced by their perception of the customer, as well as how they respond to the mood of customers.
Managers it is important to remember that the mood of their subordinates determines their performance, including the fact of how much work they can do and how well it is done.
First we have examined in detail the topic of sleep, trying to figure out how much sleep we need to do their jobs effectively.
3. Upgrade closer to the place of work: less long journey to work - it's better than a big house.
The trip to and from work that we do every day can have a very tangible impact on our sense of happiness. The fact that we make this way twice a day, five times a week, stipulates that its effects will accumulate over time and make us less and less happy.
As the site says The Art of Manliness, long way to go to work - this is something that can have a huge impact on our quality of life, although we often do not think about it.
While many casual circumstances do not affect our happiness in the long run, because we adapt to them, people will never get used to their daily tedious journey to work and back, because sometimes the movement is normal, and sometimes - just awful . Or, as Harvard psychologist named Daniel Gilbert (Daniel Gilbert), «to ride in traffic - every day a new kind of hell."
Often we try to compensate for the long way to work, buying a big house or agreeing to a higher paying job, but it still does not help.
Two Swiss economist who studied the impact of commuting on happiness, came to the conclusion that these factors can not compensate for the suffering that we experience during long journeys to work.
4. Spend more time with friends and family so that you do not regret the missed opportunities.
On his deathbed, people often regret the fact that they spent with their family and friends, not enough time. If you want evidence that such communication is useful, I can cite one study, the results of which can help you be happier now.
Communication with loved ones is essential to happiness, even if we are talking about introverts. Several studies have shown that our happiness depends on how much time we spend with your family and friends.
I really like how it explains Daniel Gilbert of Harvard University:
We are happy when we have a family, we are happy when we have friends, and generally anything that makes us happy, one way or another connected with our family and friends.
Veyllant George (George Vaillant) is the leader of the study of life 268 men, which is held for the past 72 years.
During an interview with Veyllantom, which he gave in March 2008, in which he spoke of his large-scale study, he was asked: "What have you learned as a result of his study of life of men?" He replied, "The only thing that's really important in this life is your relationship with other people. "
He also shared some of the findings made by him in the course of the study, Joshua Wolf Shenk (Joshua Wolf Shenk) from the Atlantic, which relate to how social relations of men affected their sense of happiness:
He found that the ratio of men aged 47 years could tell about the features of their adaptation to old age more than any other factor. Good relationships with siblings, obviously, are the most important: 93% of men leading a happy life at the age of 65 years, at an earlier age had a close relationship with a brother or sister.
The study, whose results were published in the Journal of Socio-Economics, has proven that our relationships with loved ones are worth more than 100,000 dollars.
Based on the results of studies of British consumer panel (British Household Panel Survey) I came to the conclusion that increasing the level of social inclusion brings satisfaction from life, which is estimated at 85,000 pounds per year. The growth in real income, by contrast, is of little happiness.
I think that last sentence is especially important: "the growth of real income, by contrast, brings a little happiness." Thus, we can increase our annual income for hundreds of thousands of dollars and still not feel so happy as if we strengthened our relationships with loved ones.
Another study, of whom wrote in The Longevity Project, allowed to prove that the relationship between human beings and how we help others, are important factors in a long and happy life:
We found that if the participant experiment sincerely believes that he has close friends and relatives, on which it can count on in tough times, his health was quite strong. We hypothesized that participants who were convinced that their love and care for them, to live longer.
But our assumption was incorrect. Regardless of the size of the human environment, the main benefit from the relationship with the other person gets people to help others. Those who help their friends and family, gives advice and takes care of others, usually live to a ripe old age.
5. Often Walk: The best temperature for happiness - 13.9 degrees Celsius.
In the book "The advantage of being happy," Sean Eykor recommended to spend more time in the fresh air, to feel happier:
If you take the time to stroll down the street on a lovely day, it will bring you a lot of good. One study showed that 20 minutes in the open air in good weather, not only improve mood, but also to expand the boundaries of thinking and improve short-term memory.
This is very good news for those who worry about how to accommodate the new habits into our already busy schedule. 20 minutes - this is a relatively short period of time, so you can use it for a walk during a lunch break or a trip to work.
Scientists from the University of Sussex have also come to the conclusion that walks in the fresh air makes people happier:
Outdoor activities, close to the sea on a sunny warm day - this is the perfect kind of vacation for most of us. In addition, study participants felt much happier when you're outdoors, than when they surrounded the city skyline.
In 2011, the American Meteorological Society published a study that showed the temperature of the air at the time of walks has a much greater impact on our happiness than other variables such as wind speed, humidity, or the average temperature for the day. They also found that the best temperature for happiness - 13.9 degrees Celsius. So before you go on a 20-minute walk, carefully listen to the weather forecast.
6. Help other people, 100 hours per year - the magic number.
The most paradoxical advice on how to be happy, it seemed to me that if you want to be happy, you have to help other people. 100 hours a year (or only 2 hours a week) are the optimal amount of time you can spend on helping others while enriching your own life.
If we return to the book Sean Eykora, we find there the following:
When scientists talked with 150 people on their recent purchases and acquisitions, they found out that the money spent on various activities and events - such as concerts and dinner together in a restaurant - bring people a lot more fun than material purchases, such as shoes, TVs or expensive watches. Money spent on other people - the so-called pro-social spending - also increase the level of happiness.
Recently, the Journal of Happiness Studies published results of a study aimed at investigating precisely this issue:
Experiment participants were asked to recall their last purchase made for himself or for another person, and then tell about the feeling of their own happiness. Later, they were asked to whom they would have spent the money you receive unexpectedly - at yourself or another person. Participants who had to recall a purchase made for the other person feel happier after the story about the purchase. More importantly, more than happy participants themselves felt, the more likely they suddenly decided to spend the money on someone else soon.
Thus, the money spent on other people, bring us more happiness than buying for themselves the most. How about having to spend their time on other? The purpose of the study, which was attended by German volunteers, was to find out how the volunteers felt when they were deprived of opportunities to help others.
Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but before the reunification of Germany, volunteering was extremely common in Germany. After the reunification of much of the infrastructure of volunteer activity disappeared, and people suddenly lost the opportunity to engage in it. A comparison of the feeling of well-being in these study participants and a control group of people whose lives are not such changes occur, we came to the conclusion that volunteering is beneficial to people, increasing the level of life satisfaction.
In his book titled "Flowering: a fantastic new look for the happiness and well-being» («Florish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being»), Professor Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania (Martin Seligman) explains how helping others can improve our quality of life:
We, the scientists found that when a man does good to others, it raises the level of his sense of well-being more than any other of his actions.
7. Smile more often: smile can even relieve pain.
By itself, a smile can be a factor in the improvement of our health, but it is more effective if it is supported by positive thoughts:
Results of a new study conducted by researchers at Michigan State University, showed that officers working with clients who are insincere smile throughout the day, feel a worsening of mood and aversion to work, which in turn affects their performance. Meanwhile, those employees who smile genuinely, while experiencing positive emotions and thinking of something good - about a vacation in the tropics or the performance of their children - are in a good mood and are more productive.
Of course, you need to train to smile sincerely - that is, not only to smile to your lips, but also your eyes. The difference you can easily see in the mirror.
According to the authors PsyBlog, a smile can improve our attention and help us to better cope with cognitive tasks:
A smile makes us feel better, which also increases the flexibility of our attention and the ability to think holistically. When Johnson and his colleagues decided to test this hypothesis, they found that participants who were smiling more, better cope with the tasks at attention.
Smile - it's also a good remedy for the pain that we feel in the difficult moments of life.
Smile - it's one of the ways to reduce stress in difficult situations. Psychologists call this the facial feedback hypothesis. Even if you force yourself to smile without feeling positive emotions, it is enough to slightly improve your mood.
8. Plan your trip - and not necessarily in reality they go.
Obviously, planning a vacation or short break in the work can increase happiness. The results of the study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, showed that the highest levels of happiness are marked at a stage of planning a vacation where workers enjoy the anticipation of vacation:
The study found that the anticipation of the upcoming holidays contributed to increasing levels of happiness for a period of up to eight weeks.
After the end of the vacation, most people experienced a sharp drop in the level of happiness to the original performance.
Sean Eykor writes about it in his book as follows:
In one study says that people who only plan to watch your favorite movie, is thus increase the level of endorphins in the blood by 27%.
If you can not go on vacation right now, even if you can not just meet in the evening with friends, plan any event, even if it takes place only after a month or even a year. Then, if you ever need to feel happier, just remind yourself of that event.
9. Master the technique of meditation and set your mind on a wave of happiness.
We often hear that meditation - it's a great way to improve our concentration, mental clarity and focus, and regain peace of mind. Now it turned out that meditation is also useful to improve the level of happiness:
In one study, researchers from multidisciplinary hospital in Massachusetts studied the brain scans of 16 volunteers before and after 8 weeks of meditation. The findings, published in the January issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, proved that after the completion of those parts of the brain of volunteers that are associated with self-awareness and compassion, have increased, and those that are associated with stress, decreased.
That is meditation literally cleans and soothes our mind, so it is often called the most effective way to achieve happiness. According to Sean Eykora long meditation can make a person happier:
Studies show that in the moments immediately after the meditation, we experience the peace of mind and satisfaction, in addition we have a better understanding of themselves and are more likely to empathize. Studies also show that regular meditation can permanently increase the level of happiness.
The fact that we can actually change the structure of our brain through meditation, was the most surprising discovery for me, as if we ourselves are feeling right now, it will soon pass.
10. Learn to give thanks - it will bring you happiness and satisfaction with life.
At first glance, this advice seems simple enough, but personally I found that, if followed, it can dramatically change a person's world. There are plenty of ways to express their gratitude: You can keep a log of where will record everything that you are grateful for, or find their own way of expressing gratitude for the assistance of the people around you.
As a result of the experiment, during which the participants had to write down in a notebook every day what they can be thankful, it was found that their mood improved just from what they have done:
The experimental results show that the deliberate concentration on someone else's good deed to a man may benefit emotionally and in terms of interpersonal relationships.
In another study, experts have tried using the letters of appreciation to learn how gratitude affects our happiness:
The experiment involved 219 men and women who have had three weeks to write three letters of gratitude.
The experimental results showed that writing letters of appreciation increased the feeling of happiness and satisfaction with life and reduced symptoms of depression.
With age, you will become happier.
Finally it is worth noting that with age, especially when we went through a period of maturity, we naturally become happier. Scientists do not fully figured out why, but they already have a few suggestions in this regard:
Scientists have found that if older people show images of persons or situations, they are usually better at remembering those which depicted the positive.
Other studies have shown that older people are trying to increase the number of their life situations that increase the mood: for example, they tend not to deal with those people who can frustrate them. Other scientists believe that older people do not learn to focus on the loss and disappointment due to unmet goals, and stick to their goals that promotes well-being.
So if you have previously thought that old age will make you unhappy, you should throw themselves from these sad thoughts: most likely in old age you will be looking at a lot of things with a much more optimistic than now