Most people lead unhappy lives. How do you get from here to happy? In “the pursuit of happiness” there are many great activities you can do that will actually help you live happier. Consider one or more of the following:
Smile more. A Michigan State University business school study found workers who smile as a result of cultivating positive thoughts—such as a tropical vacation or a child’s recital—improve their mood and withdraw less. The study found smiling can also improve your attention span and help you perform better on cognitive tasks. Smiling makes us feel good, which also increases our attentional flexibility and our ability to think holistically.
Plan a trip (even if you don’t take it). Simply planning a vacation or break from work can improve our happiness. A study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life showed that the highest spike in happiness came during the planning stage of a vacation as people enjoy the sense of anticipation:
“In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks. After the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people.” If you can’t take the time for a vacation right now, or even a night out with friends, put something on the calendar—even if it’s a month or a year down the road. Then, whenever you need a boost of happiness, remind yourself about it.
Practice daily gratitude. There are lots of ways to practice gratitude, from keeping a journal of things you’re grateful for, sharing three good things that happen each day with a friend or your partner, or going out of your way to show gratitude when others help you. The key is to make this a regular habit and to do it with intention. Think about creating a small gratitude ritual. For example, every morning when you have your coffee, try thinking of three things that you appreciate about the previous day. Or make it a habit to jot down three positive things about your day before you go to bed at night. Your three things can be seemingly small (a beautiful flower you saw during a walk) or big (the fact that you’re healthy). In fact, science shows that it’s the small everyday experiences that make us happier, compared to big life events.
Surround yourself with positive people. Happiness is contagious. A landmark 2008 study found that living within a mile of a happy person boosts your own happiness by 25%. If you’re feeling down, reach out to a friend who generally has a more positive attitude. Your brain has mirror neurons that will literally mimic what another person is expressing; so when you need a bit of positive infusion, connect with those who share it.
Get some rest. In the brain, negative stimuli get processed by the amygdala; positive or neutral memories get processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. The result is that sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories yet recall gloomy memories just fine. In one experiment, sleep-deprived college students tried to memorize a list of words. They could remember 81 percent of the words with a negative connotation, like cancer. But they could remember only 31 percent of the words with a positive or neutral connotation, like sunshine or basket.
Spend time with family and friends. Not staying in touch with friends and family is one of the top five regrets of the dying. 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. Harvard expert Daniel Gilbert explains it: “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.” Conversely, one study found that low social interaction—and in turn, loneliness—can be as bad for you as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and is twice as bad for your health as obesity.
Live in awe. Look up at the stars at night. Pull over on the side of the road when you pass a beautiful vista, and take it in for a moment. Awe is a powerful—even awesome, you might say—human emotion. And a handful of recent studies have found a link between experiencing a sense of awe—that feeling you get when you look up at a starry sky or out across a wide open valley—with feeling less stressed and more satisfied. People who’ve recently had an awe-inspiring experience are also more likely to say they feel more curious about the world around them and to act more generously toward others.
Be kind, every day. Research has shown that spending money on others makes us happier than spending money on ourselves, and doing small acts of kindness increases life satisfaction. Even the smallest nice gesture can make someone’s day.
Hold the door open for someone behind you.
Say “thank you” and mean it when you pick up your next cup of coffee.
Donate clothes to a local shelter.
Help an elderly neighbor with yard work.
Bake a dessert to share with your coworkers.
Invest in experiences, not things. Research shows people report feeling happier when they spend their money on experiences rather than objects. We remember experiences for a longer period of time and our brains can re-live them, making our positive emotions last longer. So instead of that new flat screen that’s only 5 inches larger than your current flat screen, consider going on a weekend as a family or inviting friends to the movies with you.
Read an adventure story. You may be able to get the benefits of an awe-inspiring experience just by reading about someone else’s. A small 2012 study found that even when people simply read about someone else’s awe-inspiring experience, they were more satisfied, less stressed, and more willing to volunteer their time to help others compared with people who were simply shown something that made them feel happy.
Get outdoors. Stressed out? Head for a forest. One study found that a group of students sent into the trees for two nights had lower levels of cortisol—a hormone often used as a marker for stress—than those who spent the same two nights in a city. In another study, researchers found a decrease in both heart rate and cortisol levels in people in the forest when compared to those in urban areas. “Stressful states can be relieved by forest therapy,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
Get some culture. Visiting a museum or seeing a concert is yet another way to boost your mood. A study that examined the anxiety, depression, and life satisfaction of over 50,000 adults offered an interesting link: People who participated in more cultural activities, like attending a play, reported lower levels of anxiety and depression as well as a higher satisfaction with their overall quality of life.
Don’t hold a grudge. The reason this is so bad for your happiness is because the negative emotions associated with grudges eventually give way to resentment and thoughts of revenge. In turn, this leaves little room in your emotional repertoire for anything else, like happiness, according to the Mayo Clinic. Further, decades of research have linked this simple act to better overall heart health, less psychological stress, improved physical ability, and longer life.
In life and work, leaders can often chase after ideas that have no truth in reality. Out of a desire to find a shortcut, or achieve a personal or professional goal, we can latch on to one or more lies of corporate culture.