How to be happy
Hot air balloons © Sandra Layne
In my previous post, Don’t worry be happy, I promised to show a few exercises to help you rewire your brain to jump-start your day.
First, I would like you to perform a quick exercise. Close your eyes and think about the color red for 10 seconds. Then, open your eyes. This simple exercise emphasizes how easily we can rewire our brains to focus on a specific task. In this case, to fixate our pinhole awareness on highlighting the red items that surround us.
Positive psychologists suggest you practice every day, —to permanently rewire your brain—, the following exercise routines:
- Be thankful for 5 gifts that have been bestowed on you.
- Jot down 3 things you enjoyed at work.
Daughter hugging father
© Svitlana Pavzyuk
Studies show that being thankful makes us happy. In the beginning, you can be thankful about anything nice which has happened in your life. As the days go by, you should try to be more specific. It’s a good exercise to focus on the previous day’s blessings.
Applauding your presentation
© Aldo Murillo
As in the previous case, you are making a habit of searching for good things. In this case, you’ll be rewiring your brain to look for nice things you do at work. In other words, you’re growing an antenna to look for opportunities that you would enjoy getting involved with.
These simple routines make a lot of sense. By practicing them, you discover, or become aware, that good things are also happening to you, which help you to immediately raise your happiness level.
Happy or negative emotions are contagious
Emotions causing ripples
© David Joyner
As we saw in the previous Telling it like it is post, we have a fundamental need to connect, which is reflected in our need to empathize with others. We are biologically endowed with a set of specialized neurons called mirror neurons, whose sole purpose is to mimic those who surround us.
Picture your boss arriving at a meeting with a dark face and scowling. It only takes two minutes for the mood contagion to affect others in the meeting. After they leave, they will themselves infect their group with their sour mood. Each of us is indirectly related to approximately 1,000 people three levels away in our network. So, imagine the enormous harm one dark guy can do to the mood of others in only a few minutes of a grumpy morning.
Fortunately, people in a negative mood tend to isolate themselves, while their counterparts network with intensity.
Happiness can be experienced or remembered. Of course, the story we tell ourselves about our lives has more value to us than what we have really experienced. E.g. I’m sure sister Theresa was very happy while living very miserably. So, how we value what we do has a direct impact on our happiness. In other words, performing virtuous deeds makes us happier.
Obviously, there are some more profound ways of raising our level of happiness, which I’ll soon happily ripple away.
