What the Research Says About Happiness

While we may be able to tell what we do and don’t like in terms of our own lives, it’s also important to consider that we are animals with specific needs, and desires. Since we are animals that can feel a large range of emotions, it only makes sense that we have certain necessities in terms of being happy. Recently there has been a lot of research on positive psychology, or figuring out what we can do to fulfill these human desires and become our happiest. Here are some of the most important and easiest things you can do to meet nature and science halfway.

7 Habits of Happy People

This list is based off of some of the most influential, proven, and tested theories regarding happiness. Try adding, building or at least recognizing these factors in your life.

Keep a Happiness Journal

Every night, write down three things that went well today and why they went well. Your answers can be simple – “my friend gave me a chocolate chip cookie because she knows I love them.” That’s it! I actually did this activity for several months last year and can attest that it really does train your brain. How do I know that? Because throughout the day when good things would happen to me, even small things like my example above, I would immediately think about them instead of just letting my mind pass over small joys like that one – “oooh, maybe this could be one of my three happy things today!” Just like practicing photographers trained their mind to see the beauty in minute things, so too does writing about happiness help you channel the happy energy that exists around you. I also found my journal of happy thoughts and read through them all recently – it was an amazing experience to see how many great things, big and small, happened to me each day. I haven’t done this activity in awhile, but definitely plan to get back into it this month!

Gratitude and Ambition

What are two more things that can make us happier? Ambition and gratitude. Lucky for you, gratitude is a theme we will use for some creative and spiritual activities later this month! But in terms of ambition, it has been proven that we are happier when we are working to achieve ambitious goals. Have you done Day One’s Good Livings Guide yet? It is all about setting goals for ourselves and making sure we follow through on them. If you want to be happier and achieve more, check it out! Our choices often reflect the easier path, being busy and striving for challenging goals has proven to increase our bliss.

Positive Relationships

Here, we learn that relationships with friends and family are one of the biggest keys to happiness. I was struck by this thought: “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.” Yeah, that kind of makes a lot of sense.

Just Smile

Here we learn about W.V. Sugathapala, a man who chooses happiness and acceptance everyday, and brings joy to himself and those around him because of it. At 2:10 I love that he starts talking about time and the connectedness of our lives in terms of anger and jealousy. With such little time, why do we choose to hold in anger or jealousy when we could be working on creating and being the best of ourselves there is?

Now, what will you do this month to work on these happiness factors? Reach out to friends or family? Reach out to that co-worker who always seems kind of down? Finally use that gym pass? Do the Good Livings Guide and come face to face with your goals? Whatever you choose, good luck! You can do it!