Happy people have a set of habits that distinguishes them from the sad and stressed. These include letting go of grudges, expressing gratitude, treating others with kindness and seeing problems as challenges. Living in the present, waking up at the same time each morning, eating right and exercising are other ones.

More time on electronic devices can directly decline our happiness. 

Large amount of time Adolescents spend interacting with electronic devices may have Direct links to unhappiness and may have displaced time once spent on more beneficial activities, Reading to decline and happiness. The fundamental shift in how Adolescents spend their leisure time explain the marked decline in Adolescent well-being after 20:11. But this may cause and highlight I need to change our activities that we undertake during our leisure time.

Addictions directly decrease happiness

addicting behaviours are associated with high economic and individual costs, development of commodities, and depressive disorders which all of which lead to unhappiness. this will all directly impact on further poor decision making, social isolation, stigmatisation and other kinds of distress.

Research shows that negative emotions influence what we perceive, biasing people to see more negative images and words and interpreting things more negatively. Negative emotions makes us agitated and our behaviour more survival oriented. A method known as “cognitive bias modification” has been shown to rapidly reduce this, giving lasting benefits. “Psych Me Up”, an Ap for the i-Pad works similarly. Search on “Cognitive Bias”.

If you’ve a tendency to sabotage your own happiness and success, struggle to make sense of yourself or feel your emotions sometimes dictate your life, you might find “The Chimp Paradox” a useful read. It’s about learning to manage your mind for confidence, success and happiness. Written by Psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters, credited with helping sports stars such as Victoria Pendleton, Steven Gerrard and Sir Chris Hoy achieve their success.

keep exercising, keep helping your community (the people that matter to you), keep pushing your potential – recipe to help stay happy and motivated.

To end this happy talk….

When Your Mind Is Pulled Towards Anger And Agitation It Doesn’t Feel That Great

Watch this astonishing interview with Neuroscientist Jill Bolte-Taylor who describes her own illness, a stroke,  that lead her to experience a state of ‘nirvana’, and how amazingly she fully recovered. She learnt that anger and agitation is just a choice and we can all choose to use our ‘love and peace circuitry’. It’s just a thought away. Search online for: “Jill Bolte-Taylor Oprah Interview”. Alternatively there’s a shorter talk on TED.com. Enjoy.

We always have a choice…

Choose Our ‘Love And Peace Circuitry’

 

? our negative emotions has a strong contribution to the way we perceive pain — and this may lead to poorer outcomes (with or without care interventions). As we then would catastrophes and avoid activities out of fear and negative unhappy emotions.

Remaining positive – no matter how difficult can help in all forms, physically and mentally.

 

Happiness and Prosocial Behaviour

In the latest BMJ article “the economics of wellbeing”, the writer included extracts from the World Happiness report 2019. here are some interesting concepts put to light. Humans are an extremely prosocial species. Compared to most primates, humans provide more assistance to family, friends, and strangers.  Engaging in two specific types of prosocial behaviour, mainly donating one’s time and money to others, promotes subjective well-being, which encompasses greater positive affect, lower negative affect, and greater life satisfaction.

Volunteering – A great deal of correlational research shows that spending time helping others is associated with emotional benefits for the giver. Indeed, research has documented a robust link between volunteering and greater life satisfaction, positive affect, and reduced depression. The well-being benefits of volunteering emerged most strongly for individuals forty years of age or older. Knowing that so many of us in this modern era are suffering from loneliness, volunteering can be fruitful to our social relationships also.

Well-being Benefits of Giving Money- Spending money on others – often called prosocial spending – is associated with higher levels of well-being. Evidence for this relationship comes from various sources. Charitable donations appear to activate reward centers within the human brain, such as the orbital frontal cortex and ventral striatum.

 ? even toddlers showed larger smiles when giving treats away than when receiving treats themselves.

In addition to giving time and money, people can provide assistance in various other ways. For instance, holding the door open for a stranger, paying someone a compliment, caring for a sick relative, comforting a spouse, or returning a lost wallet are all small but meaningful forms of generous action. Consistent with much of the work reported above, these demonstrations of social support and kindness may promote well-being for the helper as well.

When Giving to Others is Most Likely to Increase Well-Being

Behaving generously can increase happiness—but this effect is not inevitable. Instead, research has identified several key ingredients that seem to be important for turning good deeds into good feelings. Specifically, people are more likely to derive joy from helping others when:

1. they feel free to choose whether or how to help.
2. they feel connected to the people they are helping.
3. they can see how their help is making a difference.

When people helped because they felt it was mandatory or necessary in order to avoid disapproval, the emotional benefits of generosity evaporated. The importance of free choice may help to explain a long-standing puzzle within research on volunteering: Older people tend to derive greater emotional benefits from volunteering than younger people. whereas one may argue that younger people may see this as a obligation rather than free choice.

Social connections provide opportunities for positive social interactions and relationships.

 

 

 

Have a happy week ?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sources

https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/happiness-and-prosocial-behavior-an-evaluation-of-the-evidence/