Since the 2000s, researchers and academics have gathered concrete data on a question once reserved for philosophers: how to be happy? Here are the top 10 scientific discoveries on happiness, based on work by American university researchers.
Some are born happy, others struggle all their lives to find happiness. Is there a special wellness recipe? Unfortunately no ! On the other hand, a few very simple ingredients can add to your cocktail the well-being and joie de vivre that you lacked.
10 scientifically proven strategies to be happy
Positive psychology is full of new findings that suggest your actions can have a significant effect on your happiness and life satisfaction.
Researchers like father-son team Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, Stanford psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, and ethicist Stephen Post have studied people around the world to find out how things like money, attitude, culture, memory, health, altruism and daily habits affect our well-being.
1. Savor the little pleasures of everyday life
Life is made up of small pleasures, and we too often forget to take advantage of them. So list them, write them down and remember to savor them every day: the smile of your children when they wake up, the little morning coffee, the ray of sunshine on the way to the office…
2. Avoid comparing yourself to others
How can you be happy with your fate if you always watch what is happening in the neighbors’ garden? We often have a tendency to compare ourselves to others, and therefore inevitably to become envious or worse, jealous. An attitude that can only lead to negative feelings, and which logically thwarts our happiness.
3. Don’t give too much importance to money
Even if it is often said that money does not buy happiness, how to be happy without financial means? We should rather not give it excessive importance… The accumulation of goods has never made anyone happy. We prefer to use money to live, feel and share experiences rather than to acquire objects. That being said, it’s probably easier to do for people who don’t have money problems!
4. Set meaningful goals
Finding happiness also requires setting meaningful goals. What is the meaning of a life without goals? The solution : list the goals you set for yourself each day, and check them when they are reached. They don’t need to revolutionize the world, the main thing is that they have important to you.
5. Take initiative at work
How can you be happy if you don’t thrive in your work? The other secret of happiness lies in the professional well-being, and more specifically in the way you approach your work. Studies have shown that happy employees are those who take the most initiative. So do not hesitate to express yourself, to give your opinion, to make suggestions… In short, to take action !
6. Have friends and cherish family
Cherishing friends and family is also essential. Nothing nourishes us more and better than harmonious and benevolent relationships with others. It is even the first component of happiness for the French if we are to believe recent polls. There is nothing like having a good time with loved ones to rediscover the joy of living.
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7. How to be happy by smiling
What if smiling was one of the secrets of happiness? In any case, it is physiological. Smiling (even when you don’t feel like it) activates certain muscles and functions in the brain, that affect our mood. This is also the principle of laughter therapy. So, ready to unwind?
8. Express gratitude
Sincere gratitude is also theone of the main principles of positive psychology. And one of the ways to access happiness, according to some scientists. In practice, it is simply a matter of saying “thank you” for the small pleasures that life and those around us offer us on a daily basis.
9. Take care of yourself
To find happiness, you also have to take care of your body. Going out, doing physical activities, taking sports lessons… so many good reflexes that are essential for having “ mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body) as said Thales !
Read also:
Positive psychology: get closer to happiness…
Seeing the glass half full, can you learn that?
10 tips from science to be happy
Mindfulness meditation: 4 tips for success
6 keys to exercising your gratitude
10. Be generous to others
Neuroscience has revealed that when we do something for someone else our brain gets a boost of dopamine that supports our well-being. Being altruistic and generous, not thinking only of yourself, reaching out to others… another positive attitude that has positive effects on yourself and can help you find happiness. And share it!
