~Simply try it. A little effort can go a long way in increasing happiness. There are plenty of experimental studies that have found that simply trying to be happier could actually elevate your mood and well-being.
~Make happiness your number-one goal. People who are happy choose to make happiness among their top goals in life, according to psychologist Tom G. Stevens, Ph.D., author of You Can Choose to Be Happy. Learning good self-management skills, interpersonal skills, and career-related skills along with choosing to be in environments and around people that increase your probability of happiness.
~Linger in those tiny little, positive moments. “Our brains are wired to scout for all that’s bad — the brain is like velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones. This “negativity bias” causes the brain to react intensely to bad news, compared to how it responds to the good news. But we can counter the brain’s negativity bias — which triggers us to form stronger bad memories than good ones — by appreciating and lingering on those tiny, positive moments.” – according to Rick Hanson, neuropsychologist and author of Hardwiring Happiness.
~Choose mindfulness. The secret to happiness could be as simple (and difficult) as becoming more mindful. Meditation — a practice that anyone can do, anywhere, so long as they’re willing to sit and try to silence the mind — is thought to be a happiness-booster. I used to think that this “meditation stuff” was . . . excuse me for saying — bullshit! But, I have been using meditation since 2003. It was actually prescribed to me by my holistic doctor out of Madison, CT. The best tool I have found to calm my mind — no bullshit!
~Smile your way to happiness. The secret to boosting your mood could be as simple as making yourself smile. Fake smiling, on the other hand, results in the worse moods and withdrawal from others. It really is that simple, you create a happy environment when you’re smiling at people instead of frowning or showing a face of anger. Smiling can change our brain. Let’s say you experience a positive situation and you see a friend you haven’t seen in a long time. This means that neuronal signals travel from the cortex of your brain to the brainstem (the oldest part of our brains). From there, the cranial muscle carries the signal further towards the smiling muscles in your face — And you have a smile!
~Practice compassion. Want to increase your brain’s capacity for happiness? “Compassion is the most transforming energy in the universe with all the ingredients that everyone longs for; the embodiment of kindness, of caring, of loving. It is a skill that can be enhanced with practice, it’s not impractical or touchy-feely but a courageous state of mind and heart, with far-reaching consequences in terms of how we experience ourselves, the world and reality” (Mindfulness at Work). Try meditating on compassion.
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
~Dalai Lama
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