Practice Excessive Happiness
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Practice Excessive Happiness: Don't Worry, Be Happy
Their research shows that pleasure does not in and of itself provide happiness. Neither does money or material goods. By making your life more meaningful, becoming more engaged in what you do, giving and doing for others, counting your blessings, and focusing on what's good in a given situation, your life will become progressively happier.
Read this lens and remember to practice excessive happiness!
("Jewel Balloons in Pink Orange Yellow Purple" courtesy of danagraves).
Positive Psychology
Positive Psychology
In recent years there has been an explosion of research on happiness, optimism, positive emotions and healthy character traits. Dr. Martin Seligman is Director of the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center and founder of Positive Psychology. He was one of the experts featured in Time Magazine's January 2005 issue devoted entirely to "The Science of Happiness".While psychology has traditionally concerned itself with what ails the human mind--such as anxiety, depression, neurosis, obsessions, paranoia, and delusions--, Dr. Seligman proposed a new goal for psychology. He asked the question: "What are the enabling conditions that make human beings flourish?" That is, his goal was to create a branch of psychology that would study what actively made people feel fulfilled, engaged and meaningfully happy.
Dr. Seligman's biggest recommendation for lasting happiness is to figure out your strengths and find new ways to deploy them. You can do this at his website, authentichappiness.com.
Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out
Satisfaction With Life Scale
Below are five statements that you may agree or disagree with. Using the 1 - 7 scale indicate your agreement with each item by placing the appropriate number on the line preceding that item.
* 7 - Strongly agree
* 6 - Agree
* 5 - Slightly agree
* 4 - Neither agree nor disagree
* 3 - Slightly disagree
* 2 - Disagree
* 1 - Strongly disagree
____ In most ways my life is close to my ideal.
____ The conditions of my life are excellent.
____ I am satisfied with my life.
____ So far I have gotten the important things I want in life.
____ If I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.
- 35 - 31 Extremely satisfied
- 26 - 30 Satisfied
- 21 - 25 Slightly satisfied
- 20 Neutral
- 15 - 19 Slightly dissatisfied
- 10 - 14 Dissatisfied
- 5 - 9 Extremely dissatisfied
Is It In The Genes?
Fifty percent (50%) of one's satisfaction in life comes from genetic programming.
In 1996 University of Minnesota researcher David Lykken published a paper looking at the role of genes in determining one's sense of satisfaction in life.Lykken gathered information on 4,000 sets of twins born in Minnesota from 1936 through 1955. After comparing happiness data on identical vs. fraternal twins, he concluded that about 50% of one's satisfaction in life comes from genetic programming. That is, genetics establishes a set point level of happiness.
In addition, circumstantial factors like your health, job, income, marital status, and where you live-which are difficult to change--contribute about 8% to one's overall well-being. However, the remaining percentage, that is, a little over 40%, is up to the individual. That is, fully 40% of happiness is within our control. We can make the decision to be happy, and take certain steps which are conducive to happiness.
You can raise your set point level of happiness by working on the following three components of happiness:
A. Getting more pleasure out of life;
B. Becoming more engaged in what you do; and
C. Finding ways of making your life feel more meaningful.
You can read more about this here: "Is our happiness preordained?"
20 Ways to Be Happy
Make a List of 20 Things You Like To Do, and Then Do Them
In the YouTube video above Psychologist Dan Johnston explains that if you don't have a list of twenty things you like to do, then you don't have a menu for being able to enjoy life. The list needs to include things that are fun, as well as things that give you a sense of accomplishment. Then every day you have to do some of the things that are on your list.If your energy is low you might not feel like doing the items on your list. That is, your strategy might be to wait until your energy level is back up. However, you have to do the items on your list whether you feel like it or not. If you make yourself do it, if it's something that you've enjoyed in the past, or something that has given you a sense of accomplishment in the past, there's a good chance that you'll enjoy it again, which will give you your energy back. So every day by intentionally doing things you enjoy- even if it's petting your dog or drinking a cup of coffee-what you're doing is building up your energy resources.
Here's A Lens To Help You Get Started on Creating a List of Things You Enjoy Doing
Happiness Blogs
- The Happiness Project
- A blog about the pursuit of happiness.
Happiness Quotes
Franklin D. Roosevelt
"Happiness is not in the mere possession of m more...0 points
More Happiness Quotes
Read my blog post: 65 Happiness Quotes.
Two More of My Lenses
Also related to happiness . . .
Elevation and Other Self- Transcendent Emotions
Now there is a word to describe a feeling that has always existed but has just moved out of the realm of philosophy and religion and been recognized as a distinct emotional state. It's "elevation", a term coined by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt. (Source)Elevation is the physical sensation that comes from witnessing goodness in others. It evokes in us a desire to become a better person, or to lead a better life. UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner is a pioneer in the study of elevation and he explains that it's characterized by a warm, open, pleasant feeling, "liquid warmth in the chest and a lump in the throat."
The emotion of elevation can be triggered by listening to great oratory, like Martin Luther King's speech "I Have a Dream"; many people felt elevation on November 4th when they listened to Barack Obama's victory speech. It can also be triggered by watching a stranger helping another stranger.
In Haidt's article "Elevation and the Positive Psychology of Morality" he includes an anecdote from Thomas Jefferson's life. In 1771 Jefferson's friend Robert Skipwith wrote to him asking for advice on what books to buy for his library. Jefferson sent back a long list of titles in history, philosophy, and natural science. He also included some works of fiction and he justified this advice by pointing to the beneficial emotional effects of great fiction:
"[E]very thing is useful which contributes to fix us in the principles and practice of virtue. When any ... act of charity or of gratitude, for instance, is presented either to our sight or imagination, we are deeply impressed with its beauty and feel a strong desire in ourselves of doing charitable and grateful acts also . . .
[I ask whether] the fidelity of Nelson, and generosity of Blandford in Marmontel do not dilate [the reader's] breast, and elevate his sentiments as much as any similar incident which real history can furnish? Does he not in fact feel himself a better man while reading them, and privately covenant to copy the fair example?"
Elevation is part of the family of self-transcending emotions. Other self-transcending emotions include:
* Awe: That sense of vastness of the universe that is often invoked by nature, art or music.
* Admiration: That goose-bump-making thrill that comes from seeing exceptional skill in action.
* Gratitude: That feeling of well-being that comes from the sense that we live in a world of bounty and generosity.
Meditate
Happy People Don't Watch A Lot of Television
An article published in the New York Times in November of 2008 explains that happy people don't spend a lot of time watching television. The study was trying to identify what activities happy people engage in and they discovered an inverse relationship between hours of television watched and happiness. Even though researchers could not tell whether unhappy people watch more television or whether being glued to the TV set is what makes people unhappy, it's safe to conclude that watching television is not conducive to happiness.Zen And the Art of Happiness
"There is only one way to achieve lasting happiness. That way is simply: Be happy".
Zen And the Art of Happiness
Amazon Price: $4.98 (as of 05/30/2012)![]()
The book asks you to imagine that God appeared before you and said: "I promise you that everything that happens to you from this moment forward will be of the greatest benefit to you and will bring you the utmost fortune. Even though what happens will sometimes appear unfortunate or hurtful, in the end your life will be wonderfully blessed and hugely benefited by whatever happens."
Wouldn't that be the best piece of news you could hear? The author adds that if you are willing to give this concept a chance, you will be rewarded with a lifetime of happiness.
The Day Reconstruction Method
Nobel-prize winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman of Princeton University developed another tool for sizing up happiness: the Day-Reconstruction Method. Participants fill out a long diary and questionnaire detailing everything they do on a particular day and whom they were with at the time. The next day, consulting the diary, they relive each activity and, using 12 scales, rate how they felt at the time, whether happy, impatient, depressed, worried, tired, and so on.Here Are the Last Five Posts On My Blog
Flow: The Classic Work on How to Achieve Happiness
by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow
Amazon Price: $12.33 (as of 05/30/2012)![]()
An accomplished figure skater describes "flow" as follows:
"It was just one of those programs that clicked. I mean, everything went right, everything felt good . . . It's just such a rush, like you feel it could go on and on and on, like you don't want it to stop because it's going so well. It's almost as though you don't have to think, it's like everything goes automatically without thinking . . . it's like you're on automatic pilot, so you don't have any thoughts. You hear the music but you're not aware that you're hearing it, because it's a part of it all."
Happiness and the Flow State
Hungarian-born psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has devoted his life's work to the study of what makes people truly happy, satisfied and fulfilled, and is best known for exploring the state of mind called flow, the feeling of complete engagement in a creative or playful activity familiar to athletes, musicians, video-game enthusiasts, and almost anyone who loses themselves in a favorite pursuit.Dr. Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as "being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost." The flow state is one of the most enjoyable and valuable experiences a person can have, and achieving the flow state on a consistent basis has been found to be one of the best ways to attain happiness.
Free E-Book
The Nun Study
Positive Emotions May Help Us Live Longer
In an experiment called "The Nun Study"-which consisted of studying 678 nuns in different convents throughout the United States -- Dr. David A. Snowdon, an epidemiologist at the University of Kentucky, and colleagues came up with several theories on aging.Among these was the finding that nuns who expressed more positive emotions in their autobiographies lived significantly longer -- in some cases 10 years longer -- than those expressing fewer positive emotions.
Happiness Now!: Timeless Wisdom for Feeling Good FAST
Gratitude and Happiness
At the University of California at Davis, psychologist Robert Emmons found that gratitude exercises improve physical health, raise energy levels, can relieve pain and fatigue, and increase happiness levels. You can read more about this in my article, "How Gratitude Can Change Your Life" over at "The Change Blog".Happiness on CafePress
“Reality is a movie generated by our brains.”
Stumbling on Happiness
Human beings can't accurately predict what will make them happy.
Stumbling on Happiness
Amazon Price: $7.70 (as of 05/30/2012)![]()
Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert explains that when people try to imagine what the future will hold, they make some basic and consistent mistakes. That is, our imagination plays tricks on us when we try to look forward.
Why are we happy? Why aren't we happy?
Dan Gilbert: The Big Wombassa
- Dan Gilbert: The Big Wombassa
- We are the only animals that can peer deeply into our futures-the only animal that can travel mentally through time, preview a variety of futures, and choose the one that will bring us the greatest pleasure and/or the least pain.
This is a remarkable adaptation-which, incidentally, is directly tied to the evolution of the frontal lobe-because it means that we can learn from mistakes before we make them. We don't have to actually have gallbladder surgery or lounge around on a Caribbean beach to know that one of these is better than another.
We may do this better than any other animal, but our research suggests that we don't do it perfectly. Our ability to simulate the future and to forecast our hedonic reactions to it is seriously flawed, and that people are rarely as happy or unhappy as they expect to be.
Dan Gilbert Offers Two Suggestions on Being Happy
Excerpt from an interview in the New York Times:
A. I'm not Dr. Phil.
We know that the best predictor of human happiness is human relationships and the amount of time that people spend with family and friends.
We know that it's significantly more important than money and somewhat more important than health. That's what the data shows. The interesting thing is that people will sacrifice social relationships to get other things that won't make them as happy - money. That's what I mean when I say people should do "wise shopping" for happiness.
Another thing we know from studies is that people tend to take more pleasure in experiences than in things. So if you have "x" amount of dollars to spend on a vacation or a good meal or movies, it will get you more happiness than a durable good or an object. One reason for this is that experiences tend to be shared with other people and objects usually aren't. (Source).
Does Money Buy Happiness?
Dan Gilbert explains that the difference between making $5,000.00 a year and $50,000.00 a year is dramatic. However, the difference between making $50,000.00 and $500,000.00--a much larger jump--is not nearly as big. Once your basic needs are met, more money stops making you much more happy.How to Be Happy
Happiness Articles
- Five Things Happy People Do
- Leading scientists on what it takes to be happy. From O, The Oprah Magazine. The five things are:
- They find their most golden self.
- They design their lives to bring in joy.
- They avoid "if only" fantasies./li>
- They put best friends first.
- They allow themselves to be happy.
- Rick Foster: 9 Ways To Be Happy In A High-Stress World
- Rick Foster is co-author of the book How We Choose to Be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People--Their Secrets, Their Stories
- Smiles and Longevity: Game Faces and Life Faces
- A Duchenne smile predicts longevity. What is a Duchenne smile? It's a genuine, full-faced expression of happiness indexed by the degree to which the muscles surrounding one's eyes are contracted - crinkled, as it were.
Tal Ben-Shahar - Teaching Happiness at Harvard
Tal Ben-Shahar teaches a course at Harvard on "Positive Psychology" which began as a six-student seminar and expanded over the subsequent few years to over 1400 students - making it, at its height, the university's most popular offering. He is author of the book, Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment- Happiness lies at the intersection between pleasure and meaning.
- Happiness is mostly dependent on our state of mind, not on our status or the state of our bank account.
- Barring extreme circumstances, our level of well being is determined by what we choose to focus on and by our interpretation of external events.
- Remember the mind-body connection. What we do -- or don't do -- with our bodies influences our mind. Regular exercise, adequate sleep, and healthy eating habits lead to both physical and mental health.
- Simplify.
- Express gratitude.
Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment
Happiness at Harvard: positive psychology by ben shahar
The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want
The 12 Happiness Enhancing Strategies
(1) Counting your blessings: Expressing gratitude for what you have (either privately - through contemplation or journaling - or to a close other) or conveying your appreciation to one or more individuals whom you've never properly thanked. (CHAP 4)
(2) Cultivating optimism: Keeping a journal in which you imagine and write about the best possible future for yourself, or practicing to look at the bright side of every situation. (CHAP 4)
(3) Avoiding overthinking and social comparison: Using strategies (such as distraction) to cut down on how often you dwell on your problems and compare yourself to others. (CHAP 4)
(4) Practicing acts of kindness: Doing good things for others, whether friends or strangers, either directly or anonymously, either spontaneously or planned. (CHAP 5)
(5) Nurturing Relationships: Picking a relationship in need of strengthening, and investing time and energy in healing, cultivating, affirming, and enjoying it. (CHAP 5)
(6) Doing more activities that truly engage you: Increasing the number of experiences at home and work in which you "lose" yourself, which are challenging and absorbing. (CHAP 7)
(7) Replaying and savoring life's joys: Paying close attention, taking delight, and going over life's momentary pleasures and wonders - through thinking, writing, drawing, or sharing with another. (CHAP 7)
(8) Committing to your goals: Picking one, two, or three significant goals that are meaningful to you and devoting time and effort to pursuing them. (CHAP 8)
(9) Developing strategies for coping: Practicing ways to endure or surmount a recent stress, hardship, or trauma. (CHAP 6)
(10) Learning to forgive: Keeping a journal or writing a letter in which you work on letting go of anger and resentment towards one or more individuals who have hurt or wronged you. (CHAP 6)
(11) Practicing religion and spirituality: Becoming more involved in your church, temple, or mosque, or reading and pondering spiritually-themed books. (CHAP 9)
(12) Taking care of your body: Engaging in physical activity, meditating, and smiling and laughing. (CHAP 9)
Surround Yourself With Happy People
In addition, the researchers found that the merriment of one person can ripple out and cause happiness in people up to three degrees away: that is, if you're happy, you increase the chance of joy in your close friend by 25%; a friend of that friend enjoys a 10% increased chance. And that friend's friend has a 5.6% higher chance. So your level of happiness can affect the level of happiness of people you don't even know. Here are several news sites that reported on this study:
Happy Song
Cuppy Cake Song
The Geography of Bliss
Gross National Happiness - Bhutan
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ZestCareerCoaching
Aug 10, 2011 @ 1:09 pm | delete
- Lots of great stuff here, many thanks for putting together such a comprehensive resource.
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Marelisa Jul 20, 2009 @ 6:31 am | delete
- Hi Margo: I have added things to this lens since the last time you were here, but the nun picture is the same. :-)
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Margo_Arrowsmith
Jul 20, 2009 @ 6:25 am | delete
- I hope you have added things since the last time I read this and I am not in that much need of brain work!
I really think the nun picture is new and it is wonderful!
I read Martin Seligman's [u]Learned Depression[/u] in grad school and I still use it in my practice. So glad to see that he is now talking learned happiness1
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spirituality Apr 8, 2009 @ 6:24 am | delete
- Great lens - you've been blessed by a squidoo angel :)
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Margo_Arrowsmith
Jan 25, 2009 @ 2:17 pm | delete
- 1. After the day I had today, I really needed this reminder. Thanks
2. I used the Nun's study in my "Is 60 Really the New 40" lens, but I did not have such a great picture to go with it! I love it.
3. Well, done as always, and great topics ***** to you!
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by Marelisa
Hi, I'm Marelisa Fabrega. I blog over at Abundance Blog at Marelisa Online.
I hold a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Georgetown...
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