Happiness

Last night I was teaching my Introduction to Psychology class and we were talking about emotions.  After reviewing some of the theory behind emotions we focused on happiness.  Many of my students were wondering how we can pursue happiness in our lives.

I showed them a video by Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert (the narrator for the Prudential commercials about aging and retirement).  In this video, available on Ted.com (The Surprising Science of Happiness) Professor Gilbert talks about how as humans we can synthesize happiness.  Through his research he demonstrated that the fewer choices we have in life the happier we are with the choices we make.  Later in the discussion we talked about the activities all of us can do to help us realize happiness more in our lives.  These steps include:

• Being physically active (increases endorphins in our bodies)
• Expressing kindness
• Showing gratitude
• Being optimistic
• Dwelling less on the negative
• Doing positive self reflection - specifically keeping a gratitude journal 

As the students and I were going through this list and talking about each of the components I realized that for me I want to choose happiness in my life.  It's easy when things are going badly to get sucked into the negativity and just allow myself to wallow in it for a while.  Yet I really prefer being a "glass half full" person to being a "glass half empty" person. 

Many of us have heard that one way to reduce sadness in our lives is to reach outside of ourselves and help others.  That is only one of the items on the above "prescription" for happiness.  Recognizing and showing gratitude in our lives also helps to lead us to happiness. 

I plan to include this list in my notes on my smartphone and try to practice some of these things every day.  Even if it is just taking time for a walk in the middle of the day when things are craziest in my life I want to do things that allow me to focus on happiness and not negativity.

I challenged my students to let me know what worked for them this upcoming week.  Most of them are working, parenting and going to school so their lives are also very busy.  I asked them all to take time to work on a little happiness booster during the week.

How do you achieve happiness in your life?  Do you have another item, or items, for the prescription above?  If so let me know what you do to choose happiness.