Category: Happiness

Three simple happiness exercises that take just four minutes.

Simple exercises, including reliving happy moments, can make you happier in just four minutes, research finds.

‘Reliving Happy Moments’ involves choosing a personal photo that captures a happy moment and adding a few words of description to it.

This exercise gave people in the study the greatest boost in happiness.

The results come from research including over 500 people who were (or had) experienced substance abuse.

Another exercise they were given is called ‘Savouring’ and involves noting and appreciating two positive experiences from yesterday.

This was almost as powerful as reliving happy moments.

Next most useful was “Rose, Bud, Thorns” which involves listing a highlight and a challenge from yesterday and a pleasure to be appreciated tomorrow.

Dr Bettina B. Hoeppner, the study’s first author, said:

“Addiction scientists are increasingly moving beyond the traditional focus on reducing or eliminating substance use by advocating treatment protocols that encompass quality of life.

Yet orchestrated positive experiences are rarely incorporated into treatment for those with substance use disorders.”

Dr Hoeppner continued:

“These findings underscore the importance of offsetting the challenges of recovery with positive experiences.

Recovery is hard, and for the effort to be sustainable, positive experiences need to be attainable along the way.”

The study was published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment (Hoeppner et al., 2019).

People with this personality trait are more hopeful and assess their lives more positively.

People who believe in the oneness of everything are happier, research finds.

‘Oneness’ is the idea that everything in the world is interdependent and interconnected.

This includes a sense of connectedness to other people, nature and life in general.

Beliefs like these are incorporated in many religions.

However, whether or not people have a specific faith, they are more satisfied with life when they have a sense of ‘oneness’.

Activities such as yoga, meditation and action sports may help to increase the feeling of oneness or flow.

Dr Laura Marie Edinger-Schon, the study’s author, said:

“The feeling of being at one with a divine principle, life, the world, other people or even activities has been discussed in various religious traditions but also in a wide variety of scientific research from different disciplines.

The results of this study reveal a significant positive effect of oneness beliefs on life satisfaction, even controlling for religious beliefs.”

The conclusions come from two surveys that included almost 75,000 people.

People were asked whether they agreed with statements like:

• “I believe that everything in the world is based on a common principle.”
• “Everything in the world is interdependent and influenced by each other.”

They were also asked how much they felt connected to nature and other people and how happy they were.

The results showed that people who felt a sense of ‘oneness’ were more satisfied with their lives.

Dr Edinger-Schon explained her motivation for the study:

“I recognized that in various philosophical and religious texts, a central idea is the idea of oneness.

In my free time, I enjoy surfing, Capoeira, meditation and yoga, and all of these have been said to lead to experiences that can be described as being at one with life or nature or just experiencing a state of flow through being immersed in the activity.

I was wondering whether the larger belief in oneness is something that is independent of religious beliefs and how it affects satisfaction with life.”

The study was published in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (Edinger-Schons, 2019).

From the mental health benefits of gardening to the healing power of birdsong — explore the psychology of nature.

People are spending less and less time enjoying the outdoors and nature with every passing year.

The recent shift away from nature has been incredible: some studies estimate people now spend 25 percent less time in nature than they did 20 years ago (Pergams & Zaradic, 2007).

Instead, recreational time is often spent online, playing video games and watching movies.

The psychological literature clearly reveals how beneficial the experience of nature is to our minds.

In nature people feel more alive, creative, in sync and less stressed.

Here are 7 psychology studies from the members-only section of PsyBlog exploring the psychology of nature.

(If you are not already, find out how to become a PsyBlog member here.)

1. The Great Disconnect: How Humans Are Losing Touch With Nature
2. The Reason Being In Nature Feels So Good
3. How Nature Heals The Brain Of Stress
4. The Mental Health Benefits Of Gardening
5. How Nature Can Lower Your Risk Of Dementia
6. Spend This Long In Nature To Feel Fantastic
7. The Beautiful Sound That Reduces Anxiety, Paranoia And Depression

.

For the study, 582 people described strategies for improving their well-being.

People who take up hobbies or interests that involve other people are happier one year later, research finds.

In comparison to those using non-social strategies, the socially focused were more satisfied with life.

Ms Julia Rohrer, the study’s first author, said:

“Our research showed that people who came up with ‘well-being’ strategies that involved other people were more satisfied with their lives one year later — even after taking into account that they were marginally happier to begin with.

In contrast, people who came up with strategies that did not explicitly involve others remained, on average, as satisfied as they were.”

For the study, 582 people described strategies for improving their well-being.

Some suggested non-social things like giving up smoking.

Others chose social things like spending more time with their family and friends or helping others.

The life satisfaction of those choosing nonsocial things remained the same one year later, while those who chose social things saw improvements in life satisfaction.

Ms Rohrer said:

“Many people are interested in becoming happier, but there is a lack of evidence regarding the long term effects of pursuing happiness through various types of activities.

After all, there’s no guarantee that trying to become happier doesn’t make you more miserable in the end.

I think our study partly fills that gap in the literature, although more research with a longitudinal perspective is certainly needed.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Science (Rohrer et al., 2018).

Both happiness and general well-being were boosted in the study of 395 people.

Taking a few moments to stop and look at something in the natural environment is enough to make people happier, research finds.

LIterally, ‘stopping and smelling the roses’, or in this case noticing anything in the natural world really does work.

Both happiness and well-being were boosted by noticing things like a bird, a house plant, a dandelion in the sidewalk, or just the sun shining through the window.

In the research, people took a photo of what they had noticed and quickly jotted down how they felt.

Ms Holli-Anne Passmore, the study’s first author, said:

“This wasn’t about spending hours outdoors or going for long walks in the wilderness.

This is about the tree at a bus stop in the middle of a city and the positive effect that one tree can have on people.”

The study split 395 people into three groups.

One group were told to noticed natural objects, while another were asked to observe man-made objects.

Both were also compared with a control group who did neither.

Together they submitted 2,500 photos, along with descriptions of their emotions at that moment.

The group who photographed and wrote a note about the natural environment had the highest well-being, the results showed.

Ms Passmore said:

“The difference in participants’ well-being — their happiness, sense of elevation, and their level of connectedness to other people, not just nature — was significantly higher than participants in the group noticing how human-built objects made them feel and the control group.”

People who noticed nature also felt more connected to it and to other people in general.

They also reported feeling more prosocial: in other words, they felt like helping other people out and placed a greater value on the community.

The study was published in The Journal of Positive Psychology (Passmore & Holder, 2016).