Understanding Your Happiness

Happiness is not always something a person can enjoy.

Being a happier person than you are now can be all about understanding the psychology of happiness. Scientists have found that it doesn’t have to be anything major that spells the difference between you and a happier person. It can just be your common garden variety everyday choices that can make you a much happier person – your choice of food to eat, your choice of when to eat it, how well you exercise, what time of the day you get up and what kind of friends you have. Let’s do a quick rundown of all the little changes that a proper understanding of the happiness psychology would recommend you made. They may sound a bit wacky, but they certainly work.

I don’t understand the happiness psychology factors that are in freefall right now.

Whatever you do, pick activities that include other people whose company you enjoy. There are studies that demonstrate that exercising next to other people, doing things like running in the park, is a whole lot better than running on a treadmill usually by for yourself right at home where you’re alone. Looking at other people, apparently gets you working harder. In fact, any number of activities that involve rhythmic and mindless motion, when done next to other people, can turn you into a happier person. When your mind realizes that it doesn’t need to do anything to keep the motion going, it easily wanders and thinks about enjoyable things. And that’s a great happiness formula if ever there was one.

If I could just go shopping I would feel happy.

Eating makes me very happy. What is it about food?

That’s why people who are depressed go and eat a lot – all food is comfort food. But what can especially be comforting is colorful food. Remember that succulent fruit in the movie Avatar that the hero bites into the moment he steps into his Na’vi body? Eating lots of brightly-colored fruits and vegetables boost your mood. They send up your body’s stocks of antioxidants, vitamins and beta carotene, they improve reflexes and your memory. Salads dressed up in canola or soybean oil can be great mood boosters too.

Rather than miss an entire workout if you can’t manage the time on a particular day, try skipping to the last part of your planned workout. You can still reap the happiness benefits of having done a full workout, and your mind will get itself ready for the pampering at the end of it, looking forward to it with a lot of pleasure. By making sure you don’t miss a workout, you put yourself in control. And control is a happiness psychology mantra if ever there was one. In the end, harness your knowledge of the happiness psychology go take a nice hot shower or bath. There a few things that can raise your core body temperature like a warm bath. And these can send your warm feelings on the upswing too.