Happiness Strategies | How to be Happy

Nietzsche* wasn’t exactly a model of lightheartedness.

He eventually succumbed to incapacitating mental illness, which some believe to have been part-inspired by his radical philosophies and relentless questioning of ‘truth’.

Even so, he had some profound things to say about being happy.

- He famously proclaimed ‘the death of God’. But rather than face a meaningless, faithless existence he proposed a life-affirming embrace of the here and now by a sheer effort of will and imagination.

-  He believed there are no facts, ‘only interpretations’.

- He disagreed with Mill’s Utilitarianism, where, to be happy, you do what gives pleasure and avoid what causes pain. By contrast, Nietzsche thought happiness was more hard won, sometimes needing us to suffer for our sense of fulfillment - as with creating art, for example.

Happiness strategies inspired by Nietzsche

Meaning: Nietzsche’s ideas are radical, confronting and not for everyone. But if we choose to, we can each in our small way create a life story in which we are the hero. We can work on our character and our choices to transcend limiting expectations and beliefs, and rise above the apparent chaos and meaninglessness of life.

Interpretation: There are innumerable perspectives for viewing the world - and no consensus on the right one. So we might as well choose to see things in a way that helps us to be happy - to recognize kindness in people, joy in small things, and a bright outcome in even the crappiest situation. A darker outlook is no more ‘true’.

Suffering: A little pain is a small price to pay for a more fulfilling, happy life. Whether it means the effort of study for a better job, sacrificing a holiday today for a home tomorrow, or exercising to enjoy a longer, more comfortable life, we can open ourselves to a bigger, more complex picture of pleasure and happiness.

Nietzsche’s post-modern, existential take on life can at times seem bleak. But at heart it’s life affirming - a call to each of us to see the world, our pain and our place in the universe in a proactive and heroic way. And in this way, to find our own happiness.

Read more philosophers ‘On Happiness’.

*To learn more about Nietzsche, you might like to read The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View by Richard Tarnas.

Lesson: Happy people enjoy all kinds of success

You might be surprised by the sheer breadth of benefits associated with happiness.

One study performed a meta-analysis of 293 separate findings to tease out the relationship between happiness and success.

First they looked at correlation studies - what goes with happiness. They found happier people tend to be favored in plenty of areas, including:

• Relationships
• Work
• Self-control
• Health
• Coping
• Immune system functioning.

Maybe you’re thinking anyone would be happy if they had it together in all these ways. But the long-term studies showed people were happy before, not because of, enjoying good relationships, work and health.

Perhaps most interesting were the experimental studies, where good feelings were created artificially - for instance, by asking people to recall a pleasant memory or showing them a cheerful film. It seems being happy itself caused people to experience a range of benefits, including self-liking, social skills, altruism and better immune functioning.

It’s not so surprising that being happy is linked to many good outcomes across life areas – if your relationships, work and health are good then of course you’ll be happy!

The big lesson is that happiness seems to come first.

Happiness strategy: Be happy now

Some people have decided they can’t - or won’t - be happy until they…

• Meet their dream person
• Finally get that big break
• Lose weight
• Get someone else to change.

You can spend your whole life waiting for circumstances to be just right. If you put off happiness until that perfect situation, you may be denying yourself happiness in the meantime - and for what? Being happy now may be just the boost you need to help you get some of the other things, too.

So don’t wait another moment to choose happiness. And start enjoying those perks.

Research sources:

Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131(6), 803-855.

How to be happy:
101 practical strategies drawn from positive psychology.

This post is part of a series covering simple, practical, research-inspired, happiness strategies you can use in your own life. For more information about the series, check out the 101 Happiness Strategies main page.

Lesson: Happiness can help protect your mind and body

Before the growth of positive psychology, most psychological research focused on people’s bad experiences. It was well known that negative emotional experiences could damage relationships, health and longevity. Not only that, but many studies suggested negative experiences, in general, had more influence on people than positive ones. What a bleak picture!

Thankfully, more recent studies have looked at the opposite side of the spectrum, and a brighter story has emerged. For instance, positive emotions (being happy!) have been repeatedly shown to help people cope better during difficult times. And while it’s true that bad times can strongly affect us, the good times are more frequent. So over the long-term, it seems the good may well outweigh the bad.

Looking at positive as well as negative influences on people is also changing the way psychologists think about challenges like anxiety and depression. Instead of concentrating only on recent events that leave people vulnerable to psychological difficulties - such as stress - they’re now investigating long-term resources that make people resistant to these problems - such as personal strengths and friendships.

Here are some interesting findings:

• Happy adolescents are less likely to act out when stressed (1)
• People experiencing positive emotions following the September 11 attacks were less inclined to become depressed (2)
• Positive resources, like a sense of meaning, control and optimism, buffer against both mental and physical ill-health (3)
• Feeling good can protect against the development of disease (4).

Happiness strategy: Choose happiness for your health

If you’ve been thinking that seeking happiness is superficial or selfish, this research might make you think again.

Nurturing your own contentment could help strengthen you against mental and physical problems in the future - including depression and disease. You might save yourself, your family (and even your medical system) a great deal of emotional and financial cost. That doesn’t seem so superficial, does it?

Being happy can help protect you against mental and physical health concerns, and that’s a great benefit - but it’s by no means the only one. Apart from just plain feeling good, happiness brings a broad range of perks to you and the people around you. Stay tuned for future strategies.

Research sources:

Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C., & Vohs, K. D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5(4), 323-370.

Caprara, G. V., & Steca, P. (2005). Affective and social self-regulatory efficacy beliefs as determinants of positive thinking and happiness. European Psychologist, 10(4), 275-286.

(2) Fredrickson, B. L., Tugade, M. M., Waugh, C. E., & Larkin, G. R. (2003). What good are positive emotions in crises: A prospective study of resilience and emotions following the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11th, 2001. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 365-376.

Gable, S. L., & Haidt, J. (2005). What (and why) is positive psychology? Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 103-110.

Keyes, C. L. M., & Lopez, S. J. (2002). Toward a science of mental health: Positive directions in diagnosis and interventions. In S. J. Lopez & C. R. Snyder (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 45-59). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

(4) Richman, L. S., Kubzansky, L., Maselko, J., Kawachi, I., Choo, P., & Bauer, M. (2005). Positive emotion and health: Going beyond the negative. Health Psychology, 24(4), 422-429.

Simonton, D. K., & Baumeister, R. F. (2005). Positive psychology at the summit. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 99-102.

(1) Suldo, S. M., & Huebner, E. (2004). Does life satisfaction moderate the effects of stressful life events on psychopathological behavior during adolescence? School Psychology Quarterly, 19(2), 93-105.

(3) Taylor, S. E., Kemeny, M. E., Bower, J. E., Gruenewald, T. L., & Reed, G. M. (2000). Psychological resources, positive illusions, and health. American Psychologist, 55(1), 99-109.

Tugade, M. M., Fredrickson, B. L., & Feldman Barrett, L. (2004). Psychological resilience and positive emotional granularity: Examining the benefits of positive emotions on coping and health. Journal of Personality, 72(6), 1161-1190.

How to be happy:
101 practical strategies drawn from positive psychology.

This post is part of a series covering simple, practical, research-inspired, happiness strategies you can use in your own life. For more information about the series, check out the 101 Happiness Strategies main page.

Lesson: How to measure happiness

So now we’re clear what we mean by ‘happiness‘. But how do researchers measure it?

Since it’s subjective wellbeing we’re interested in, it makes sense that most research uses self-report questionnaires - that is, researchers find out how happy people are by asking them.

There are various self-report questionnaires designed to tap into aspects of happiness, some long and comprehensive and others just a single question, and they draw on many different types of questions.

By and large, using psychometrically validated questionnaires to gauge happiness is sound - the results match other, more detailed methods like

• Asking family and friends about the person
• Conducting in-depth interviews
• Conducting projective tests (such as asking the person to make up a story about a neutral picture).

Happiness strategy: Score your happiness level

Scoring your happiness level gives you a starting point for the happiness strategies to come in this series.  Why not try some of the strategies over coming weeks and then test yourself again to see whether they’ve helped boost your happiness level?

There’s another reason for testing your happiness. Some people have a vague sense of unhappiness that disappears when directly measured. It might be based on past problems, unrealistic expectations or other unexamined ideas that just don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Whether or not this is true for you, testing your happiness level helps you clarify where you are now, and can motivate you to take action toward a happier life.

You can try a variety of happiness measures for yourself at Martin Seligman’s Authentic Happiness site - but you’ll have to register. Look for ‘happiness’ in the inventory title.

Or, for a quick and effective measurement, use this version of Andrews & Withey’s single-question Delighted-Terrible Scale (what a great name!). This measure is brief but comprehensive, spans time and life areas, and is designed to tap both feeling and thinking aspects of life satisfaction. It’s psychometrically valid and was even used as the quality-of-life measure in the ABS 2001 National Health Survey.

Ready?

How do you feel about your life as a whole, taking into account what has happened in the last year and what you expect to happen in the future?

7  delighted
6  pleased
5  mostly satisfied
4  mixed
3  mostly dissatisfied
2  unhappy
1  terrible

When you answer the question, keep in mind that we’re talking about a long-term, overall, thinking and feeling idea of happiness.

And whatever your number, remember it’s just a starting point. We have a lot of strategies yet to cover.

Research sources:

Andrews, F. M., & Withey, S. B. (1976). Social indicators of well-being: Americans’ perceptions of life quality. New York: Plenum Press.

Diener, E., & Diener, C. (1996). Most people are happy. Psychological Science, 7(3), 181-185.

Diener, E. D. (1994). Assessing subjective well-being: Progress and opportunities. Social Indicators Research, 31(2), 103.

Sandvik, E., Diener, E., & Seidlitz, L. (1993). Subjective well-being: The convergence and stability of self-report and non-self-report measures. Journal of Personality, 61(3), 317-342.

Schmuck, P., & Sheldon, K. M. (2001). Life goals and well-being: To the frontiers of life goal research. In P. Schmuck & K. M. Sheldon (Eds.), Life goals and well-being: Towards a positive psychology of human striving (pp. 1-17). Seattle: Hogrefe & Huber Publishers.

How to be happy:
101 practical strategies drawn from positive psychology.

This post is part of a series covering simple, practical, research-inspired, happiness strategies you can use in your own life. For more information about the series, check out the 101 Happiness Strategies main page.

So you’ve conquered Step 1, admitted you have a problem, and feel ready to move to a life of clutter-free clarity.

Being mired in more paraphernalia than you can handle means your life is constipated. You’re holding onto stuff from the past, overwhelmed with too much stuff in the present, and fighting to forge a clear path into your future. You need a life laxative to release the stodge and ease your pain. It’s time for…

Step 2: Purge

How do you do it? Simple. I call it the three-bags-and-a-basket method and it involves just six simple steps.

1. Start somewhere

Pick a room. Begin somewhere easy so you can take the success with you to more challenging spaces. If a whole room is daunting, begin with your wardrobe, a cupboard, even a drawer. It doesn’t matter. As long as you feel ready to do some clearing, the momentum will take you along.

2. Get receptacle-ready

Collect three large bin liners and a big basket or laundry hamper. It’s a good idea to put an easy-to-read label on each bag so you don’t get confused and can work quickly - momentum is a key part of this process.

The labels are:

• Trash: anything not used/worn in the past 12 months and in poor condition
• Charity: anything not used/worn in the past 12 months and in good condition
• Repair: anything you would have used/worn in the past 12 months but couldn’t because it needed fixing.

Re-assure yourself that if you need something later you can replace it. In my experience it’s rare to need a discarded item; but even then, the joy of being clutter-free greatly outweighs the small inconvenience of re-buying something you previously had.

The basket is for stuff belonging in the trash pile which you aren’t quite ready to release from your life. When you’re done, it will go to a friend’s garage for 6 months - by which time you’ll probably have forgotten about it and your friend can send it the way of all trash. (Be kind and choose a friend whose garage isn’t worse than yours.)

3. Expect excuses

Clutter represents all manner of psychological baggage and there will be resistance.

This process will test your every inclination to hoard, every conviction that you will one day break out that Ab-roller and achieve your very own six-pack, every heartfelt fear that your life will be unspeakably empty without your Bedazzler.

A part of you will seek to procrastinate, rationalize or make excuses. Expect these tactics and more - it’s normal.

You can give in and put the process off, blame someone for your crap-filled home, see a shrink to process your spatial constipation - but you’ll still end up stuck in your stuff.

Or you can summon your inner Borg, chant ‘Resistance is futile’ and begin moving from clutter to clarity.

4. Empty everything

Now that you’re physically and mentally set, it’s time to take action.

Whatever the space you’re working on - room, cupboard, desk, drawer - empty it. Take everything out and place it on the floor nearby.

5. Maintain momentum

Now, take one item at a time and place it in the bag where it belongs or, if you genuinely want to keep it, put it back in the space. Move quickly, not thinking too long about each item. Remember - if it turns out you need something later you can buy another one.

Exclusions: You may choose to exclude from this process such loved items as favorite books and CDs, photos and precious items that hold special meaning for you, or beautiful things that give you pleasure when you look at them.

The exclusion does not apply to out-of-date lecture notes and texts, jeans whose zip hasn’t moved since 1998, or figurines you look at only to lament about the dust.

I find the process is more enjoyable if I put on fun music - Abba or Howard Jones are especially recommended.

6. Suddenly surfaces

Continue until everything is off the floor. Then move to the next space. Let the music, momentum, and reassurance that you’ll survive and thrive without all your stuff keep you repeating the three-bags-and-a-basket method in every room of your home. Then move on to the garage. (Your office will get a step to itself.)

You’ll know you’re done when:

• Your bags are bulging (you can drop them off at their respective locations)
• You find yourself moving from room to room saying ’so that’s what color that is’
• You feel so, so good.

Purging is the hardest step in de-cluttering your life - and one you should feel great about achieving. After all that clearing you’ll want to keep the benefits and not fall back into clutter habits.

And that’s just what Step 3 will help you do.

Step 3: The secret to staying clutter-free: OCI-OGO