Happiness Strategies | How to be Happy

A new study, reported last month in the media and about to appear in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, looked at the way our bodies produce antibodies in response to infection.

(Flu vaccines were used as a proxy for pathogens because the body’s response is similar for the purposes of the study.)

Not everybody has fun flu fighting

In the first experiment, Two groups of women were given flu vaccines. The high self-discrepant group - women who were displeased with themselves and their progress toward goals - produced fewer antibodies in response to the vaccine than a second group of women who were satisfied with their lives and goal progress. The levels stayed low for more than a month post-vaccination.

In a second experiment high self-discrepant women were asked to write - one group wrote about goal-related concerns, a second wrote about daily activities. The first group reported fewer flu symptoms and showed higher antibody levels.

Happiness life strategy

To have a strong immune system it helps to be on track with our life goals, or at least to be at peace with our progress.

But if we can’t, there’s still hope for fighting the flu.

By getting our disappointments out of our head and onto the page, we can be more rational in examining our expectations, more clearheaded in questioning our approaches and more constructive in coming up with alternative ideas.

If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, maybe we should eat it while writing.

Image: ppreacher

When ‘they’ won’t change -
what should you do?

You can’t change someone else. And pressuring them to change tends to make them dig their heels in further. We all have a bit of that rebellious child still in us.

But there’s one person you can change - you. And because relationships are mini systems, you only have to alter one part (yourself) to affect the whole system (the relationship).

Let’s say Ken is always late meeting Barbie at the movies. Barb hates missing the start so she’s constantly berating Ken for not getting there on time. Which does nothing to change his tardiness.

Valentine’s Day Happiness Strategy: Make like Michael Jackson and start with the Man in the Mirror

Instead of persisting with this pointless ploy, Barbie could change her own behavior and do something different. For instance:

• When making plans, she could tell Ken she’ll buy her ticket and head in just before the movie starts, and if he’s not there, she’ll catch him for coffee afterward. The trick is to keep it light and pleasant - not threatening or ultimatum-like.
• She could see movies with punctual friends and do less time-sensitive activities with Ken.
• She might choose movies she has little interest in to see with Ken. That way she won’t care if she misses the beginning and she can just enjoy Ken’s company.

By doing something different, Barbie jolts both Ken and herself out of their current behavior pattern. Depending on how much Ken wants to see (particular) movies with Barbie, he may well be motivated to turn up on time.

But the beauty of this approach for Barbie is regardless of what Ken does, she’s no longer stuck in frustration and resentment. Barbie just made herself happier with nary a concern about Ken’s crappy timekeeping.

Leaving her more relaxed for quality time in her camper van.

Did you miss:

• When you’re waiting for Prince/Princess Charming to come along and make you happy - what should you do?
• When you’ve forgotten what you ever saw in them - what should you do?

Technorati Tags: happiness,relationships,love

Image: paultalbot

When you’ve forgotten what you ever saw in them - what should you do?

The things we find attractive or endearing at first - Cuthbert’s slight arrogance,  Mavis’s raucous laugh - can come to annoy the bejesus out of us over time. They haven’t necessarily changed, we’ve zeroed in on minor irritations - sometimes at the expense of major qualities. 

Valentine’s Day Happiness Strategy: Switch from the husband/wife’s list to the widower/widow’s list

In Follow Your Heart, Andrew Matthews describes the two mental lists we have in our heads:

1. the husband/wife’s short list - a puny play-by-play of peeves
2. the widower/widow’s long list - a comprehensive compendium of character

It’s easy to spend years ruminating on petty irritations: Cuthbert says supposably instead of supposedly; Mavis gets mascara goop in her eyes. But if one day Cuth or Mave should cark it, suddenly the long list gets whipped out: he was so loyal, kind and reliable; she was truly generous, caring and good-natured.

Matthews suggests we do the switcheroo on these lists and consciously focus on the things we love about people while they’re here. By bringing the large virtues into our mental foreground we can often shove the pesky little vices way into the distance.

Then, as Andrews says, when they’re gone we can ‘console ourselves with thoughts like "he snored anyway"’.

Coming up:

• When ‘they’ won’t change - what should you do?

Did you miss:

• When you’re waiting for Prince/Princess Charming to come along and make you happy - what should you do?

Image: paultalbot

As Thursday is Valentine’s Day,
this week we turn to some
relationship-themed happiness strategies.

Today - a happiness strategy for singles looking for love:

• When you’re waiting for Prince/Princess Charming to come along and make you happy - what should you do?

Tomorrow -  a happiness strategy for couples:

• When you’ve forgotten what you ever saw in them - what should you do?

Friday - a happiness strategy for relationships and friendships in general:

• When ‘they’ won’t change - what should you do?

When you’re waiting for Prince/Princess Charming to come along and make you happy - what should you do?

Are you waiting for that magical partner to appear and make you happy? Fix your life? Get you out of your rut?

If so, I have some very upsetting news for you. Actually, I have twin upsetting newslets.

1. There’s only one person responsible for fixing your life, and that’s you, dude. You knew I was gonna say it and you know it’s true. So let’s move on.

2. When someone is miserable and their life is shambolic, do you think their FaceBook walls light up with invitations? It’s not that people just aren’t that into them. It’s that  people leave the state to avoid them. Happy, together people want to be with other happy, together people.

Valentine’s Day Happiness Strategy: To attract someone fabulous, be fabulous

The single best thing you can do to meet someone fabulous is be fabulous. Forget waiting, manipulating, lamenting, whining, bargaining and surgical enhancements.

Instead, put your energy into being your best self and developing the qualities you desire in someone else. Go back to that list of the traits you crave in your fantasized love bunny and see how many you have.

If you take yourself off hold and start looking after your own happiness, not only will your life immediately start to pick up, but you’ll become way more appealing too.

When that happens, can I get your number for my friend?

Coming up:

• When you’ve forgotten what you ever saw in them - what should you do?
• When ‘they’ won’t change - what should you do?

Image: paultalbot

Lesson: A happiness model

Although positive psychology and well-being research have flourished, there’s no  agreed-upon theory of happiness. But a model has been suggested, quite recently in fact, and it’s based on 3 factors (1).

1. Circumstances and demographics
- like health, finances and marital status

2. Personality and genes 
- the ‘innate’ aspects of a person

3. Intentional factors 
- deliberate actions like pursuing a goal

These 3 factors vary in how much, and for how long, they can change a person’s level of happiness. The first 2 will probably sound familiar by now:

1. Circumstances and demographics

Overall circumstances at a given time make a pretty small contribution to happiness - as we saw in Happiness Strategy 8: Make happiness an inside job and Happiness Strategy 10: Don’t keep up with the Joneses.

And changing these circumstances leads at best to a short-term boost, because people quickly adjust to new conditions, as we saw in Happiness Strategy 9: Get off the hedonic treadmill.

According to the model, circumstances and demographics contribute about 10% of the variance in happiness, in statistical terms.

2. Personality and genes 

Unlike the small effect of conditions, genes and personality make a big difference to happiness levels, as we saw in Happiness Strategy 11: Focus on what you can do to be happier and Happiness Strategy 12: Make peace with your personality. It may be that people have a happiness set-point around which they fluctuate with circumstances.

According to the model personality and genes contribute about 50% of the variance in happiness.

Our conscious behavior can explain some of the happiness-personality link, as we saw in Strategy 13: Act like you’re an extravert - even if you aren’t.

Which leads nicely to the third part of the model.

3. Intentional factors 

We’re left with about 40% for the last factor in the happiness model - the actions or behaviors people engage in deliberately. They might be:

• Cognitive - like counting your blessings
• Behavioral - like exercising regularly
• Volitional - like striving for a goal.

Although intentional factors aren’t automatic, they can become a habit over time (1).

Happiness strategy: Concentrate on intentional factors

Looking at the factors in this model of happiness, it’s clear where our happiness-raising efforts will have the most benefit. Circumstances contribute little, changed circumstances bring short-term gains at best, and genes offer limited opportunity for tweaking. Rather, it’s the intentional component of the model that makes a large contribution to happiness as well as offering a way to sustainable happiness change.

• What kinds of intentional actions can we use to raise our happiness levels?
• Is there research evidence that they work?
• And if they work, will we stay happier for life, or will we have to keep doing them?

Upcoming strategies will cover these and many other questions about intentional factors as a way to raise your own happiness. Stay tuned!

Research sources:

(1) Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K. M., & Schkade, D. (2005). Pursuing happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology, 9(2), 111-131.

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.

Technorati Tags: happiness strategies,happiness model,happiness,personality,circumstances,intentional factors