07 Sep 21 ways to change your mindset to enjoy more happiness
A psychologist’s advice on how changing your mindset can help you achieve happiness
via BrightSide.me
It may seem pretty straightforward: either you’re happy or you’re not, and there’s nothing you can do to actually nudge yourself into this lovely state of mind. Well, as it turns out, you CAN learn to be happy! All you need is a bit of perseverance and the willingness to adopt some new positive habits. An article written by Martin Seligman attracted worldwide attention by listing the 21 habits that all genuinely happy people appear to share.
Today, Bright Side shares with you the exciting findings contained in the article!
Let’s be happy already!
In 2004, Martin Seligman, the father of ’positive psychology,’ formulated the following three types of happiness-inducing lifestyles:
- Living at your leisure, filling your life with as many pleasant emotions as it can accommodate.
- Leading a life of care and commitment, finding happiness in work, parenting, love and well-deserved relaxation.
- Striving to fill your life with meaning by finding out your strengths and using them to start living for something bigger than yourself.
Seligman conducted research entitled ’What makes people feel most satisfied with life’ and came up with highly surprising results. Apparently, the pursuit of pleasure has virtually nothing to do with achieving true happiness. Hedonism is merely the icing on a cake whose main ingredients invariably turn out to be either a sense of commitment or meaning.
This may sound like an attempt to justify what many people call ’living a life not wasted,’ but all genuinely happy individuals really do have certain habits that the rest of us would be wise to adopt. Quite possibly, they will change your life for the better!
21 habits that most happy people tend to share
1. They surround themselves with other happy people
Joy is contagious. Researchers from the Framingham Heart Study have been scrutinizing the phenomenon of the ’viral’ spread of happiness for over 20 years. They have found that being surrounded by happy people makes a person more likely to find happiness in the future. Sounds like reason enough to ditch some of your dreary old friends in favor of more cheerful new ones.
2. They smile a lot
Even if you don’t feel particularly cheerful, try to think of something nice and don’t forget to smile at that thought. This really should help. It is important, however, that you don’t merely pretend to be cheerful — smiling while thinking unhappy thoughts will only make things worse.
3. They develop their ability to recover
Psychologists believe that our ability to recover from bad news is the true antidote against depression. Happy people know how to bounce back from a shock. In a sense, this is a natural weapon against all the inevitable bad stuff we all have to deal with throughout our lives. As the old Japanese saying goes: ’Fall seven times, stand up eight.’
…keep reading the full & original article HERE