Researcher suggests 5 small habits that could make you happier
To those who think of happiness as a “nice to have” luxury or something that comes after a lifetime of sacrifice, happiness researcher Shawn Achor, head of Goodthink and author of “The Happiness Advantage,” is on a mission to change minds, hearts and lives.
His research has found that choosing simple happiness habits that take no longer than brushing your teeth can boost your mood, make you happier and, as a result, healthier, more productive and creative at work and closer to those you love at home.
Here he talks about his theories:
Q: So what can readers do to create more happiness in their own lives?
A: I've been looking at five habits that are akin to brushing your teeth. Very short habits that if you do them every day, will improve your health, but also improve your levels of happiness.
1. Three Acts of Gratitude. Spend two minutes a day scanning the world for three new things you're grateful for. And do that for 21 days.
The reason why that's powerful is you're training your brain to scan the world in a new pattern, you're scanning for positives, instead of scanning for threats. It's the fastest way of teaching optimism.
I was working with a large financial company, and we got them to think of three things they were grateful for for 21 days, and it didn't work. The reason why is they were always grateful for the same three things: their health, their work and their family. They weren't scanning the world for new things.
So this only works if you're scanning for new things and you're very specific. So if you say, “I'm grateful for my son,” it doesn't work. But if you say, “I'm grateful for my son because he hugged me today, which means I'm loved regardless,” that specificity gets the brain stuck in a new pattern of optimism.
2. The Doubler. For two minutes a day, think of one positive experience that's occurred during the past 24 hours. Bullet point each detail you can remember.
It works, because the brain can't tell the difference between visualization and actual experience. So you've just doubled the most meaningful experience in your brain. Do it for 21 days, your brain starts connecting the dots for you, then you have this trajectory of meaning running throughout life.
I did this with the National MS Society. Previous research from the University of Texas found that if you have a chronic neuromuscular disease, chronic fatigue and pain, and you do this for six weeks in a row, six months later, they can drop your pain medication by 50 percent.
3. The Fun Fifteen. Do 15 minutes of cardiovascular exercise a day. It's the equivalent of taking an antidepressant for the first six months, but with a 30 percent lower relapse rate over the next two years.
This is not a repudiation of anti-depressants. It's an indication that exercise works, because your brain records a victory, and that cascades to the next activity.
4. Breathe. We did this at Google. We had them take their hands off their keyboards two minutes a day. And go from multi-tasking, to simply watching their breath go in and out. This raises accuracy rates. Improves levels of happiness. Drops their stress levels. And it takes two minutes.
5. Conscious Acts of Kindness. The final habit is the most powerful that we've seen so far. For two minutes each day, start work by writing a two-minute positive email or text praising or thanking one person you know. And do it for a different person each day.
People who do this not only get great emails and texts back and are perceived as positive leaders because of the praise and recognition, but their social connection score is at the top end of the scale.
Social connection is not only the greatest predictor of long-term happiness — the study I did at Harvard is 0.7 correlation, which doesn't sound very sexy, but is stronger than the connection between smoking and cancer.
Q: Can these little, two-minute habits really make a difference?
A: So many people are struggling to create happiness while their brain is inundated by noise. If your brain is receiving too much information, it automatically thinks you're under threat and scans the world for the negative first.
Same thing happens with the lack of sleep. If you sleep eight hours, you can remember positive and negative words around 80 percent of the time 24 hours later.
But with five hours of sleep, you remember 70 percent of the negative words, and 20 to 30 percent of the positive. So your reality shifts based on whether or not your brain feels overwhelmed.
Q: What are the happiness habits you use?
A: I do these gratitudes when I'm starting to feel negative. I journal every day, especially when I'm on planes. I exercise every day. The first thing I do when I get to a hotel is go to the gym.
I do something called social investment. I'm constantly investing in people around me, especially when I feel stressed, sad or lonely, instead of doing the opposite, which is what most people do. So I'll write a positive email. I'll meet up with a friend.
What we're finding is that it's not the macro things that matter, but it's the micro choices for happiness that sustain happiness the best.