During difficult times, many of us feel that happiness is in short supply. Yet, when we’re faced with stress, people often express a desire to be happy without being able to clearly define what happiness means to them or how it truly feels.
How, then, can you begin to enhance your happiness if you’re uncertain about what it means to you? You can’t. At least, not effectively. However, with some reflection, you can identify what you’re missing and begin working toward greater happiness.
What is happiness?
Let’s begin by defining happiness. Broadly, happiness is a mental or emotional state characterized by positive feelings such as joy, contentment, amusement, gratitude, and hope. It’s also closely linked with general well-being, life satisfaction, and our ability to flourish (Seligman, 2011). According to positive psychology pioneer Martin Seligman, flourishing is central to leading a satisfying life.
Where Does Happiness Come From?
Positive psychology focuses on recognizing aspects of your life that bring satisfaction and fulfillment. Identifying and leveraging your personal strengths is key—not only do these enable you to solve problems and achieve personal goals, but using them to help others can foster a sense of belonging and purpose (Seligman, 2011; Peterson & Seligman, 2004).
Although we’re often advised to prioritize self-care, research suggests that those who focus on others’ well-being report higher life satisfaction (Williamson & Clark, 1989; Seligman, 2011). Community and belonging are essential components of happiness, and our lives lose meaning when we become too self-focused. Recent studies indicate that helping others can directly increase our happiness (Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005).
When our actions create happiness.
According to Plato’s virtue-based eudaimonistic concept, happiness or well-being (eudaimonia) results from taking suitable actions. Therefore solemnly focusing on yourself will never give you the answer to what your purpose should be or how to create more joy in life. On the contrary, throughout history, human beings were never as interested in their well-being as they are right now. Interestingly enough, the more we focus on individual happiness, the higher the suicide rate is. At the same time, some of the studies are inconclusive and certainly need further discussion. Quite often it becomes visible for the travelers around us when we move through countries. For example, every time I travel through a country in Africa, I can’t stop wondering why so many people back home suffer from depression, anxiety, and continued “complaintytis” (aka the ability to criticize everything continuously) without realizing the adverse effects on your mental health well-being.
Happiness is not a primary emotion. And historically speaking, happiness wasn’t the primary issue till the last 50 years of our human existence. But, of course, that doesn’t mean that people didn’t experience happiness. But on the contrary to the widespread belief, happiness is something that happens in specific moments and is not a constant stage. That’s why in positive psychology, we speak about developing the ability to thrive through life. But, of course, with that comes the increase of happiness.
These Positive Psychology techniques can increase your happiness levels and help you to be more effective.
1. Reality Design
Quite often, we are stuck in our ways of doing things and thinking in a particular way. Designing different realities helps your brain to change perspective and refocus. It is all about broadening your perspective. That’s why traveling places with different cultures broadens your horizon. When you travel you see other ways of living and thinking. You can also achieve this on a day-to-day basis by training your brain to add different points of view. Once your picture additional possibilities, choose the most favorable one for you and focus on turning that into reality.
2. Gratitude Map
Shawn Achor calls this mental cartography. First, revisit your life and highlight the meaningful events and why you are grateful for them. Secondly, take a closer look at what is significant in your life. Make sure to distinguish it from what you are drawn to because others are striving for it. It is crucial to differentiate between shiny object syndrome and what keeps you inspired. This will allow you to identify better goals and create more direct routes to your goals by reorienting your mental maps (Achor, 2013). More so, it will enable you to be essential in your choices and stay on your path.
3. Noise Cancelling
Noise-canceling is significant on many levels. Noise pollution is a serious issue that we are surrounded by. Creating spaces where you can silently work can improve your happiness levels and help you be more productive. But it is also essential to focus on the crucial information and therefore cancel out all unnecessary noise. Including news, watching excessive, unnecessary TV, and spending time with people distracting you from your goals by wanting to share their opinions. Listen carefully to important messages and find the actual subject matter experts that you can benefit from. Lastly, learn to cancel out the negative and distracting inner voices of fear, anxiety, worry,
4. The Z-spot or 4C-Foresee
Create clarity and confidence through building your intuition by acknowledging past successes. Build a community that you trust, and that understands your vision. Sometimes we need to find new people that understand new ideas and can see us for what we want to become and not for what we were in the past. Moving forward at the end of the day means reinventing yourself. Zoom in on your target by building significant stepping stones along your path. Remember that goals need to be measurable because that allows you to celebrate the small wins and stay motivated. Also, it enables you to understand how much time and effort you need to put into each stage. The last stage is the completion part. This Foresee-system allows you to decrease fear and worry and refocus on what matters most.
5. Positive Inception (Shawn Achor, 2013)
The goal of positive psychology is to create a positive reality for yourself. Once you succeeded in creating a positive reality for yourself, find ways to transfer these skills onto others. This is not just about being optimistic; this is about creating an environment in which all of us can flourish. And because I know that you might be a bit critical of this, but science showed that evolution and continuous improvement is based on positive experiences, not negative ones. So even if you have a positive outlook and you might not succeed at the first attempt, keeping a positive mindset helps you keep on going and coming up with new ideas. It keeps us creative.
These techniques will increase your happiness levels, but they will help you succeed in life and feel good.
What are the benefits of positive psychology coaching?
Research has shown that several positive psychology strategies can significantly raise our level of happiness. Of course, happiness isn’t necessarily a constant state of mind, but it can be an ongoing strategy because the benefits of happiness are significant and widespread and extend far beyond just feeling good. For example, happier people tend to be healthier, live longer, have closer friendships, are more creative and productive at work, as well in life, and achieve impactful success. Research also shows that the happiest people tend to: express more gratitude regularly, nurture relationships with family and friends, practice optimism, appreciate the positive experience in their lives, and lastly, commit to and turn meaningful goals into reality.
Feel free to contact me if you would like to learn more about Positive Psychology Techniques that you can benefit from.
Read more:
Is Individualism Suicidogenic? Findings From a Multinational Study of Young Adults From 12 Countries
References:
Achor, S. (2013). Before Happiness: The 5 Hidden Keys to Achieving Success, Spreading Happiness, and Sustaining Positive Change. Crown Business.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227-268.
Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Very happy people. Psychological Science, 13(1), 81–84.
Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Random House.
Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377–389.
Evans, G. W. (2003). The built environment and mental health. Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 80(4), 536–555.
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Kraut, R. (2018). Aristotle’s ethics. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
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Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. Oxford University Press.
Seligman, M. E. P. (2011). Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being. Free Press.
Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60(5), 410–421.
Williamson, G. M., & Clark, M. S. (1989). Providing help and desired relationship type as determinants of changes in mood and self-evaluation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56(5), 722–734.
