Happiness Hacks

by Adams Media

  Eat Your Greens

  Dark leafy greens like spinach, collard greens, and kale are high in folate, which is important because your body can’t make folate—you must obtain it through foods or supplements. Folate helps decrease negative thoughts and depressive symptoms by increasing dopamine in the brain. And a bonus: these greens will also help keep your brain sharp well into old age!

  Listen to Music and Sing Along

  Have you ever noticed how good you feel when you hear certain song or a how an old tune can bring back a flood of happy memories? That’s because music is a mood enhancer. Listening to music releases dopamine (our favorite feel-good hormone) into your system and makes you feel happy. In addition, singing a song triggers a tiny organ in your inner ear called the saccule. It’s connected to a part of your brain that registers pleasure, making you feel good no matter how good of a singer you are!

  Drink Green Tea

  Green tea has been shown to reduce stress levels. In fact, a study showed that people who drank five or more cups of green tea a day had 20 percent lower levels of stress than those who only drank one cup of green tea. As an added bonus, green tea also helps with weight loss and helps prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, certain cancers, and osteoporosis. So drink green tea to be happy and healthy!

  Quit Nagging

  Not only does nagging someone to do something rarely lead to a good outcome (or even work particularly well), nagging also makes the nagger feel angry and mean. You’ll get a mood boost when you quit nagging! Try kinder, more persuasive tools to get some help when you need it . . . or just do the task yourself. Often simply coming out and asking someone (one time!) to do a task is more effective than getting on their case about it. And you’ll feel better about yourself too.

  Go to Bed Angry (Occasionally)

  Studies have shown that unleashing your anger over every inconvenience is not actually helpful. In fact, expressing your anger over minor, fleeting annoyances actually amplifies bad feelings, while not expressing anger often allows it to dissipate. So perhaps try going to bed angry when the situation is not critical—you’ll wake up feeling better and happier.

  Be Tough

  The happiest people are not always the people who win; rather, they are the people who don’t give up when they lose. So when things go wrong, be calm and be tough. Keep pushing forward even when it feels like you are alone. Self-pity is not helpful and will not lead to long-term happiness. Believe in yourself, fight for yourself, and stay strong.

  Be Busy, but Not Rushed

  Rushing or feeling rushed is a one-way street to unhappiness, but feeling busy and productive actually leads to happy feelings. It’s true: boredom can be overwhelming and burdensome. Balanced free time is essential, though, so strive to lead a productive life at a comfortable pace. This also means you will have to say no to some things (another happiness hack!).

  Stop Blaming

  People make mistakes. Vendors don’t meet shipping schedules; significant others fail to remember important dates . . . it happens. But blaming others for problems that arise in your life is fruitless. Besides, perhaps you actually have a share in the blame. Maybe you didn’t communicate clearly or maybe you didn’t provide enough training. Maybe you just asked too much of someone. Taking responsibility when things go wrong instead of blaming someone else isn’t being a pushover! It’s actually empowering, because that way, you’re able to focus on learning from your mistakes. That’s how we all get smarter. And when you’re smarter about handling life, you are happier.

  Get Rid of Your Ego

  Letting your ego be wounded and letting yourself feel offended creates destructive energy. This negative energy often leads us to attack others, which then produces counterattacks. Living in a state of permanent back-and-forth competition is detrimental to yourself and those around you. Your ego loves to judge people—it tries to measure people by their appearance, what kind of possessions they own, or other meaningless standards. It loves to divide people into winners and losers. But these feelings will pull you away from other people and leave you feeling isolated, bitter, and alone. Go beyond the constant clamoring of your ego to be right! Instead, try to enjoy your life and accept others as they are.

  Floss

  Can flossing make you happy? Yes. It comes down to self-care and self-respect. You know that flossing is important for your oral health and can help prevent a myriad of nasty symptoms, from bad breath to gum decay, but let’s be honest—you hardly ever floss, right? If you can’t commit to something as simple (but important!) as flossing to improve your health, then you are most likely not making yourself a priority in other areas of your life, either. Commit to your health and yourself with a little flossing, and you’ll notice you will start to prioritize yourself more.

  Keep a Journal

  Keep a journal and commit to writing in it every day. Even if you don’t have anything to say, you can just write how you felt about the day or about some things that happened that made you feel happy or grateful. Some days you’ll write a lot and some days you’ll write very little, but no matter what, commit to writing each day. A journal also serves as a record of the things you have accomplished and the goals you have met, and it helps prove that you have overcome problems in the past. Going back and reading your journal can give you inspiration and motivation, plus it can be cathartic to get your feelings onto paper rather than keeping them bottled up inside.

  Read a Book/ Article on a Subject You Know Nothing About

  People have a natural desire to learn and progress. Learning something new can help you build self-confidence and self-efficacy. Learning will also fuel your creativity—learning something new in one area can often help you make connections between other seemingly unrelated things. In other words, learning something new about one topic can trigger you to think differently about something that’s already going on in your life. You’ll also get a sense of satisfaction and a boost in self-esteem for having increased your skills and knowledge.

  Have a Plan for Each Day

  You don’t need to plan every minute of your day in advance—in fact, that would probably end up causing you a great deal more stress and worry than it would spark happiness—but you should try to get the most out of your workday so that you can relax and enjoy your time away from work. One of the best ways to be effective is to plan your day in intervals. For example, work for an hour, take a ten-minute break, work another hour, take a thirty-minute break, and so on. Because your brain cannot concentrate for longer than a few hours at a time, planning your day in intervals can improve your productivity.

  Don’t Work So Much

  Overworking yourself will not bring you happiness. It is not something to be proud of or something to brag about. No one at their end of their life thinks I wish I had spent more time preparing for that presentation! In fact, workers who work more than eleven hours a day have a higher risk of depression than those who work a standard seven- or eight-hour day. Want to know what overworking will get you? Sick, stressed, off-balance, disengaged, and less smart. In a study using MRI scans, researchers at Yale found that people who felt stressed out on a regular basis had smaller brain volumes than less stressed-out subjects.

  Stop Worrying

  We are a society of worriers, but in reality most of the terrible things that we envision happening never do. We are afraid of what might happen (or not happen) with respect to things we can’t change (or won’t be able to change) and what other people think about us. We worry and we hesitate, and as a consequence, we wind up thinking longer about doing something rather than just doing it. Meanwhile, weeks, months, and years pass, and we are still worried and still unhappy. If you want to be happier, put aside fear and worry and do something! Start something; take a first step. The only thing you should worry about is wasting your days and your life and not doing what you dream about doing.

  Don’t Be Afraid to Admit You Don’t Know

  No one wants to look stupid, and you
may think it’s easier to just nod your head or say that you understand something. But in reality, you will look more foolish if you pretend to understand something than if you don’t. When you’re in a workplace or faced with an intimidating person or situation, it can be difficult to admit you don’t know something. Oftentimes you may be fudging your way through a conversation and come to a point where you don’t know the answer to something. You could pretend that you do (and risk getting called out later or thrown into a situation you can’t handle) or you could just admit you don’t know. Saying you don’t know something or didn’t understand something will actually give you credibility. You might also get a better explanation of whatever you didn’t understand or more time to figure something out.

  Play with a Pet

  Play with your pets! Take your dog for a walk or play with your cat for a few minutes each day. Feel the unconditional love and joy you can get from an animal. The act of caring and providing for a pet can give you satisfaction too. Pets require constant care and attention, and being able to give your pet that support can make you feel accomplished. Don’t have a pet? Stop an owner on the street and ask to pet their dog, or watch pet videos online. A recent study found that just watching cat videos online can boost a person’s energy and increase feelings of happiness.

  Compliment Someone

  There are many ways that complimenting someone can lead to happiness. In addition to the good feels you’ll get by making someone else happier, a genuine compliment helps build trust between people. It also is more likely to lead to someone giving you a compliment in return, which can make you feel special. That’s not to say that you should pay someone a compliment just to get one in return, but one good reason to compliment others is that you’ll be promoting a happiness chain that can help change attitudes and build a positive rapport among your coworkers and friends.

  Be Consistent

  Treat everyone you meet the same way: don’t treat the president of your company better than her intern. And don’t treat your coworkers with kindness and respect and then come home and take your frustrations out on your significant other or family. Being consistent not only makes other people feel better about you—treating people equally makes you appear fair and open-minded—it will help you feel less critical and judgmental.

  Be There for the Little Moments

  It’s important to be there for people you care about during the big moments of life: weddings, births, funerals, first days of school. But aside from that, being there for the little moments is what truly lets people know you care about them. Your friend had a bad day at work? Grab some wine to share and listen to his problems. Your niece is having a problem at school? Take her out for ice cream and help her come up with a solution. It’s the seemingly smaller events in life that can truly shape us, so be present for your loved ones in those moments. They won’t forget it.

  Stop Checking Social Media So Much

  Social media is an amazing service that helps us connect with the world. The problem, though, is that social media can also disconnect you from actual interactions with people. You don’t have to quit email/Twitter/ Facebook/Instagram/Tumblr cold turkey—just check it a couple of times a day and then be done with it. If people truly need to get in touch with you, they can call you. (You know, that other function of your phone!)

  Shorten the Time You Feel Pissed Off

  People will piss you off—it’s part of life, and feeling frustrated is a natural reaction that you often can’t control. But what you can control is how long you let that feeling control you. Don’t allow yourself to become stuck in feelings of anger or resentment! That will only take you down a negative path, one that will let the anger in you grow. Instead, feel pissed off, acknowledge the wrong that was done to you, and then start to let it go. Holding anger inside will just poison your happiness.

  Stop Saying “I’m Fine”

  “I’m fine.” “Things are fine.” “We’re doing fine.” “Fine” is one of the most overused and meaningless words people say today. You should never answer “fine” when someone asks you how you are doing. Take a few moments to actually think about how you are feeling and then give an appropriate answer: “I’m bored.” “I’m nervous.” “I’m great.” Take the time to think about your feelings instead of giving a throwaway response. Who knows? You might even inspire the person who’s asking to think more about their feelings as well!

  Don’t Interrupt

  Interrupting someone isn’t just rude—it sends the message that you don’t care about the other person. When you interrupt what someone is saying, what you’re doing is telling that person, “I don’t care enough about you to listen to what you are saying so that I can understand you—I am just listening until I can decide what I want to say next.” Genuinely listen to what the other person is saying. Focus on what the other person is telling you and try to actually understand their point rather than just thinking about your counterpoint. Ask questions about what the other person is saying. Your interlocutor will feel appreciated and valued, and in turn, you’ll feel happier that you took the time to listen.

  Get Rid of Some of Your Stuff

  You’ve no doubt heard that things won’t bring you happiness . . . yet we all still buy more and more stuff. Buying things doesn’t make us happy for many reasons: possessions are only temporary, possessions require maintenance, possessions make us worry about damage and theft, and no matter how much you have, someone else will always have more. So instead of looking to fill your happiness void with buying more things, try having fewer things. Redirect your buying desires to other pursuits that are more lasting.

  Don’t Plot Revenge

  When someone wrongs you, your first reaction may be to devise a plan to inflict similar pain on that person. You may even feel like doing so will make you feel better about your own pain. In reality, though, seeking revenge does not cancel out your pain—all it does is continue the cycle of pain. There is a famous saying: “Before seeking revenge, first dig two graves.” That makes sense, because when you seek revenge, you are hurting yourself in the process. Rise above the situation and move forward. You don’t want to let pain suck you into a negative place.

  Talk to a Kid

  That old saying about wisdom coming from the mouths of babes is more true than you might think. Try to regularly talk to someone under the age of seven. What you will discover is a fierce zest for life, a refreshing outlook, and a no-nonsense attitude about what it takes to be happy. Want to learn what it’s like to really enjoy a day? Talk to a kid and understand the simple joys of life.

  Talk to a Senior

  Want to truly appreciate the world and the wonders of time? Talk to a senior. Talk to people who have literally seen the world change, not just in terms of technology and convenience, but also through the atrocities of war and the moments that changed history. The perspective and knowledge you can gain from seniors and maybe even apply to your own life is monumental.

  Don’t Dwell

  The past is a valuable thing: it holds valuable memories and teaches us lessons. Learn from those lessons and learn from those mistakes . . . and then let them go. If something bad has happened, see it as an opportunity to learn something you didn’t know. If someone else made a mistake, see it as an opportunity to be forgiving and understanding. The past does not define you. Think of the past as practice and training, letting you learn lessons so that you don’t repeat them. Don’t dwell on the bad aspects of the past and don’t live in the pain of old hurts. Move forward!

  Start with the Basics

  Want to get quickly overwhelmed and give up on making a positive change as soon as you’ve begun making it? Then try to handle a big change all at once. It won’t work. Tackling a big lifestyle change should start with small, basic steps. If you try to do too much too quickly, you will get frustrated, resent the change, and eventually give up on it. Instead, start with small, easy-to-manage steps and gradually add more steps over time.

  Be
Okay with People Not Liking You

  “What other people think of you is none of your business.” This quote is true on so many levels—what other people think of you should not affect the way you live your life. Some people will not like you no matter what you do, so it’s no use trying to change yourself to meet someone else’s expectations. Be yourself, express your thoughts as you see fit, and be comfortable in your own skin. If others don’t appreciate you, that is their issue, not yours.

  Research Stuff

  Learning has been widely documented as a key variable when it comes to health and longevity. When people are engaged in doing and learning new things, their well-being and happiness increase significantly. Find something you have always wanted to know about and set out to research it! Learn how it works, where it came from, what it does, anything and everything you can. Expand your mind, and not just on a superficial level—really explore this new thing with ferocity. Your mind and your mood will thank you.