Don’t worry, be happy!

Researchers are looking at ways to increase the amount of happiness we experience. In an article that was reprinted in today’s Virginian-Pilot, prior researchers felt there was no need to look into this:

For decades, a widely accepted view has been that people are stuck with a basic setting on their happiness thermostat. It says the effects of good or bad life events like marriage, a raise, divorce, or disability will simply fade with time.

But can that level be changed? One such exercise is now being studied:

Every night, she was to think of three good things that happened that day and analyze why they occurred.

[…]

The think-of-three-good-things exercise that Miller, the motivational speaker, found so simplistic at first is among those being tested by Seligman’s group at the University of Pennsylvania.

People keep doing it on their own because it’s immediately rewarding, said Seligman colleague Acacia Parks. It makes people focus more on good things that happen, which might otherwise be forgotten because of daily disappointments, she said.

Another:

A second approach that has shown promise in Seligman’s group has people discover their personal strengths through a specialized questionnaire and choose the five most prominent ones. Then, every day for a week, they are to apply one or more of their strengths in a new way.

That one sounds like too much work to me 😉

Another approach under study now is having people work on savoring the pleasing things in their lives like a warm shower or a good breakfast, Parks said. Yet another promising approach is having people write down what they want to be remembered for, to help them bring their daily activities in line with what’s really important to them, she said.

One of the very first quotes that I collected was on happiness that I cut out of an Ann Landers (or Dear Abby) column. I no longer have the little snippet of paper, but this is the quote as I remember it:

Happiness is such an elusive thing that one should leave no stone unturned in trying to find it.

Pursuit of happiness is part of what makes us Americans. Go ahead, give it a shot 🙂