Psychologists believe it is possible to raise your happiness quotient by taking specific steps. For starters, do things you enjoy more often. That might mean taking a walk, sleeping late, or calling your sister without a reason. Try becoming more involved in everything you do. In other words, don't mail it in. If you're coaching a Little League team get to know your players and help them with their weaknesses. Try to have an impact at work. Trying a new recipe? Don't take the easy way out and leave out an unusual spice. Go to the store and get the correct ingredients.
Make the effort. Find ways to make your life more meaningful.
This is often achieved through volunteer activities and other endeavors that help others and contribute to your personal growth.
Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky at the University of California- Riverside has studied what she calls "happiness boosters." One of the most effective is what she calls a "gratitude journal." Taking the time to write down what you are thankful for once a week can increase your overall life satisfaction in less than two months, she found. Counting your blessings may also improve physical health, raise your energy level, and relieve pain and fatigue. This is no joke. Happy people generate 50 percent more antibodies-a huge amount-in response to a flu vaccine, researchers have discovered. Studies have linked hopefulness, optimism, and contentment to less risk of cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, diabetes, hypertension, colds, and upper respiratory infections. According to a Dutch study of elderly patients, the happiest subjects had a 50 percent less chance of dying over nine years.
Laughter also makes a difference. In one study, ten volunteers gave blood before, during, and after viewing a one-hour comedy. The stress hormone cortisol was significantly lower at the end of the video. Another major happiness booster, Lyubomirsky found, was doing acts of altruism or kindness that may be as simple as calling a grandparent or praying for a friend. The more acts of kindness, the quicker and more lasting the boost.
Professor Seligman's research at the University of Pennsylvania found that the single most effective way to supercharge your happiness is to make a "gratitude visit." He suggests writing a testimonial thanking a teacher or workplace mentor or dear friend, and then visiting the person to read them the testimonial. People who do this just once are measurably happier a month later, Seligman says. He also says that lasting happiness requires you to find your core strengths and figure out how to deploy them. He defines core strengths as generosity, humor, gratitude, zest, and capacity for love. So one of the most effective happiness inducements you can concoct might be as simple as making someone laugh or painting your team colors on your face and going to the game with equally zestful friends.
Find Your Purpose
In my view, the whole point of living longer is to have time to discover your purpose and replant your wisdom. "Baby boomers have always been in the how-do-I-find-meaning business," observes Howard Husock, who directs the Manhattan Institute's Social Entrepreneurship Initiative and each year offers prize money to retirement-age men and women who are doing something novel or important to help others. Now, he says, with many boomers reaching fifty-five and sixty and sixty-five and expecting to live another twenty or thirty years "they have the luxury of being able to reflect on what meaning is, and having the time to act on it."
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