Happiness Blog

Have you ever been so overwhelmed with work (or life in general) that you slip into a cycle of anxiety? Sometimes breathing the right way is the best way to calm your mind and focus. We tend to tense up and breathe less deeply and quicker when stressed. Then, because you’re breathing so fast and shallow, you actually make yourself more anxious. It’s a cycle. To break that cycle, you have to make an active effort to change how you breathe. You’ll be surprised to find out that after a minute or two, you’ll feel yourself getting calmer! 

Try some of these techniques: 

• Alternate-Nostril Breathing
• Belly Breathing
• Box Breathing
• 4-7-8 Breathing
• Lion’s Breath
• Mindful Breathing
• Pursed-Lip Breathing
• Resonance Breathing

Different techniques work for different people. If one of these doesn’t work for you, don’t worry! Simply try another one until you find one (or maybe more!) that helps you de-stress.

You might think that only listening to happy music will make you happy, but it turns out that sad songs might boost your mood. A study done at the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany found that sad music actually evokes positive emotions. Sometimes, listening to the music helped them release and process their emotions. 

Perhaps the biggest benefit was the following: People who listen to sad music can experience grief and sadness through the music without having to deal with anything negative triggering that in their real lives.

Have you ever felt anxious and nothing seems to make you feel better? A warm bath might be what you need. Numerous studies have shown that taking baths can decrease depression, stress, tension-anxiety, and anger-hostility. They help relax your mind and give you some much needed time for yourself. You can also try meditating to get an extra perk! Along with the mental benefits, there are also numerous physical benefits to taking a bath. The temperature is an important part. Warm baths, specifically 40-45ºC, release muscles and tension in your body. Plus, you’re also cleaning your body, meaning you’re getting something else done at the same time!

There are a lot of things that contribute to happiness, some of which are easier to do than others. According to Medical News Today, a good night’s sleep is proven to increase both happiness and well-being. A study by Dr. Tang and colleagues concluded that better sleep (in the sense of quality and quantity) increased happiness as much as 8 weeks of mindful cognitive therapy. With that, more than 33% of US adults do not get enough sleep. According to the CDC, the following represents the amount of sleep certain age groups need daily: 8-10 hours for teens (13-18), 7 or more hours for adults (18–60), 7-9 hours for adults (61-64), and 7-8 hours for adults (65 and older). Even fitting in one more hour of sleep could greatly increase your quality of life.

In a 2019 article by Positive Psychology, the health benefits of gratitude are explored. According to the Greater Good Science Center, the following are proven benefits of practicing gratitude: increased happiness, positive mood, more satisfaction with life, less materialistic, less likely to experience burnout, better physical health, better sleep, less fatigue, lower levels of cellular inflammation, greater resiliency, and development of patience, humility, and wisdom. Practicing gratitude can look different for different people. There are many ways to practice gratitude. Including, but not limited to, keeping a gratitude journal, writing gratitude letters, and meditation. Even thinking about someone who you are grateful for can give you these health benefits. If you’re interested, you can read the rest of the Positive Psychology article and see what other studies have said.

So often we block our own happiness by carrying around the weight of our guilt and regrets. For you to fully live your life, you have to begin to let go. It is important to know that we can only interact with the world at our current level of consciousness. So often we blame ourselves for the things we said or didn’t say, or the choices we made or didn’t make, but the truth is that you did exactly what you thought you needed to do at your level of consciousness at that time. Maybe you were acting out of ignorance, or out of pain, and you couldn’t see this back then. But so often, it is making these mistakes in the first place that builds up the pressure to bring us into a higher level of awareness, and from there we retroactively assess ourselves. Who you are today is a result of you becoming more conscious and aware of yourself and the world based upon your experiences. Instead of regretting a situation, you can thank that situation for the new awareness it gifted you, even if you also hold sadness for any hurt you may have caused yourself and others. Once you give yourself the gift of forgiveness, you stop feeding into the blame cycle, which can help you forgive others as well. Note that forgiveness is different from accountability. You can hold yourself and others accountable without bearing the emotional burden of mistakes longer than needed. Letting go leads to a happier you and a happier world!

Part of happiness is staying engaged in life, stimulated, and interested. While our brains enjoy habits, they also crave novelty. You are in charge of creating your own happiness, and you can create something unexpected in your life too. We challenge you to do something out of the ordinary. This could be something social, like messaging an old friend you haven’t talked to in years, planning a surprise date for your partner, or throwing a party with a fun theme. It could be something work-related. Perhaps set a new goal outside of your comfort zone. It could also be hobby-related, like joining a rock-climbing group or taking a pottery class. You can look up events in your area and commit to going to at least one. Whatever it is, don’t think about it too hard, just commit to it, follow through, and let yourself be surprised! You may find it feels good to do something you don’t normally do.