Who is Happy?

For this post I am going to be considering sections of the paper 'Who is Happy?' by Myers and Diener. Download the paper from here.

The paper states that:

Those who describe themselves as happy and satisfied with life seem happy to their friends and to their family members. Their daily mood ratings reveal mostly positive emotions. They recall more positive events and fewer negative events (Seiditz & Diener 1993)'

If we reverse things so instead of 'happy people recall...' we get 'we recall...and so we become happy' it is likely that our happiness would improve. So let's break this down and see how the elements may be achieved:

1. Happy to their friends and family members.

Firstly - how to get friends? You're new to the area - how do you meet people?

Two ideas:

1. Visit here

2. Visit here

If you're in Oxford, visiting this site will enable you to look for meetings, clubs, societies, jobs etc.

2. Recalling more positive and fewer negative events.

This is one of the four activities suggested in Professor Wiseman's experiments.

Here is the short list:

a. Expressing gratitude

b. Smiling

c. Recalling a pleasant event from the day before

d. Carrying out an act of kindness

Now watch these....









Guardian comment

Here are ten 'happiness tips'

1. Meet up with a friend that you haven’t seen for a while.
2. Watch a funny television programme or film.
3. Exercise for about thirty minutes three times a week.
4. Cut your television viewing by half.
5. Distract yourself with a book (personally, I would recommend ‘59 Seconds’!)
6. Create novel challenges by starting a new hobby, joining an organisation, or learning a new skill.
7. Go for a 20 minute walk in the sun.
8. Spend ten minutes listening to relaxing or uplifting music.
9. Stroke a dog.
10. Don’t listen to the news.