Positive Psychology | Exercises for building happiness – Part 1

The pursuit of happiness has occupied humans for millennia – whether creating ancient Greek schools of philosophy, inspiring the United States Declaration of Independence, or informing Bhutan’s policy of prioritising Gross National Happiness ahead of Gross National Product.

Until recently, psychological science has had very little to say on happiness, instead preferring to study, understand and relieve illness and distress. As treatments for emotional distress have improved, practitioners have observed that an absence of distress and illness does not lead to greater happiness, or result in increased life satisfaction. Simply put, not being sad is not the same as being happy. With this realisation, the study of happy people and what makes them happy has become a serious pursuit.

Happiness is described by researcher Lybomirsky as “the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile” and happiness researchers are increasingly confident in the evidence-based strategies that increase our happiness.

Happiness is serious business

Psychologists have observed that happier people appear more successful in many areas of life; they are more creative, are judged more favourably by peers and colleagues, have better social relationships, have healthier immune systems and also have longer life expectancy. Additionally, employees of happier managers are more productive, more innovative and have better problem solving skills than those of less happy counterparts.

A study to explore this by Haase, Poulin and Heckhausen (2012) discovered that positive emotions act as an excellent predictor of the motivation and effort required to overcome obstacles to success. People in the study with fewer positive emotional experiences were less likely to persevere and succeed compared comparison to those who had a greater number of positive experiences, when faced with the same obstacles. Research by Lyubomirsky, King and Diener (2005) delved into the question of which comes first: success or happiness? This research identified that being happy is crucial to developing many of the desirable characteristics that lead to success.

Happiness nature and nurture

Studies of twins reveal that 50% of our capacity for happiness is accounted for by our genetics, and 10% is determined by our current circumstances, health, wealth and safety. The remaining 40% of our happiness is a result of our intentional activities and attitudes, i.e. how we spend our time, attention and energy. Studies of the happiest of people reveal that this cohort differs from their unhappy colleagues in three main areas of intentional activities (40% of our happiness). Firstly, they do things that cause them to experience pleasure and positive emotions. Secondly, they develop skills and talents and put them to use. Thirdly, they cultivate meaning in life and contribute to things bigger than themselves. While these three areas apply to all, every one of us has a slightly different appetite for each.

The unhappy truth about happiness

There are some caveats when pursuing happiness. With respect to seeking pleasure, too much pleasure-seeking behaviour makes us inflexible and leaves us feeling empty. Pleasure is designed to wear off. Once satisfied, we tend to return to our baseline mood over time. Endless feelings of satisfaction would act as a barrier to effort and progress, and drown out negative emotions, which in fact mobilise us to respond to harm and danger. Happiness, based on other’s misfortune or our own unearned achievement or social position, is corrosive to us, our relationships to others and the world. The pursuit of happiness for its own sake often sabotages happiness itself. Happiness is a result of the way we perceive our experience and how we act. Being happier is possible anywhere, only 10% of our happiness is circumstantial. If we are not happy in our current circumstance, a simple change of situation is unlikely to make much difference.

Exercises for building happiness

To measure and build happiness in a systematic way researchers have broken down happiness into five areas under the acronym PERMA.

P stands for Positive emotion.
E stands for Engagement.
R stands for Relationships.
M stands for Meaning.
A stands for Accomplishments

Six exercises to cultivate Positive Emotion

The experience of pleasure through positive emotions is highly related to happiness. Positive emotions to practice for increased happiness are Love, Joy, Gratitude, Contentment, Interest, Hope, Pride, Amusement, Inspiration, Awe. These emotions are cultivated in the exercises below.

Exercise: Beauty Lists

Task: Find beauty in your environment. Take a few minutes to seek out and find beauty in 5 things in your environment. Turn your attention to your surroundings and senses, pleasant sights, sounds, smells, sensations or tastes. Do this occasionally or as often as you like.

Rationale: this exercise trains us experience joy, inspiration and contentment in things we generally overlook and take for granted.

Exercise: The Gratitude Journal

Task: Take 15 to 30 minutes once a week. Identify three things you feel genuinely grateful for. Describe about them in detail, how they came to be in your life and the positive influence they have.

Rationale: purposefully experiencing gratitude cultivates an attitude of hope and optimism about the world. It shifts our perspective from fear of threat and deprivation to one of security and confidence.

Exercise: Mental Subtraction

Task: Take 15 to 30 minutes occasionally. Identify one positive life event. Write for 5 minutes about the influence of that positive event on your life in detail. For the second half of this exercise, consider your life without this positive event and the positive influence that stemmed from it.

Rationale: this exercise cultivates an attitude of contentment and gratitude about the world.

Exercise: Acts of Kindness

Task: For most effect, aim to do 5 acts of kindness in 1 day. Do this with the intention of showing kindness to those you come across in a day. Any act, no matter how large or small, counts!

Examples of acts of kindness include a smile, a positive comment, giving a small gift, holding a door open, writing a thank you note, or helping a neighbour or colleague.

Rationale: in this exercise we experience joy and gratitude by our positive impact on others.

Exercise: Make an Effective Apology

Task: To apologise.

The best apologies have 6 important elements:

1. Acknowledge the offense
2. Seek responsibility
3. Express remorse
4. Offer redress
5. Commit to not repeat the offending act
6. Have an empathic and genuine attitude

An example of an effective apology: “I see how what happened affected you, I‘m sorry I caused that…I will try my best to …or not do…in the future.”

Try this out on small issues and observe the impact on both parties.

Rationale: this exercise cultivates contentment and pride.

Exercise: Finding Silver Linings

Task: Recall an experience that didn’t go well. Anything from burning your toast to not getting the mortgage you applied for. Without suppressing or denying how unpleasant the situation is, look hard for 3 possible benefits that could arise from the situation, no matter how small or unlikely they may seem.

Then take a few moments to identify what character strength or virtue the unpleasant situation is challenging you to develop.

Do this daily, occasionally or as often as you like.

Rationale: This exercise cultivates optimism, hope and gratitude. 

Visit wellspringtherapy.ie/resources to get your Happiness score. Part 2 which will be published on A Lust for Life in the coming weeks will cover exercises for increased ‘Engagement’ and happier ‘Relationships’.

References:
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L., & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success?
Haase, C. M., Poulin, M. J., & Heckhausen, J. (2012). Happiness as a motivator: Positive affect predicts primary control striving for career and educational goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(8), 1093-1104.