Everything You Need to Know about Happiness in 7 Memes

Happy people live longer, have more satisfying marriages, lower blood pressure and heart rate, a stronger immune system, lower levels of stress, and less pain. We’ve read the self-help books on how to maximize happiness and summarized them for you. You’re welcome (insert smug face).

1. Find your bliss

Track your moods and behaviors to figure out what makes you happy. You may find that it’s the things that you don’t enjoy at first like exercise and going to bed early that make you happiest. Bullet journaling is a great way to track your habits and mood to help you identify patterns. Bullet journaling can also help you decrease brain clutter, which can hinder happiness (xxlink to happiness project). Once you identify patterns, set behavioral goals to start actively increasing your happiness.

2.

Set clear goals, concentrate,and create a sense of control. Unfortunately, finding your flow requires trial and error of lots of different activities. Your bullet journal can help you figure out what turns you on. Csikszentmihalyi, suggests trying martial arts, meditation, yoga, exercise, dance, art, and music.

3. Make your environment less shitty, then change your shitty mindset.

The environment was not created with human happiness in mind, so to achieve flow you have to change your environment to support flow and the stuff you can’t change you have to change your mindset about it.

4. “Happiness is a condition that must be prepared for, cultivated, and defended privately by each person.”

Although we have a high quality of life and much physical comfort, we aren’t substantially happier than those in third world countries. Thus, comfort does not equal happiness. In fact, finding your flow actually requires discomfort, growth, and change. You won’t find your flow sitting in front of the TV. Flow is actively created. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

5. Make yourself accountable for reaching your goals

Reward self and enroll others to help you stay accountable.

6. Physically connect with loved ones

A 6 second hug is all you need for your body to begin producing oxytocin and serotonin, both are mood boosting neurochemicals.

7. Go Outside, Goddammit!

Light deprivation can reduce happiness or, worse, depressed. Five minutes of sunlight can increase the production of serotonin and dopamine (those mood boosting neurochemical I told you about above).