How to become a happier person

in #steem8 years ago (edited)

In the face of so much contrary, and often biased advice, what are you supposed to do if you want to live a happier life? Simply forget about all that subjective advice and focus your energy and attention on science-proven facts.

"True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Scientifical research showed that your thoughts, and the feelings you have in response to those thoughts, have a deep impact on surprising areas of your brain.

Guilt and shame, for example, activate the brain’s reward center, which explains why we have such a strong tendency to stack guilt and shame upon ourselves. Similarly, worrying increases activity in the rational brain, which is why worrying can make you feel more in control than doing nothing at all.

Gratitude creates happiness.

I don` t recommend worry, guilt and shame as the path to happiness. The true neural antidepressant is gratitude. Gratitude boosts levels of serotonin and dopamine -- our brain’s happy chemicals and the same chemicals targeted by antidepressant medications. The fascinating thing about gratitude is that it can work even when things are going bad for you. That’s because you don’t actually have to feel spontaneous gratitude in order to produce chemical changes in your brain; you just have to force yourself to think things you love. This train of thought stimulates your brain to make you feel happier.

Naming negative feelings dilutes their power.

There is an amazing amount of power in simply labeling your negative emotions. In one study, participants underwent fMRI scans of their brains while they labeled negative emotions. When they named these emotions, the brain’s prefrontal cortex took over and the amygdala (where emotions are generated) calmed down. This effect doesn’t just work with your own emotions, labeling the emotions of other people calms them down too.

Making decisions feels good.

Similar to naming emotions, making decisions engages the prefrontal cortex, which calms the amygdala and the rest of the limbic system. The key is to make a “good enough” decision. Trying to make the perfect decision causes stress. We’ve always known that, but now there’s scientific research that explains why. Making a “good enough” decision activates the dorsolateral prefrontal areas of the brain, calming emotions down and helping you feel more in control. Trying to make a perfect decision, on the other hand, ramps up ventromedial frontal activity --which basically means your emotions get overly involved in the decision making process.

Try helping others.

Taking the time to help other people not only makes them happy but also makes you happy. Helping other people gives you a surge of oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine, which all create good feelings. In a Harvard study, employees who helped others were 10 times more likely to be focused at work and 40% more likely to get a promotion. The same study showed that people who consistently supported others were the most likely to be happy during times of high stress. As long as you assure that you aren’t overcommitting yourself, helping others is sure to have a positive influence on your happiness.
There is nothing like helping someone else to help improve your self confidence and to make you realize how lucky you are.

Let us all be more grateful that we have steem and lets make this an active community.

If all of that doesn` t help you could try this

Sort:  

The key is how to become happier WITHOUT SteemIt. You can achieve happiness without money. Money doesn't mean anything in nature.

I said nothing about money. And money isn` t needed at all to be happy. But you can learn to be grateful here and help others.
I changed the title, perhaps that was a bit misleading.

Hi! This post has a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of 8.6 and reading ease of 65%. This puts the writing level on par with Leo Tolstoy and David Foster Wallace.