There seems to be a lot of opinions on how to increase our levels of happiness these days. Where do you go to for reliable information? The field of Positive Psychology has opened the door to scientifically explore and test techniques that can bring us closer to the good life. I will now describe how one simple habit has been associated with an increase in:
– happiness – energy – helpfulness and empathy
– forgiveness – resilience
Furthermore, people who practise this simple technique as little as once a week have been shown to be less likely to be depressed, anxious, lonely or envious. By now, I am sure you are all wondering what can possibly achieve all these incredible results. The answer: gratitude.
Much like a bodybuilder who goes to the gym to work out his muscles, practising gratitude is like working out your exposure to positive emotions, thus increasing your positivity. The more exposure to positivity you can harness, the more benefits you will experience.
In fact, Positive Psychology researcher Barbara Frederickson has discovered that the ideal ratio of positive to negative emotions/situations we should experience is 3/1. That is, for every negative emotion/situation, we should experience three positive ones in order to tip the scale in favour of positivity.
Lucky for us, we have the power to increase our ability to experience gratitude through the use of several simple exercises. One of these exercises, which have been the focus of many different experiments, is the gratitude journal. The use of the gratitude journal simply involves listing five things/events in a journal that you are grateful for. These grateful moments can be anything from waking up to the smell of fresh coffee to an act of kindness someone has shown you, to anything at all. As long as its memory makes you smile and feel grateful. Although you might be tempted to write an entry in your journal on a daily basis, research from Sonja Lyubomirsky suggests that doing this exercise one to three days a week is sufficient to produce positive results.
The way to increase your feeling of gratitude and to reap the benefits is as simple as buying a personal journal or binder and to write down five things you are grateful for. Do this one to three times a week. If you have trouble sleeping, you might want to try doing this before going to bed. The warm feelings it will produce inside you may help you sleep better. If you do it in the morning, it could help you start off the day on a positive note.
You might even want to further enhance this exercise by savouring it. After you write down what you are grateful for, add another five minutes to try to relive each moment in your mind. Try to remember what was seen, what was heard, what was felt. These heartfelt moments will increase the positive effects of the exercise.
As I finish writing this article, I am grateful for being able to share this information with all of you. I hope it will help increase your levels of satisfaction and overall happiness.
This article may be reprinted from the following link : A Simple Way to Increase Happiness by Ron Forte