An entire industry has sprung up around the concept of happiness, and how to cultivate more of it. From bestselling books such as The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin to online courses like The Science of Happiness from The Greater Good Center – there’s every resource available to help you explore your happy self. Research shows that feeling happier is beneficial for our health, but not if forcing yourself to be happy or seek out happiness ends up causing you more stress. There’s been a ton of research on the effects of happiness in the workplace. Much of this is driven by companies who want to find a way to improve productivity, attract new talent, and get a dose of good publicity, all at the same time. After all, who wouldn’t want to do business with and/or work for a company full of happy employees? Epictetus in his classic book “The Art of Living” says that “Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: The Easterlin paradox—”money does not buy happiness” (Mohun, 2012)—sparked a new wave of thinking about wealth and wellbeing.

Steptoe, A., O’Donnell, K., Marmot, M., & Wardle, J. (2008). Positive affect, psychological well-being, and good sleep. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18374740 People who are happier enjoy greater protection against stress and release less of the stress hormone cortisol.Martela, F., & Ryan, R. M. (2016a). The benefits of benevolence: Basic psychological needs, beneficence, and the enhancement of well-being. Journal of Personality, 84(6), 750–764. However, there are many instruments available to measure happiness that have proven reliable and valid over time (Hefferon & Boniwell, 2011). Daily sense of meaning was measured with a two-item measure derived from Newman et al. ( 2018), including items “ How meaningful did you feel your life was today?”, and “ How much did you feel your life had purpose today?”. Participants indicated their agreement with each statement on a 7-point scale (1 = not at all; 7 = very much). Scores for this measure were computed by calculating the mean of both items (R KF = 1.00; R C = 0.86). 8.2.3 Daily Happiness

Davidson, K. W., Mostofsky, M., & Whang, W. (2010). Don’t worry, be happy: positive affect and reduced 10-year incident coronary heart disease: The Canadian Nova Scotia Health Survey. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2862179/ Life will constantly test your ability to make a lemon martini out of the sourest of lemons. So be ready. Here’s your guide.

A Look at the Science of Happiness

Lately, many human resources managers, executives, and other organizational leaders have decided that knowing there’s a relationship is good enough evidence to establish happiness-boosting practices at work, which means that we have a lot of opportunities to see the impact of greater happiness at work in the future. Kern ML, Waters LE, Adler A, White MA. A multidimensional approach to measuring well-being in students: Application of the PERMA framework. J Posit Psychol. 2015;10(3):262-271. doi:10.1080/17439760.2014.936962 Weinstein, N., & Ryan, R. M. (2010). When helping helps: Autonomous motivation for prosocial behavior and its influence on well-being for the helper and recipient. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98(2), 222–244. One measure of daily meaning involved participants indicating their level of meaningful experiences each day. Participants responded to the question “ Overall, how meaningful were your experiences today?” on a 5-point scale (0 = not at all meaningful; 4 = A great deal meaningful). 5.2.3 Meaning Measure 2: Life Engagement Tang (2006) found that feelings in life satisfaction were linked to higher salaries, however, this wasn’t consistent, and varied between genders. It’s also difficult to determine whether having a higher salary led to greater life satisfaction due to having fewer financial stressors.

Steptoe, A., & Fancourt, D. (2020). An outcome-wide analysis of bidirectional associations between changes in meaningfulness of life and health, emotional, behavioural, and social factors. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1–12. Costanzo ES, Lutgendorf SK, Kohut ML, et al. Mood and cytokine re Look around you and you will notice people who have taken to baking, gardening, yoga, zentangles, journaling, dance, NLP or even poetry to channelize their energy towards things that nourish their souls.The message is clear: If you want to feel happy, you should focus on your own wishes and desires. Yet this is not the advice that many people grew up hearing. Indeed, most of the world’s religions (and grandmothers everywhere) have long suggested that people should focus on others first and themselves second. Perfectionism – Often confused with conscientiousness, which involves appropriate and tangible expectations, perfectionism involves inappropriate levels of expectations and intangible goals. It often produces problems for adults, adolescents, and children. This research does not say that we shouldn’t treat ourselves, show ourselves self-love when we need it, or enjoy our relaxation when we have it. However, the results of this study strongly suggest that we are more likely to reach greater levels of happiness when we exhibit prosocial behavior and show others kindness through our actions.

Barton, J. & Pretty, J. (2010). What is the best dose of nature and green exercise for improving mental health? A multi-study analysis. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20337470 We measured the incidence of daily prosocial acts using a self-report measure adapted from Weinstein and Ryan ( 2010). In each daily survey, participants were asked “ Did you do anything prosocial today?” (0 = no; 1 = yes) while being provided with a definition of a prosocial act. Footnote 6 Participants who indicated ‘yes’ were then asked to briefly describe the nature of the prosocial act. Of the 3555 observations, 1059 included a prosocial act. Steptoe, A. & Wardle, J. (2005). Positive affect and biological function in everyday life. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197458005002769 When you’re in a funk, the last thing you often want to do is be around others. Resist that at all cost. Life is about relationships and connections. It’s those you love (or any random person) who can change your mood in an instant.

Sin, N. L, Moskowitz, J. T., & Whooley, m. A. (2015). Positive Affect and Health Behaviors Across 5 Years in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease: The Heart and Soul Study. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26428445 Troyer, A. K. (2016). The Health Benefits of Socializing. Retrieved from: https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/living-mild-cognitive-impairment/201606/the-health-benefits-socializing Hill, G., & Howell, R. T. (2014). Moderators and mediators of pro-social spending and well-being: The influence of values and psychological need satisfaction. Personality & Individual Differences, 69, 69–74. Maximizing – Maximizers search for better options even when they are satisfied. This leaves them little time to be present for the good moments in their lives and with very little gratitude (Schwartz et al., 2002). Ma X, Yue ZQ, Gong ZQ, et al. The effect of diaphragmatic breathing on attention, negative affect and stress in healthy adults. Front Psychol. 2017;8:874. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00874