Almost everyone’s goal is to have a happy life. For most people, happiness is a sense of purpose and well-being and there are many different ways people try to do this, by doing good for others, things that you’re good at, taking care of yourself physically and emotionally, having a job you like and having close relationships.
How Happiness Affects You
Happiness gives you a sense of optimism and a “take on the world” attitude, but it also does more than that. Recently, research has found a correlation between a person’s physical health and happiness, these include:
- Improves problem-solving abilities with a “can do” attitude
- Building physical, intellectual and social skills by seeking out other positive-minded people
- Improving heart health and lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease
- Lowers your blood pressure
- Enables better sleep
- Improved diet
- Promotes regular exercise
- Reduces stress
- Some research indicates a stronger immune system and fights off infections/diseases more effectively
- Happiness has been found in some cases to lower experiences of pain especially connected to chronic conditions such as arthritis
- Due to all the positive outcomes from happiness towards your health, researchers now believe that happiness can help you live longer
How Happiness Affects Your Professional Life
It’s important to love what you’re doing, there will be moments both up and down within any job, but overall if you care about what you’re doing you will be happier and better at your job. Happiness at work:
- Allows you to positively approach challenges
- Can make you 12% more productive according to a study by the University of Warwick
- Increases your engagement in work
- Improves customer relationships
- Allows us to express ourselves positively and help others around us
When you’re happier, you don’t tend to focus on the negatives or stressors as much, making you a better employee.
Practising Happiness
Here are a few things you can do to try and increase your happiness or, increase your positive outlook towards every day:
- Resilience. When blocked by a wall step back, take a breath and reevaluate the situation
- Positivity. Try to see the positive in as many situations as possible
- Attention. Paying attention and using better listening skills can increase your focus and positivity
- Generosity. Acts of kindness can make both yourself and others happy
- Gratitude. Practising gratitude is a great way to increase your happiness, you can do this in many ways such as writing down three things you are grateful for each day or speaking to yourself about what you’re grateful for and why, and many more
- Exercise. Exercise isn’t only good for your physical health but is also commonly used to increase your mood especially aerobic exercises
- Sleep. Sleep is incredibly important for your health overall and lack of sleep can have a very negative effect on your happiness. We have an article on the importance of sleep. If you’d like to read more follow this link: https://www.healwithease.com/2021/03/12/the-importance-of-sleep/
- Nature. Go for a walk, get your hands dirty in the garden, getting fresh air and sunlight are great ways to increase your mood.
- Meditation. Regularly meditating can increase your happiness, reduce your stress and improve your sleep.
- Mindfulness. Mindfulness is used to create awareness of your everyday feelings, let go of negativity and allows you to appreciate positive experiences and emotions
- Healthy Eating. This is easier when you’re already pretty happy but it is also a great way to improve your health and your happiness
- Socializing. Having positive relationships with friends and loved ones and spending quality time with them has many benefits, including feelings of well-being and happiness.
- Hobbies. Trying new hobbies is a great way to have new experiences, meet new people, get outside and move around.
Your happiness shouldn’t be a mystery. If you don’t know what works for you then now should be a great time to start experimenting with different ways to increase your happiness, health and wellbeing.