1. It's Good to be Happy
Okay...you knew that already. But you probably didn't know that happy people live about 9 years longer than unhappy people. Cigarette smoking will rob you of 3 to 6 years of life, but unhappiness is actually unhealthier than smoking because it robs you of 9 years.
2. Go for the Bronze
Someone did a study of Olympic athletes, and they found out that people who won a bronze medal were happier than people who won a silver medal. That's because athletes who won the silver medal focused on how they missed the gold medal, but people who won the bronze were grateful because they knew how close they had come to receiving no medal at all. There is a link between gratitude and happiness, which is why some people suggest keeping a gratitude journal. This little book is where you list the things that we are thankful for every day.
3. Make New Friends and Keep the Old
Having close ties to friends and family was the single most important factor in happiness. Friendship has a much greater effect on happiness than financial success. Friendship and happiness also strengthen our immune systems.
4. Grow Up
Scientists have found some interesting links between happiness and age. For the most part, we start out happy. Men are happier in their teens than women are. After that, people get progressively less happy and they reach a low point in their forties. However, after age 50 people start getting progressively happier again. At this point, women become happier than men.
5. Get Out There!
Happy people usually have a cause that is greater than themselves. In order to be truly happy, a person's goals should be in harmony with their values. People who have a formal religion are usually happier than people who don't. Buddhists who meditate regularly are the happiest, probably because meditation has a calming effect and allows them to ignore little daily annoyances that can ruin our happiness. Lately there have been a lot of books published about developing a positive outlook and making yourself happy. However, Dr. Martin Seligman from the University of Pennsylvania says that you can't turn a gloomy person into a giggler. According to Seligman, we all have our own temperament and we can't change that. We can, however, move our happiness level up a few notches from our natural set point.
