Action for happiness (11+)

The current blogspot will be based on the question “what are the actions for happiness?”. We will discuss the various actions that can bring happiness among the individuals. We will also learn the various ways that can help us achieve happiness.

What are the actions for happiness?

There are various actions that can help us achieve happiness and feel pleasant emotions. We can enjoy a real sense of flourishing and living a positive life. Following are some of the actions that can make an individual live a happy life and feel positive energy:

Being fit with regards to physical health is a key to living a happy life. Exercising in order to achieve physical strength and connect the mind with the soul.

Having realistic expectations from one’s own self and the other people will ease the sadness from the unrealistic expectations and enable positive moods and happy mood state

Having a pleasant attitude about the past, present and future life is a crucial component for living a happy life as it keeps an individual’s focus on the pleasurable aspects of life.

Involvement, engagement and absorption in work is a component of happiness. It avoids an individual from getting distracted by negative and unpleasant life situations.

Living a meaningful life and having a purpose in life is a crucial factor to happiness. It leads to satisfaction and increased subjective well-being.

Giving others and being generous towards others is a source of happiness.

Relating with like minded people and establishing new relationships help in being happy

Mindful living in the present moment and focusing on the here and now is related to present life experiences.

Trying new things in life and experiencing unique experiments inculcate a sense of happiness among individuals. 

Setting short term goals in life helps in living a happy life.

Setting long term goals in life helps in having a direction in life and enjoy pleasant moments.

Choosing a solution focused approach towards adverse life situations helps enjoying a positive and happy approach towards life.

Practicing to keep your positive memories in focus and concentrating on the pleasant life experiences leads to a happy life.

Generally accepting all the positive and negative life events and moving on in life leads to happiness.

Acknowledging small blessings in life help living a happy life

Practicing gratitude helps in living a happy life

Doing random acts of kindness helps living a happy life

Thanking other people for their small acts of kindness and concern helps living a happy life

Involving in activities that induce the production of oxytocin in the body by feeling emotional affiliation towards people around oneself. This results in a hormonal shift that further produces oxytocin that in turn increases subjective experience of happiness

Seeking novel experiences in life and growth towards the future increases a person’s dopamine levels that in turn enhance the subjective experience of happiness.

Prioritizing the social connection and forming emotional bonds with others help us in enjoying our life and share our moments well with other people.

Using the senses of touch,smell, taste, sight and hearing, try to get involved in activities that produce pleasurable feelings for you. This is the easiest way to make oneself happy.

Enjoying your professional life and the bond with your colleagues and bosses helps in enhancing happy moments of life.

Relaxation and peace are directly related to being happy. Try to get involved in breathing and relaxation exercises that reduce the negative emotional states and enhance happiness.

Make if-then statements to help yourself in coming out of adverse life scenarios in life. Such as if I feel anxious I will close my eyes and remind myself of the times I have successfully dealt with similar situations in past life. This enables a person to sustain their positive emotions and enjoy pleasant moments and be happy.

Have a positive view of life. Regulate your behaviors and actions to enhance the positive experiences for yourself and diffuse the associated negative outcomes. In this way it will be easy for you to enjoy little accomplishments and be happy in life.

Learn to be happy by congratulating yourself for the little moments in your life. Appreciate yourself for the small achievements in life.

Count the blessings in life to shift your focus from the negative experiences to the positive ones. In this way, a positive affective state makes it easy to be happy in life.

Reminiscing in detail about your happy moments throughout life helps in sustaining the life experiences that make you feel happy.

Expressing pleasant memories in a diary to make a happy timeline enables a person to carry all the happy moments of life at a place.

Be insightful of the strengths that enable you to enjoy happiness in life. 

Actively seek experiencing positive life events related to self and others to be happy.

Helping a stranger and enjoying the positive appreciation from the stranger induces happiness.

List a variety of mental and physical activities that help in making yourself feel happy.

Pick out activities that feel easy and produce lasting feelings of happiness.

Celebrate your progress in life and be happy about pursuing and growing towards your goal

Learn the concept of satisficing and practice it in routine life

Having an element of hope in life induces positive emotions that enable being happy

Avoiding pessimistic view towards life and being optimistic in life helps being happy in life

Create a new hobby based on the pleasurable activities that you enjoy doing and being happy in your leisure time.

Engage in day dreaming that relaxes your mind and helps you feel happy. 

Take time travel, to experience a positive mental state and enjoy your happy moments through imagining your favourite travel destination with your favourite person.

Write your activities of kindness on a daily basis. This helps in having a purposeful life and living a life that is based on being generous with others. Thus being happy about being a giving one in life.

Give a heart to heart hug to someone you love and like. This helps in increased oxytocin release in the body and thus more happy experiences.

Laughter is the very best way to experience happiness in life. Laughing and continuing it for 30 seconds or more increases positive hormones in our body. Thus living a happy life gets easier.

Write down three funny experiences everyday that happen to you or happen because of you. This eases the intensity of unpleasant emotions.

Acting happy makes you acknowledge and perceive little things in life with a more open attitude and accept everything with a pleasant mind. Having a relaxed and open posture makes you more receptive towards life and the pleasant moments it gives you.

Practice self compassion and self love. Acknowledge and appreciate little things in your life to feel more light hearted and happy.

Practice out of sight and out of mind strategy for the negative life events in life. Try to have a minimum sight for negative life events and diffuse any such experiences by being neutral about them. 

Minimize your desires and wants that create a state of dissatisfaction and insecurity in you. Thus  as dissatisfaction decreases, happiness in life increases. 

Discover, cutivate and nourish your passion about various things in life. Passion in turn adds happiness to your life.

Have a strong belief in that when one door closes another opens. A closed door never means there is no other opportunity left for you. Keep an open mind to avail opportunities in life. This helps in living a happy life.

Various researches have also focused on aspects of human life that flourish and enhance happiness. Happiness is often related to having lasting and sustained effects from engagement in different activities, meaning associated to one’slife and the enjoyment a person seeks in life (Parks, Schueller and Tasimi, 2013). 

The link of exercise, physical fitness and happiness has been empirically validated by Sheldon and Lyubomirsky (2006). They stated that being physically fit in life through various physical exercises and enjoying doing a couple of the favourite exercises is linked to happiness among individuals.

Sheldon and Schkade (2005) stated that having realistic expectations from life and living a life as per one’s own potential enables a person to live a happy life and enjoy joys of life to the fullest.

Further, pleasure in life, engagement in life and the meaning one associates to life are the core components that have been related by researchers to a more happy life (Duckworth, Steen, and Seligman, 2005).

Victor Frankl (1963) advocated the fact that happiness is a subjective experience that is maximized when an individual tends to move towards the goals in life that are based on the realistic potential of an individual.

Continuing the emphasis on happiness being a subjective experience unique to every individual, researchers also established that diffusing the negative thoughts and unpleasant emotions in life enhances positive emotions and pleasurable feelings among individuals.  Thus having a positive perspective on life is necessary for living a happy life (Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, & Larkin, 2003).

Socialization and social skills have been linked to an enhanced life experience that in turn enables individuals to live a happy life. Many studies have been conducted on interpersonal relations and emotional affiliations to have a strong impact on the person’s happiness level (Stillman & Baumeister, 2009; Wrześniewski, McCauley, Rozin, & Schwartz, 1997; Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Ciarrochi, & Kashdan, 2013).

Conclusion

The blogspot discussed the various actions that can help us to feel more happy in life. We learned the various tips and techniques to manage negative emotional states and negative life events by maximizing the positive experiences in life. Having a generous attitude, practicing kindness, practicing forgiveness, practicing gratitude, living a meaningful life, having realistic expectations from life and engaging in life to the fullest are some of the strategies that help in living a happy life.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs): Action for happiness

Citations

https://www.redonline.co.uk/health-self/self/a521311/10-keys-to-happiness/

https://www.actionforhappiness.org/media/80216/action_for_happiness_-_happiness_action_pack_v3.pdf

http://www.actionforhappinessbrighton.org.uk/slides2015_01markw.pdf

https://positivepsychology.com/happiness-activities-exercises-tools/

Duckworth, A. L., Steen, T. A., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Positive psychology in clinical practice. Annual Reviews of Clinical Psychology, 1, 629-651.

Harris, R. (2008). The Happiness Trap: How to Stop Struggling and Start Living: A Guide to ACT [Kindle iOS version].

 Kashdan, T.B. & Ciarrochi, J. (2013). Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Positive Psychology: The Seven Foundations of Well-Being (The Context Press Mindfulness and Acceptance Practica Series) (Kindle Locations 361-363). New Harbinger Publications. Kindle Edition

McCullough, M. E., Worthington, E.L., & Rachal, K.C. (1997). Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(2), 321-336