WHY FEELING HAPPIER IS GOOD FOR OUR BODY, MIND & SOUL
For better physical health, laughter is the best medicine
More than a fleeting moment, happiness is the deeper lingering feeling that while not everything is perfect, you’re good, content, calm and in control of your life.
Beyond that, it’s also good for our body, mind and soul. Rather than chasing happiness we can create it and the time to do that is now.
As the late author Jim Rohn said, “Happiness is not something we postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.”
Hardwired for happiness.
Research has determined that while genetics and having enough food, shelter and safety accounts for 60% of our happiness, we, that’s you and me, have around 40% of our happiness level under our own control.
This works is by courtesy of your magnificent plastic brain. Choosing to focus on moments of positivity reduces your negative bias. By pressing pause to appreciate the good, you provide your brain with the extra bandwidth needed to process and strengthen those good feelings. This also helps reduce the impact of all those negative thoughts, worries and concerns that can otherwise dominate our thinking.
For better physical health, laughter IS the best medicine:
1. Laughter reduces the risk of heart disease.
To protect yourself from heart disease, keeping your weight down, quitting smoking and being sufficiently active is a great way to start. But did you know that laughter helps to alleviate the damaging effect of stress on the lining of the heart’s blood vessels?
One Canadian study found a positive affect was linked to a 22% lower risk of heart disease or depression. While 10 minutes of laughter can lower blood pressure by 10-20 mmHg.
2. Happiness lowers stress.
Feeling happy lowers stress including levels of cortisol and epinephrine making you more resistant to the impact of adverse events and helps keep negative emotions in check. 3. Happiness boosts your immune system.
Having a happier disposition has been shown to induce a stronger antibody response when being vaccinated against Hepatitis B
4. Happy people live longer.
In the famous Nun Study, it was found that the more positive autobiographical
essays written by the nuns on entering the convent was associated with a 7-10 year longer life span.
Happiness is good for the Mind and Soul:
1. Helping others makes us happy.
While it’s good to show kindness and self-compassion to ourselves when things have been tough, nothing quite beats the feel good effect of prosocial behaviour, especially for women. Helping out by volunteering has been shown to accelerate the speed at which a community rebuilds following a disaster.
2. Be kind to yourself.
Nurturing greater happiness begins with letting go of what is making you unhappy, especially if it is a situation or event over which you have no influence or control.
3. Ditch the unhelpful thinking patterns.
If you know you are a catastrophiser, pessimist or imposter, letting go of any unhelpful thinking patterns frees you up to enjoy more of the positives.
4. Perfectionism.
Perfectionists get stuck in never ‘being enough.’ By reframing this to ‘I am enough’, it’s easier to reclaim your time and energy and feel good about things.
5. Comparing yourself to others.
Comparisonitis is an ugly condition commonly amplified by social media and frequently leads to unhappiness. Materialism doesn’t elevate happiness either, because we rapidly adapt to what we have, and end up wanting more.
6. Focus on your relationships.
The strength of our closest relationships determines our happiness. This was the
finding of the world’s longest running longitudinal study The Harvard Study of Adult Development that began in 1938. Feeling heard, understood and cared for makes us happy. That’s why it’s important to put in the work to keep your love alive and flourishing.
7. Focus on your goals.
Celebrate every win, big or small. Those extra shots of dopamine are highly motivating and will quickly elevate your happiness.
8. Give thanks.
Being thankful for what you have, embracing the wonder of our natural environment and saying thank you to those who have impacted your life in a positive way deepens bonds of human connection and boosts levels of oxytocin, the bonding hormone that engenders trust and security.
The science of happiness has shown we can not only create greater happiness for ourselves and others but that it also is good for our body, mind and soul.
Dr Jenny Brockis is a medical practitioner, board-certified lifestyle medicine physician, speaker and author. Her latest book Thriving Mind – How to Cultivate a Good Life (Wiley) is now available via her website.