10 small changes that add up to a happier 2019
Happiness doctor Andy Cope shares his 2019 hacks with HANNAH STEPHENSON
T OO many resolutions are hard work and, let’s face it, you’re never going to stick to them if there’s too much effort involved.
So says happiness doctor Andy Cope, who has spent 10 years researching positive psychology and delivers courses, centring on themes of happiness, in businesses and schools across the world.
Minute changes which you can realistically stick to will make the difference, he says. “Small habit changes are like compound interest. They add up.
Andy, whose book Happiness: Your Route Map To Inner Joy, is now out in paperback, offers 10 realistic resolutions to make 2019 your best year to date...
1COMMIT TO DOING SOME EXERCISE
DON’T kill yourself. Thirty minutes a day is fine. It might feel like a chore at first, but it releases all sorts of lovely chemicals which will infuse you with a Ready Brek glow. A brisk walk at lunchtime is fine.
2MAKE TIME TO SLEEP
COMMIT to getting your full eight hours of shut-eye. A University of Warwick study calculates that good sleep boosts your mental and physical health by the same amount as a £200,000 lottery win. So treat yourself to a lottery win.
3DEVELOP GOOD EATING HABITS
LIVE by the Japanese concept of Hara Hachi Bu. It means stop eating just before you’re full. It’s the smallest change of habit that will have the biggest impact.
And these are Andy’s dos and don’ts for eating properly:
■ Do... sit down and eat as a family (as often as possible).
■ Do... appreciate your food. That means savouring it and thanking whoever provided it. That might be God but, more likely, Tesco Extra.
■ Don’t... eat anything delivered to your door by someone on a motorbike.
■ Don’t... eat anything passed to you in your car through a hatch.
■ Don’t... eat fast food more than once a week. And eat it slowly.
■ Don’t... eat anything your great grandma would not have recognised as food.
4CELEBRATE STUFF THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN
SADLY, unless you’re a black belt happiness ninja, your mind doesn’t sit in traffic thinking how lucky you are to have a car. It curses at the long meeting instead of rejoicing that you have a job.
The opposite of savouring good experiences is to notice the many things that could have gone badly, but didn’t. Hence the mind-bending question, what hasn’t happened, that you didn’t want, that you haven’t celebrated?
I woke up and didn’t have toothache. I got to work without crashing my car... Of course, it’s hard to notice something that didn’t happen. Have a go, it’s fun.
5SAVOUR THE F-WORD
MAKE 2019 the year of the f-word. The word? Failure. Not failure the result: Losing the business, losing the relationship, failing the interview. But failure the process: Learning, improving, becoming fighting-fit, installing effectiveness, broadening, widening, gaining wisdom, picking yourself up and smiling and trying once again. If we’re unwilling to fail, we’re unwilling to succeed.
6CELEBRATE YOUR PLOT TWISTS
YOU are a storyteller. Stories link us to our ancestors and to those who don’t yet exist. And don’t we just love a tragedy? If you’re not careful, problems loom large and they can dominate your back story. It’s easy to become the victim. Bad things always happen to you, right? You might not be able to change the events that have happened, but you can re-cast yourself as the hero. So, when something doesn’t go according to plan, it’s not a nightmare, crisis, challenge or problem, it’s merely another plot twist.
7GET HUGGY
THE average hug lasts 2.1 seconds. However, for the love to transfer, a hug has to last seven seconds or longer. There will be about 12 people in your life who are emotionally close enough to warrant a seven-second hug. So hug your 12 and hang on for the full seven seconds. Hugging releases feel-good chemicals and when you feel great, life gets a whole lot easier.
8ENJOY MORE MOMENTS
WRITE a list of the top 10 happiest moments of your life. The general rule is that happiness tends to come from doing more stuff, rather than accumulating more stuff.
You’ll realise that most of the things you’ve written on your list are ‘experiences’ rather than ‘products’.
In 2019, look to have more experiences.
9MAKE MONDAY THE NEW FRIDAY
IF you think about it, Friday’s a nightmare, another week closer to death. Mondays are a chance to get stuck into a new week and make a dent in the universe.
10CUT DOWN ON SOCIAL MEDIA
CUT your tech time by a third. We’re not saying you should stop altogether. You will glean more happiness from real people, real relationships, fresh air, views and actual eye contact.