How to be Happy: 10 Scientifically Proven Methods

by Terri Potratz | January 8, 2009 at 05:34 pm

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It's a question that we all ask ourselves at one time or another: how can I be happy? What can you do when depression rears its ugly head, to fight the winter blues, or to simply enjoy more out of life?

Scientists have identified a list of ten things every person can do to promote happiness in their lives; actions that have been proven to brighten your outlook and make you happier.

In the last few years, psychologists and researchers have been digging up hard data on a question previously left to philosophers: What makes us happy? Researchers like the father-son team Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, Stanford psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, and ethicist Stephen Post have studied people all over the world to find out how things like money, attitude, culture, memory, health, altruism, and our day-to-day habits affect our well-being.

The list, compiled by Yes! Magazine, contains advice that may be obvious to some, such as: set meaningful goals and take initiative, cherish your friends and family, and stop to 'smell the roses' by savouring the little moments in life.

But there are additional things on the list that perhaps aren't so intuitive, easy tasks we can assign ourselves to curtail negative thought, including: smiling often, even when you don't feel like it, saying thank-you genuinely, and altruism.

See the surefire route to happiness in all its glorious entirety here.

You're welcome.

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