Happiness is a choice. It is something we choose to have for optimum living and longevity.  We want to have more than “average” living in our lives – we want above average living. To have that we must decide to have happiness as an important factor and CHOOSE to act on that decision to create the happiness that creates:

Lower blood pressure

Increases productivity

Increases longevity

Increases joy

Increases better results from patient reviews of hospital services and staff (study on hospital staffs trained in smiling more and happiness skills. Study showed increase in positive feedback and reviews from patients and staff had less sick days and increased “team support” of each other. They actually viewed coworkers in a more positive light. That translates into people wanting to be at work, helping each other at work, creating environments for healing and positive psychology.

**It takes around 21 days to create a life habit if done consistently or 21 days to 3 months if not consistent. 

**21 Days of Action = Ageless Happiness and Advantage

A longitudinal study on nuns found that the least happy nuns:

15% died before age 94

The happiest nuns in the study     75% lived to age 94

The brain is like a computer and can process only certain things – not all things. Laughter and happiness helps the brain to process better the things it is processing and can transform your reality to a better reality.  Positive psychology is important.

HOW TO BE HAPPIER IN 21 DAYS:

*Choices/Habits to improve your life with happiness can dramatically change your life:

  1. Say 3 things daily that you are grateful for that are specific and new each day. Add to this the “why” you are grateful while saying those things.  Research shows that this stretches your brain and rewires your brains neuropathways towards happiness.  If you share this with a partner or spouse it significantly improves your relationship and research shows that your partner reports that that partner becomes more attractive to them.
  2. The Doubler:  Think of a meaningful experience for 2 min a day and 21 days in a row write down your memory of it (visualization). Brain doesn’t know you are visualizing it but thinks it is really happening at the moment creating meaning all the time. This is “doubling” for the brain. It happened once and you created it again.
  3. Words:  Words can affect us and if we surround ourselves with negative words, old age words like I feel sick, tired, older, etc. then we will live like that.  The mind will follow.
  4. The Fun Fifteen:  add 15 minutes of conscious fun each day. Must be fun and energetically. Garden, exercise, laughing, etc.  In 21 days you will eat healthier and be healthier in other areas. The brain creates a cascade of success – as it creates more fun and healthiness it will repeat it and want to create more.  There was a study where one group was told work was fun and another group that work was just work. In 21 days – the group that thought work was fun improved their health and work performance than the other group whose mind set was focused on negativity.
  5. The Ripple Effect:  Consciously add 3 smiles to your day.  It takes a second to do and little energy. So add 2 smiles to your day when we wouldn’t normally smile.  For instance, in an elevator where everyone is ignoring the other person – smile at someone in there. The ripple effect is 3 smiles creates a happier brain. Dopamine is released. Short term gain.  Another effect is that it changes people around you. People see you smiling and it is hard not to smile back at you.  Eye contact and a smile is contagious. A hospital adopted this with doctors and nurses focusing this exercise and the hospital reports from patients improved and over time it changed the culture of the hospital. The brain lights up when it sees someone smiling at it “called a Mirror Neuron Effect” and the brain experiences what the other person is doing to you. Even though you are not smiling but someone is smiling at you – you unconsciously smile due to the brain “mirroring” someone else and the neurons fire making you smile. (Harvard Research)  The brain gets confused with some decision making it has to do. So if you put a pen or pencil in your mouth and walk around with it – the brain responds to the corners of your mouth being upturned by the pen and responds to this as a “happiness” exercise and doesn’t get as negative. For instance if you are upset with someone – put a pencil or pen in our mouth and walk around for a little bit with it in there – and your brain responds to the uplifted mouth and begins to feel better and happier (Harvard Institute research as reported in Happiness Advantage).

Resilience, Stress, Depression, Health, Transformation to Happiness, Habits, Attitude, Mistakes are Good, Motivation, How to impact others with more happiness, energy, action plan, etc(some of the topics for e-course). Give exercises to do: discussions around it with others, daily planning, etc.

  1. Happiness fuel:  Charge your battery with happiness.  Research shows that the happiest people in the world have something in common – they all had meaningful social connections. People motivate others and meaningful social connections are very important. Reconnect to your social network for 2 minutes out of your day. So doing this 21 days in a row think about someone and write them a positive note or email and tell them how they impacted you. You become happier, more motivated and increase the ripple effect of feeling good about your social support and yourself.  Social support is as predictive of your longevity as smoking, eating habits, etc. Your brain creates meaningful bonds to those people you are writing to and creates a good buffer against depression and other things that negatively affect you.  Just think how you would feel if people took a minute to send you an email every day about how you positively affect or have effected them. It changes the level of your happiness every day. What an honor that would be to receive those types of emails from others.

You become more connected to others and they become more connected to you. Thus the ripple effect becomes contagious.

Bill Cosby stated, “If you can find humor in anything, you can survive it.” This is the beginning for you to “find the humor” and learn to laugh so that you can “survive it” whatever that “it” happens to be.

What is laughter?  It is the manifestation of joy, mirth; an inward feeling that results in outward expression.