How to Increase Level of Happiness: 6 Scientifically Proven Tips

This new article will show you everything you need to know about how to increase your happiness level.

Scientists have yet to develop a single, consistent procedure for permanently and reliably increasing feelings of happiness. However, a number of scientifically validated techniques are available for this purpose.

How to Increase Happiness Level:

1. Enjoy a positive experience

One way to increase the level of happiness is to enjoy and enjoy positive past experiences.

This strategy is geared toward increasing the positive emotions and pleasant sensations that flow from them. Enjoying positive experiences can take many forms. Among them is a way known as expressive writing, which involves recalling from memory and describing in detail life’s best experiences and the positive emotions and feelings that accompany them in such a way as to relive them in the present.

Exercise:

Choose a quiet place where you can calm down and focus on yourself and what you are going through. Once you have calmed down, remember the happiest experience (or experiences) in your life. Think of a time when you felt really happy, a happy time or a happy time. They may be caused by love for other people, creativity, communicating with art, listening to music, etc.

Remember and punctiliously imagine that situation and all the emotions and emotions that you had at that time. Try to feel it as strongly as you feel at that moment. Now describe your experience in as much detail as possible. Describe all the emotions, emotions, sensations and thoughts that were with you at that moment. Also, empathize thoroughly with all the sensations and try to relive all of them.

Spend about 20 minutes every time doing the above exercise. Try to do it regularly for at least three days. Observe your reaction and how you feel.

Enjoying positive experiences can even be applied in the future.

Exercise:

Imagine in as much detail as possible four positive situations that you think could occur to you tomorrow. It can be easy, everyday pleasures, in addition to not very everyday but important events for you.

Repeat this exercise regularly for two weeks and observe your reactions and feelings.

2. Tap into positive emotions

Another way to increase feelings of happiness is a method the researchers call “positive emotion capitalization.” As a rule, it’s presented in relation to close relationships and interpersonal relationships. We are talking about capitalization when one person tells another about some good event in his life and receives feedback from him that’s made in response to this message.

Professor Shelly Gable’s research shows that the strength and longevity of their relationship can be better predicted by how they celebrate and capitalize on their mutual successes than by how they argue. In close relationships, we are often faced with situations where other people tell us about their successes or other positive experiences that have occurred in their lives.

The way we respond to such communications can significantly strengthen or weaken our relationship with that person. Prof. Gable distinguishes four types of reactions to good events in other people’s lives: active-constructive reactions; passive-constructive reactions; active-destructive reactions; and passive-destructive reactions.

Her research results show that active-constructive reactions are related to increased positive emotions experienced in relationships and increased feelings of satisfaction with those relationships. In addition, responding enthusiastically to partners’ attempts at exploitation is conducive to building lasting and fulfilling interpersonal relationships.

Active and constructive reactions—an example

Someone close shared the positive experience: “Hey John, you won’t believe I won the employee of the year contest!”

Active-constructive reaction:

“Great! Congratulations to you, and I’m so happy with you! I know you worked hard for this. Let me know when and where your boss gave you this information. What particularly did he tell you? How would you do it? I suggest we celebrate it!I invite you to dinner tomorrow.

Non-verbal pronunciation: maintaining eye contact, open body postures, showing positive emotions — for example, a genuine smile, a hug, etc.

Passive (constructive) reactions

“This is good news. I think you deserve it.

Non-verbal reactions: no active expression of emotions and feelings. “

Active—destructive reactions:

“They will probably now expect you to stay after hours even more often.”

Non-verbal reactions: expressing negative emotions such as grimacing on the face, furrowed eyebrows, etc.

Passive destructive reactions:

“Did you feed the dog?”

Non-verbal reactions: lack of eye contact, standing with your back to the other person, leaving the room, etc.

Exercise:

Throughout the coming week, as your loved one argues about the good things that are happening to him, listen to him with genuine concern and interest. Try to respond to his message in an active and constructive way. Get involved and ask him to tell you in detail how the good event happened and how it went.

Don’t worry about the length of the conversation—the longer, the better. Try to avoid short answers. Record good events every day and write them down using the form attached below.

1. Good events that happen to loved ones
2. What is your reaction? (Write down word for word).
3. How will close people respond to my reaction?

To further master the skill of responding in an active-constructive way, you can also think about positive events that someone has told you in the past. Write down how you might have acted later to respond in the ways listed above.

Also, if a situation is foreseeable, you can plan your reaction in advance to stories about positive events and then implement them.

3. Well-being at work

In order to increase your own level of well-being in the field of professional life, it is better to take advantage of professional methods to support personal and professional development, such as career counseling, career coaching (1), mentoring, and therapy.

At the same time, it is worth choosing competent specialists who will help us take a comprehensive approach to this topic and find the most satisfying development activities for us, allowing us to achieve our fullest self-realization and the best path of development.

4. Practicing kindness

Another form of activity that is conducive to increasing our sense of happiness is to practice goodness by doing good deeds.

Kindness is understood as an urge to help others without expecting anything in return for the gains. Through kindness, we give something to others or contribute to making them feel happier. Usually, acts of kindness require us to put a lot of effort into them.

Exercise:

Name five acts of kindness you did for someone today. Among them, include at least one act of kindness that you volunteered for.

5. Gratitude

Another example of a scientifically proven method of increasing feelings of happiness is an exercise that can be found in the psychological literature under the name “Three Good Things”.

The goal of this technique is to notice and appreciate positive events in our daily lives and consequently derive more positive emotions from them. With this practice, we too can form the habit of noticing positive things every day.

The “Three Good Things” Exercise

The “Three Good Things” technique is to set aside 10 minutes each night before going to bed, and during that time, write down three things that went really well that day. For each positive thing you write down, you should add a reason, i.e. answer the question: “Why did this occur?” or “Why is this going so well?”

For example, if your husband or wife makes your favorite dish for dinner, the answer might be: “because he really cares”; or if a loved one gave birth to a healthy baby today, the answer might be: “because the medical staff is competent and appropriate.”

A very important part of this exercise is physical note-taking, which can be done in a diary or on a computer. It should also be stressed that the positive things you write down don’t have to be spectacular—both “ordinary” and “extraordinary” day-to-day events should be recorded.

At first, doing this exercise may seem awkward to some people. However, it’s worth holding out for at least a week to see what effect it has. That’s why I encourage you to start doing it starting tonight!

Among other things, it’s worth doing because, according to scientific studies, it promotes lower rates of depression and higher levels of perceived happiness. As a test, you can now write down three good things that happened to me the previous day and add why.

Express gratitude

We can also increase our sense of happiness by expressing gratitude to other people we believe deserve it.

Exercise:

Over the next three weeks, try taking additional actions to express gratitude to your friend or someone else close to you. Try doing something you wouldn’t normally do to express your gratitude to him (for example, write a letter, email, tell him how much you appreciate him or how much you appreciate what he has done for you).

6. Strength of character

Prof Martin Seligman, together with Prof Christopher Peterson and colleagues, analyzed around 200 different virtue catalogs. Among them, they distinguish six main universal virtues:

1. Wisdom and knowledge,
2. Courage,
3. Love and humanity,
4. Justice,
5. Simplicity
6. Transcendence

The way to achieve these virtues are the 24 distinctive virtues, which are called strength of character.

Wisdom and knowledge are cognitive powers that involve the accumulation and application of knowledge.

1. Creativity – thinking of new ways to do things…
2. Curiosity interest – in the present experience, exploration and discovery.
3. Evaluation/critical thinking – thinking about things and analyzing them from all sides; the ability to change one’s mind when influenced by evidence.
4. Passion to learn – honing new skills, expanding one’s knowledge. This trait is related to curiosity but goes beyond it.
5. Perspective – the ability to give wise advice to others; reasonable worldview.

Courage—emotional strength, which involves the exercise of the will to achieve goals regardless of external obstacles.

6. Courage – not backing down under threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain; standing up for what is good even if it raises opposition; act according to one’s beliefs even if it is unpopular.
5 Tenacity/persistence – finishing what one has started; stay on track despite obstacles.
8 Authenticity – telling the truth, and more broadly, presenting oneself in an authentic way, taking responsibility for one’s feelings and actions.
9. Light it up – approach life with joy and energy; feel energized and excited.

Love/Humanity—interpersonal strength, including caring and compassion for others.

10. Intimacy/Love – values close relationships with others, especially sharing and caring.
11. Kindness and Kindness – giving help and good deeds to others; help them.
12. Social intelligence – aware of the motives and feelings of oneself and others.

Justice is a force that underlies the life of a healthy society.

13. Politeness – doing a good job as a member of a group or team; loyal to the group; carry out the assigned tasks.
14. Fairness – treating all people equally, according to standards of honesty and fairness.
15. Leadership – encouraging groups of which one is a member to carry out their duties while maintaining good relations within the group, organizing group activities and making sure that these activities are carried out.

Simplicity / Moderation – the power to protect against excess.

16. Forgiveness/Mercy – forgive those who have done wrong; give people a second chance
17. Modesty/Humility – letting achievements speak for themselves; not looking for applause.
18. Prudence/consideration – be careful in choosing; don’t take too much risk.
19. Self-control/self-regulation – regulate your feelings and actions; disciplined; control your appetite.

The power of transcendence that creates a connection with the wider universe and gives it meaning.

20. Respect/respect for beauty and excellence – notice and appreciate beauty, excellence and skillful craftsmanship in all areas of life.
21. Be grateful – be aware of good things and be grateful for them; express thanks.
22. Hope – expecting the best to come in the future and working towards it.
23. Fun/humor – loves to laugh; smiling at others; look on the bright side.
24. Spirituality – consistent belief in the higher purpose and meaning of the universe.

Exercise:

1. Complete the “Valeus in Action-Inventory of Strengths” (VIA-IS) questionnaire, which is available free of charge at: https://www.viacharacter.org/. This will let you identify the five main (most dominant) strengths of your character. If you cannot fill out the questionnaire, read the list of 24 character strengths above and choose the 5 that best describe you. You can arrange them in a hierarchy, from strongest to weakest.

2. After completing the questionnaire (and reviewing the results), or selecting your top five strengths yourself, do the following exercise:

Throughout the coming week, set aside time in your daily schedule to use one (or more) of your special powers in new ways. You can use it at work or outside of work; It doesn’t matter. What’s important, however, is that you find or create special opportunities for yourself to use them, such as: if your particular specialty is creative thinking, you may decide to start working on your own book on your free weekend; if you think your particular virtue is self-control, make a decision to devote 3 nights a week to working out in the gym rather than lying on the sofa.

It’s best to find your own way to use your character’s strengths.

After doing this exercise, describe your experience—how you felt before, during, and after the exercise.

I want to thank you for taking the time to read my article on how to increase happiness levels. I actually hope that its content has been of good help to you.