How to increase your happiness

Post date: Aug 06, 2011 3:12:6 AM

Psychologists have recently become very interested in legitimately researching the science of happiness through vigorous experiments and testing. This has led to some interesting findings about human happiness – many of which you can put to use in your life right away.

While many of us have been taught that “money cannot buy happiness”, research has shown that this only partially true. If money significantly increases the quality of your life or social standing, it does in fact buy measureable happiness. After a certain point, though, more money does not increase happiness. That point is usually once we can pay our bills and meet our own needs in a comfortable manner. After that, unless we give away excess wealth on charitable deeds or donations, more money does not buy happiness.

This same line of reasoning is also true for “stuff”. Once our needs are met, buying better or bigger possessions do not increase our measureable happiness quotient. This is because our brains are wired to remember things in a very particular way and events register higher on the happiness scale than things. For this reason, the act of purchasing a possession actually rates higher on the happiness scale than actually owning that thing.

These events are usually pleasant experiences like a vacation, time with our families, or a day off. And even these events need to happen in a surprisingly particular way to increase our happiness factor to the maximum. Spontaneity, while fun initially does not increase our overall happiness. Happiness researchers found that people were more likely to have an increase in overall happiness when given a long lead-in the look forward to a pleasant event or activity. Looking forward to something pleasant even appears to register higher on the happiness scale than doing that thing itself. Additionally, having a good memory of that event and looking back on that memory increases happiness more than the actual moment of the event as well.

So, in order to put this information to good use in our lives, many therapists are recommending taking some basic steps. First, always have something to look forward to. Even if it is small. Many individuals who struggle with depression benefit from scheduling at least one pleasant activity per day or week to look forward to. Even people who are not depressed should have at least one thing they are looking forward to. Contrarily, usually happy people can always recount something they are looking forward to.

Finally, realize that being overly wealthy will not increase your happiness as much as you think it will. As long as your basic needs are met and you are able to live comfortably, focus more of your energy on positive events and experiences rather than earning more money or buying more stuff. It’s scientifically sound!