I WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY
What supports happiness
Research offers starting points. Your own experience helps you discover which approaches suit your life.
Connection with others
Increasing social interaction is one approach supported by experimental happiness research. Connection does not have to involve a large group.
An experiment to try
Arrange a walk or a call with someone close. Afterwards, notice how the time together felt.
Enjoyable and meaningful activities
Enjoyment and meaning are different aspects of wellbeing. It is useful to consider both what you enjoy and what you consider worthwhile.
An experiment to try
Make time for one activity you enjoy and one that matters to you. They may be the same activity.
Noticing what is good
You can practise directing attention towards what is working. Gratitude and noticing positive experiences have been widely studied; findings and study quality vary.
An experiment to try
Write down one pleasant moment and what made it enjoyable. Could you make room for a similar moment again?
The conditions of everyday life
Happiness is also associated with health, financial circumstances, relationships and freedom to make life choices. A mindset or a single exercise cannot address every difficulty.
An experiment to try
Choose one recurring everyday difficulty. Could you change its timing, amount, division of work or the way you approach it?
Practising your own approaches
Learning continues through practice and reviewing your experience. In a follow-up study of a happiness course, students who continued practising maintained higher wellbeing on average. The observation alone does not establish that practice caused the change.
An experiment to try
Choose one of the experiments above. Try it in everyday life, review your observations and decide whether to keep it, change it or leave it out.