The psychology of happiness

My happy chappy

Parenting is very difficult. However children give us a sense of accomplishment which makes us feel happy. :)

The psychology of happiness
or positive psychologie

I always loved psychology. It gave me a little understanding of how the world works or better how people work. When I studied some psychology a  part was abnormal psychology which is how people shouldn't work and how to fix it when things go wrong. I thought wouldn't it be much better to know what makes people happy in the first place so you can prevent this stuff from happening.
I found out this has been happening over the last years and I completely missed it.  I learned about it through a magazine and some stuff on the Internet, I have to share it with you  I know it works. Because we are all different some things work better for one than for others but they all  contribute. here we go, what makes us happy:

• Relationships! We are social animals. We are connected, and the more you are able to connect to people the happier you are. What stops you from this : Looking up and looking down on people.
• Exercise! This is a well known one. When you exercise you produce endorphins which are happy chemicals. Don't over exercise though, which causes stress to you and the muscles. Walking and swimming will do just fine.
• Don't focus on the negative but on the positive. When you think about things that make you angry you won't feel happy. Logic hey but we still tend to do it often. At the end of the day just count your blessings.Make a list of what was fun today or what you are grateful for. Your happiness will go in the lift to the top floor.
• Caring and giving. When you contribute to other peoples happiness you feel better yourself. You don't have to be mother Theresa but just little things will do. Become a member of  Love Rally  A blog which gives you tips how to care and write letters to people who have a really hard time. Giving some money to the red cross etc. Your mental health will sky rocket.
• Flow. Losing your self consciousness and being deeply engaged in doing something makes you happy. This can be gardening, cooking, for me it is writing poetry or reading a book etc. Somethng which engages you so much that you loose yourself in it.
• Learning something Learning something new whether this is at work or at home, a new language, a new hobby etc keeps the brain stimulated and therefore makes you feel better.
• Living in the moment. Focus on what you are thinking and feeling an seeing now. When you are doing new things or going on holiday to new places you are focused because all is new and you are living in the now. This makes you feel more alive and happier.
• Achieving something .. If you feel you have accomplishment something you feel more happy. Even if you go through a traumatic experience you can feel good. In science this is called post-traumatic growth: After a traumatic experience some people realise that there relationships are improved, they realised that they could cope and survived and they realise the important things in life. So even if you lost your stuff in an earthquake you realise that it is more important that your friends and family are all fine.

If you want to know a bit more here is a Ted video. I love Tedd videos They are talks from remarkable people and are freely shared with the world.