3 Unusual Habits That Make A Person Truly Happy, According To Psychology
Elevate your mood with a twist.
Dean Drobot | Canva Among a hectic life of work, family, and responsibilities, you might just tolerate what’s going on around you, powerless to change it. But tolerating it can become all but a distant memory if you learn how to elevate your mood with a twist.
We often try to adopt daily habits but wonder why they don't work. This is usually because they are one-dimensional or surface solutions. To truly elevate your mood, feel happier, and get what you want, you need to engage with multi-dimensional thinking and behavior.
Here are 3 unusual habits that make a person truly happy, according to psychology
1. Affirm with a question
Affirmations are statements you make to yourself to set your mindset on track. The idea is the more you say it, the more you will believe it.
"Self-affirmations boost self-resources, broaden the perspective with which people view information and events in their lives, and lead to an uncoupling of the self and the threat, reducing the threat’s impact on affecting the self. Self-affirmations may instantiate lasting effects through changing the nature of ongoing experience," according to a study in Social and Personality Psychology Compass.
In essence, however, the statements you make may be so far from the reality of your life that there's a disconnect. So, deep down, no matter how much you say it, you don’t and can’t truly believe it.
Think of the most commonly said statement of "It will all work out in the end…" This, in itself, is an affirmation. But, how much do you truly believe it when everything around you seems to be going wrong?
If you don’t believe it, then you will not be energetically aligned with the outcome, which, in turn, means you are less likely to take actions to follow that course. It's actions that get us to our final destination.
A more powerful way to affirm is to combine it with questioning. For example, instead of affirming "It will all work out!", try asking, "How can I help this situation?" or "How can I feel better about this?"
By asking a question, you open up your intuitive guidance and will set your intention on noticing signs and taking action to move forward. You'll always feel better when you think you can do something to help a situation.
2. Meditate with a dance
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When you're busy and stressed out, it’s hard to switch your brain off to meditate, let alone actually find time to sit down and do it. Meditation has a multitude of benefits for our mental, emotional, and physical health. You know you should be doing it, but incorporating it into daily life can prove challenging.
Meditation needn’t mean you have to sit on the floor cross-legged, however. You just have to be able to switch off your mind. A meta-analysis of studies on the effects of dance movement therapy suggested, "dance movement therapy decreases depression and anxiety and increases quality of life and interpersonal and cognitive skills, whereas dance interventions increase (psycho-)motor skills."
One great way to do this is to distract the mind with an activity. Dancing is a wonderful way to incorporate meditation by actively moving the body, which in turn, raises your vibration and opens you up to be present.
You will get multiple benefits from this, including an instant energy boost from dancing around, calorie burn by moving about, instant relief of stress, and, of course, opening up your mind to receive intuitive thoughts, which can only drop in when there is space.
This process provides that space easily and quickly!
3. Give gratitude with an attitude
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Giving gratitude boosts your mood enormously, shifting your energy from noticing what you don’t have to what you do have, and what you wish to have as if it were already there. The more you find and declare things you're grateful for, the more it grows, like a snowball gathering size more and more as you roll it along the floor.
According to the American Psychological Association, "accumulating research has demonstrated that gratitude is foundational to well-being and mental health throughout the lifespan. From childhood to old age, a wide array of psychological, physical, and relational benefits is associated with gratitude. Gratitude has been shown to contribute not only to an increase in happiness, health, and other desirable life outcomes but also to a decrease in negative affect and problematic functioning."
Offering gratitude when you're feeling down is an instantaneous mood booster and a great way to end your day if you find you have difficulty sleeping due to stress and worry. Some people like to keep a journal where they either list or write a few paragraphs each day. Others may prefer to keep a gratitude jar and fill it up each time they pass it.
The key to elevating your mood is to truly engage with the feeling of gratitude. This is where the attitude comes in. Say it as though you mean it! Make bold statements and imagine how wonderful it feels or would feel if you had all that in your life right now.
This may mean taking your time when writing and just breathing into the feeling. Or, it may mean quite literally shouting it out loud, with your arms up in the air!
The more attitude of gratitude, the happier you will remain.
Find a way to make boosting your mood fun again!
The fundamental element in all these daily habits is to find a way to make them fun, engage more than just one sense, make them multi-dimensional, and incorporate them into your busy life.
Each of them will help to propel you forward and boost your mood, helping you to remain present in the now, but at the same time hopeful for the future.
Dr. Rana Al-Falaki is an optimal performance strategist, helping professionals elevate their energy and get what they want.
