Happiness Habits - Conclusions & Recommendations

Following our Findings from the Happiness Habits Experiment, here are our conclusions and recommendations for how they could be implemented on a national basis to raise personal and national levels of happiness and well-being.

CONCLUSIONS

Happiness Habits work

The Happiness Habits Experiment provides supporting evidence to the existing body of research demonstrating that happiness levels can be raised in many individuals by simple physical and psycho-physiological interventions.

Focus and repetition of positive habits are key to maintaining a sense of increased well-being. Just as physical exercise and healthy eating habits must be performed regularly to sustain physical fitness, so mental and emotional fitness requires regular and continual maintenance.

The simpler interventions, in particular (such as “Smile” and “Three Good Things”) can become embedded as habits after three weeks of regular practice. Other, more complex activities, such as “Breathe”, “Spreading Happiness” and “Fun To-Do Lists”, take longer to become habits for more people. However, once these activities have become habits, participants in a programme of Happiness Habits will continue to carry them out automatically, freeing them to move onto acquiring new and different habits.

Comments from participants in The Happiness Habits Experiment support research that such interventions are “most successful when participants know about, endorse, and commit to the intervention”

“I was more aware of it as I was consciously thinking about it”

“I am in a constant battle with happiness anyway, a bit of focus is good.”

“The experiment made me more conscious about doing things that would raise my 'happiness levels’.”

Structure, motivation and prompts required
Despite being aware that Happiness Habits raised their happiness levels, participants found it hard to remember, or to be motivated, to do many of them regularly. External structures within which to develop a range of Happiness Habits including explicit instructions on ways to remember, and/or mechanisms to deliver reminders could be an important development in raising happiness levels. Development of web- and phone-based technologies could play a useful part – especially for young people.

A national programme to promote individuals’ ability to raise their own happiness levels could be developed which would impact positively on mental and emotional resilience, physical health, family life, education and the economy. In line with evidence-based practice in education, medicine, psychology and psychiatry, this could be delivered with immediate impact through the education system and NHS GP surgeries.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION

Happiness Habits should start early
Twice as many adolescents have emotional or behavioural problems today as in the 1970s. Children and young people could be taught simple activities to raise and maintain positivity and happiness levels in school and colleges – even if they do not go so far as to institute Happiness Lessons, as Headmaster Anthony Seldon has done at Wellington College.

All six of the Happiness Habits in this experiment (and many others) could easily be included across the curriculum in schemes of learning and lesson plans (just as different learning styles and “Every Child Matters” are systematically addressed at these levels), where they would support focus and achievement, foster co-operation and positive behaviour as well as instilling healthy mental and emotional habits in students.

Improved Access to Psychological Therapies
Whilst the main focus of our national health system has been on providing care for those who suffer from physical ill health, we are beginning to realise that we also now need to promote positive mental health, not least of all because there is evidence that how happy or optimistic people are can be decisive in determining how fast they recover from heart disease and other serious physical conditions.

Unfortunately, the help currently available is patchy and takes too long to access. In a recent survey of British family doctors, only 15% said they could usually get the standard psychological therapy recommended for those of their patients who need it by the government's own National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE). The increasing numbers of people asking for help from their doctors and presenting with mild depression and/or low level anxiety is of particular concern. These are people who could be helped with a limited intervention that does not require the time and resources needed for more serious mental health conditions and who would not benefit in the long term from prescription anti-depressants.

News that prescription drugs for antidepressants have risen 43% since 2006 to an incredible 23 million prescriptions a year, should concern us all. The British Journal of Medicine concludes that the rise in antidepressant prescribing for the period 1993-2005 is mainly explained by small changes in the proportion of patients receiving long term treatment (and this is also very likely for the most recent data to 2010) and is therefore not the result of new ‘recession’ cases as recently reported throughout the media. Despite these caveats, these figures nevertheless reflect the large numbers of people being prescribed anti-depressants as well as highlighting the numbers for whom depression has now become a chronic condition.

The NICE guidelines for adults experiencing depression state that, in the first instance, patients should be offered self help and psychological therapies. Antidepressants are not recommended as first line therapy for mild to moderate depression. However, GPs frequently prescribe antidepressants even when they believe that a different treatment, such as a talking therapy, would be more appropriate - because they feel they have no alternative.
This does not even account for those who do not ask for help because they feel the stigma of failure, or the stigma attached to the words “mental health”. For the stigma of mental health to operate we don’t even have to add the word “problem”.

What needs to happen now
A nationally available, low level self help intervention based on Happiness Habits, could be delivered from GP surgeries and provide immediate support for people of all ages suffering from ‘life’, as well as those with mild depression and/or anxiety. Such a programme could also substantially reduce mental health problems in young people and other marginalised groups, reduce the prescription of antidepressants, reduce pressure on GPs and therapists and prevent people waiting for psychological treatments from getting worse.

Recognition by government, schools, workplaces and community organisations of the debilitating effects of low level depression and/or anxiety and the high numbers of people affected is a crucial first step. Your colleague, a neighbour or young person; the postman, your dentist or teacher; and particularly someone who is without a job – these are all people who are quite likely to be suffering in silence when they should be able to access appropriate help without embarrassment. We all rush to our GPs when we get an infection and we expect to be treated appropriately. But how appropriate is drug therapy for mild depression and low level anxiety? These are conditions that need time and help to overcome - not a prescription that will end in addiction.

We need to help ourselves.

We need help to help ourselves.

All our results are available to view by clicking through to The Happiness Habits Report 

The Happiness Habits Experiment Results are out!

In our ‘Happiness Habits Experiment’ we asked people to undertake between one and six simple activities daily for three weeks. The results show that daily repetition of exercises – like smiling, being kind to others and repeating positive affirmations – really did raise happiness levels. And better still, some of these activities can become habits in as little as three weeks. When Happiness Habits, like any other habits, become embedded, people no longer have to even think about them, they just become second nature and the underlying structure of a happier life.

Below is the executive summary highlighting the key facts and findings. 

Executive Summary

• Happiness is critical to the well-being and functioning of individuals and society; emotional well-being is more strongly related to good health and living longer than obesity is to dying earlier.

• Individuals have the power to raise and maintain their own happiness levels. Happiness is ‘contagious’, so happier people improve the well-being of others.

• ‘Happiness Habits’ is an evidence-based way to raise happiness and treat low level depression and anxiety.

• The most effective Happiness Habits were ‘Spreading Happiness’, ‘Simply Smile’ and ‘Three Good Things’.

• Simpler Happiness Habits can become embedded within three weeks; others may take longer

• Working on three Happiness Habits at a time is the ideal number to raise happiness levels

• Happiness Habits present challenges to learn, but once embedded have a powerful effect. Remembering to do them is hard, even when you know they work

• A Happiness Habits programme disseminated through schools and NHS GP surgeries offers  government massive opportunities to raise national well-being and save money

The full report can be viewed here and will also appear on this blog page section by section over the next few days.

Posted by Annabel

Mothers' Day and the Thank You Letter

For all that Mothers' Day, or Mothering Sunday, has become commercialised, it offers most of us a great opportunity to reflect gratefully on the contribution our mothers have made to our lives and happiness, and to thank them for it.

Sizzla (above) turned his thanks into a song, but a card, gift or gesture will carry the same weight for those of us less artistically gifted - both for the recipient of our thanks and, indeed, for ourselves.

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

G.K. Chesterton, writer (1874-1936)

Counting your blessings, or consciously feeling appreciation, thankfulness or wonder, has been shown to raise levels of happiness in a wide range of psychological research projects.

"The Thank You Letter" is a Happiness Habit taken from research in Positive Psychology, like “Three Good Things” which is part of our Happiness Habits Experiment. "The Thank You Letter"  is another of Professor Martin Seligman’s “ happiness interventions” that demonstrably raised happiness levels in volunteers who took part in the project and produced the highest levels of subsequent positive emotion for a month afterwards. (If you do this once every month, you can look forward to seriously improved levels of joy and contentment.)
 

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.”

Voltaire (1694-1778)

Mother's Day is a great incentive to try this one out. The task is to write a letter to someone you know - in this case your mum - thanking them for their contribution to making your life happier.

That’s it. Simple? But effective!

You might decide you want to tell or show the person some or all of the things you have written about them, but that is not part of this Habit as we present it in Step 12 of The Real Secret. It may not be possible to give a Thank You Letter to someone who is no longer part of your life, or has passed away. In general, though, we suggest that before you do so, you think carefully about the timing and context in order not to embarrass or overwhelm the recipient, or even appear too gushing or insincere yourself.

On Mothers' Day, though, timing and context works perfectly if it is possible to give or send your Thank You Letter to your mum. It should bring happiness to her and, in a virtuous circle, her happiness will return still more pleasure to you. In fact by doing this you will also be carrying out our Happiness Habit No 4, Spreading Happiness.

Two Happiness Habits for the price of one. Happy Mothers' Day!

posted by Lucy

Affirmations For Self Esteem - Happiness Habit No. 5

Do you have opinions and beliefs about yourself and the world in general that you consider to be “fact” and set in stone?

Well, think again.

Our core attitudes and values are simply learned thought patterns that we have developed since childhood. Thoughts are neurological pathways in our brain and the more frequently we think them, the deeper we cut the pathways. “Right” or “wrong” is an inappropriate way to assess them. It is more the case that, while many of our thought patterns continue to work well for us, others are working against us because we ourselves, our conditions or environment, have changed. They are dysfunctional and sabotage our ability to be happy and achieve what we want.

"We all have mental habits, and once they are set, they are as hard

to break as stopping smoking or biting your fingernails.”

Frank Pajares, Educational Psychologist

Throughout your lifetime, other people – and you yourself – have fed you negative messages about yourself, sometimes in words, other times by implication; sometimes on purpose, other times by accident. The most destructive of these are the ones that have been reinforced by repetition of someone else’s opinion, by circumstances that seem to validate this view of you, through negative comparisons to other people or your own continual acceptance of these limiting beliefs.

“Low self-esteem is like driving through life with the hand-break on”

Maxwell Maltz, writer (1899-1975)

These negative views of yourself affect your ability to be happy, to enjoy life and be at ease with yourself, even when you’re not consciously aware of holding them. They transmit themselves to other people via your body language, your turn of phrase, your attitude and your whole approach to life; they hold you back from enjoying good experiences, strong relationships and positive developments.

Would you purposely let a child of yours constantly hear yours or others’ negative thoughts about them? Hopefully not, because you wouldn’t want these ideas to enter their belief system, leading them to internalise a poor self-image. But, consciously or unconsciously, you are repeating these harmful messages back to your own mind. After all, whose ears are the first to hear the words you speak or even think?

Exactly – yours.

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude."

Maya Angelou, writer

Research into self-efficacy and resilience demonstrates that it is never too late to recover from low self esteem. One key is to avoid self-defeating assumptions. If you lose a job or a partner leaves you, it is important not to internalise the rejection and assume you’ll never be employed or loved again. Don’t allow one rejection to derail your dreams. Negative self-perception also leads to fear of humiliation. You won’t achieve a fully happy life if you can never take risks or always avoid challenges because you are afraid of making mistakes.

Every thought you think, and every word you say is an affirmation. Your inner dialogue is a stream of affirmations which provide the framework of how you experience your life at every moment. In The Real Secret's Step Two we show you how to take any misguided, negative perceptions of yourself, expose them to the light of day and see them for the unhelpful thought patterns they are. Then  replace them with positive, constructive and self-nurturing messages that will bolster your confidence and speed the journey to happiness.

Happiness Habit 5, "Yes I Can!", in the Happiness Habits Experiment - asks participants to replace up to four negative self-perceptions with positive affirmations and repeat those daily for three weeks. This Happiness Habit has proved to be the second least popular, with only half as many people signing up to do it as for the two most popular, "Simply Smile" and "Three Good Things". It will be interesting to see, though, which of the Happiness Habits has has had the greatest effects on people's happiness levels when we get the surveys back in and analysed.

There's more about taking control of your life, defeating negative beliefs and low self esteem in The Real Secret which is available in paperback and Kindle on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

Post by Lucy

Spreading Happiness - Happiness Habit No. 4

What single thing will bring you the most happiness today?

It could be a much needed cheque arriving in the post. It might be successfully completing a challenging project. Or it may be the simple pleasure of a walk in the park with your dog. But the likelihood is that it will be some kind of communication with another person: appreciation from your boss, a phone call from a friend, being able to cheer up your child, or sharing a moment with your partner.

“One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy. One of the best ways to make other people happy  is to be happy yourself.”

Gretchen Rubin, writer

Every recent study of happiness shows that good relationships are fundamental to being happy and that happy people have better relationships.

Positive emotions are generated by good interactions with other people. During these interactions our brain responds with chemical responses such as the production of “feel good” hormones like dopamine and oxytocin. In an upward spiral, positive emotions then make us feel better disposed towards others, more empathic, helpful, open and loving.

Positive Psychology research has found that altruism is strongly correlated with happiness. Professor Martin Seligman commented on a study that linked happiness with altruism; he was surprised, because he thought that unhappy people would identify with the suffering of others and be more altruistic. But "findings on mood and helping others without exception revealed that happy people were more likely to demonstrate that trait [altruism]" (Seligman, 2002, p. 43). And likewise, altruism helps people to be happy. Seligman cites a range of evidence to show that there is a causal link between altruism and becoming happier in his book, Authentic Happiness (e.g. pp. 8-9). Jane Piliavin has also analysed studies which have looked at the effects of helping others, and concludes that, "on many levels - psychologically, socially, and even physically - one indeed does 'do well by doing good'" (Piliavin, 2003, p. 243). 

Richard Layard tells us that neuroscientific research shows that when we do kind things for other people the same areas of our brain light up as when we eat chocolate. What a bargain - and it's not even fattening!

"Happiness comes from giving, not getting. If we try hard to bring

happiness to others, we cannot stop it from coming to us also.

To get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy, we must scatter it."

John Templeton, philanthropist (1912 - 2008)

Habit No. 4 of the Happiness Habits Experiment is "Spreading Happiness" and we ask participants to undertake some act of kindness, above and beyond their normal, kind activities, daily for three weeks. Amongst our first tranche of participants, this Habit is only the fourth most popular: coming after "Simply Smile", "Three Good Things" "And Breathe..." - but ahead of "Yes I Can!" and "Fun To-Do Lists". We very much look forward to finding out how effective those who signed up for it, found it.

Whether you have signed up or not to the Happiness Habits Experiment, think of some generous actions which you could realistically carry out each day over the next three weeks. They can be gifts of your time, energy, or effort, and don’t have to cost money; they could be small and impulsive, or they could involve serious input and planning on your part. They can be directed to people you know and love or to someone you find hard to get on with; to contacts or colleagues; to strangers in need or to charitable organisations. They should be actions different to or beyond those kindnesses you already do on a regular basis.

You can do something extra for someone you see every day, or you can reactivate a lapsed friendship by an act of unexpected giving. You can enjoy watching the surprise and pleasure of those you offer your gift to, or you could savour in your imagination the amazement and gratitude of someone you help anonymously.

If you want some ideas for Spreading Happiness, have a look on the Random Acts of Kindness website for inspiration. And there are more Happiness Habits in The Real Secret programme.

Post by Lucy

Piliavin, J. A. (2003). Doing Well by Doing Good: Benefits for the Benefactor. In C. L. M. Keyes and J. Haidt (Eds.), Flourishing: Positive Psychology and the Life Well-Lived (pp. 227-247). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: Free Press.

Happiness Habit 3 - To Do Lists / Goal-setting

Happiness Habit No.3, in our Happiness Habits Experiment, is "Fun To Do Lists". Amongst our first cohort of participants who have signed up to the Happiness Habits research project, this has turned out to be the least popular Habit of the six they can pick from. (We ask participants to choose from one to six activities - the Happiness Habits - and carry them out daily for three weeks, after which we survey their responses.) No 3, "Fun To Do Lists", has been chosen by less than half as many participants as those who have chosen to "Smile" daily (No. 1) - the most popular Habit to date.

And yet writing down three fun or enjoyable goals a day, pursuing, achieving and ticking them off the list, may provide those who are doing it with a clearly increased level of satisfaction with life. Here's why:

Setting and achieving goals has a powerful influence on creating well-being in our daily lives. We now know that the steps involved in goal-directed activity – motivation, goal-seeking, successful outcome and feelings of pleasure – are wired into the brain's structure. All achievement starts with motivation. Motivation leads to a decision that triggers a behaviour aimed at satisfying the aim. Achieving the goal produces positive feelings because it releases neurotransmitters like dopamine, which reinforces the reward, and acetylcholine, which helps the brain “tune in” and embed memories of success. Positive memories then encourage you to repeat the process which caused the pleasure.

“To achieve happiness, we should make certain that we are never
without an important goal”
Earl Nightingale, writer, broadcaster (1921-1989)

The brain’s automatic goal-seeking mechanism was first identified by Dr Maxwell Maltz in his classic self-help book, Psycho-Cybernetics. He recognised the importance of defining a goal in positive terms; of creating a specific description in words and visualising the outcome of the goal; and of constant, conscious repetition of these steps to activate the goal-seeking mechanism of our subconscious.

The Reticular Activating System, as it is called, is such a successful piece of brain circuitry that it is essential to feed it only goals you really want to achieve, because the wrong messages can become embedded in your subconscious if you frame them carelessly or in negative terms.

A well known 1953 Harvard University experiment identified ten percent of graduates who had set themselves some goals and four percent who had actually written down their goals. By 1973 the net worth of the four percent was double that of all the rest.

In the task of  "Fun To-Do Lists" for the Happiness Habits Experiment, we have combined goal-setting with elements of The Real Secret's first step, "Choose To Be Happy" - where scheduling regular fun into your life is another Habit. You cannot, by definition, achieve peak performance all the time and by taking a break from one kind of activity, you allow your brain time to process and work more efficiently when you come back to it. Fun breaks or pleasurable activities that give you opportunities to smile,laugh and relax are especially beneficial.

  

“The real joy of life is in its play. Play is anything we do for the joy and love of doing it, apart from any profit, compulsion, or sense of duty. It is the real joy of living.”

Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918)

In The Real Secret Step 4, "Route Planning", we ask readers to write some of the most important words of their life: goals for the long term, the mid-term and the immediate future.  However ambitious your goal, you can make your way towards it with regular, incremental, achievable steps, using flexibility to adjust your aims to changing situations and The Real Secret Habits as a road map to achieve your most desired destinations.

We'll be publishing our report on The Happiness Habits Experiment in early April. Please do sign up if you're interested in taking part in our ongoing research project.

Post by Lucy

Hapiness Habits Experiment - Habit 2... And Breathe

We all know that stress is part of contemporary life and that too much is bad for us, physically and mentally. Our early ancestors developed a mind-body alarm system to save them from physical harm and possible death. Evolution being a slow process, the system hasn't yet adapted to Western, twenty-first century living and the alarm is still activated by our feelings of anxiety and fear. Today, worrying situations are unlikely to threaten our survival, yet our brain interprets them as d-a-n-g-e-r-o-u-s and triggers the body into the primitive "Fight or Flight" reaction.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)

When there is no need for, and no possibility of, actual fight or flight, the physical and psychological symptoms of this are unpleasant and distressing. Though you need this mechanism for your physical survival in times of real danger and, sometimes, just to boost your responses, it's not useful or healthy to be often or excessively stressed and anxious. You cannot begin to relax into happiness if you spend much time feeling like this.

Getting into the simple habit of slow, regular breathing allows you to reduce your stress levels, in general, and also in particularly difficult situations.

To practice, sit in a comfortable chair, back straight and well supported, feet flat on the floor. It can help to close your eyes. Become aware of your breathing: feel the air coming in and out of your lungs, cold through your nose as you inhale; warm as you exhale. Focus on your OUT breaths.

Breathe in a long, slow breath, right down into your diaphragm (you should be able to feel your belly, not your chest, going in and out) until your lungs are expanded fully (but stop before you feel you're going to burst). Breathe out slowly until your lungs are completely empty (but not so you're gasping).

Breathe in and out five times like this, in your head counting up to five as you breathe in and back down from five to one as you breathe out. Keep the in and out breaths regular and flowing; don't hold the breath at any point. After five deep breaths, breathe more gently and normally and find your natural rhythm as you breathe in and out. If you can make the out breath longer, that's good.

"When the breath wanders the mind also is unsteady. But when the breath is calmed the mind too will be still…. Therefore, one should learn to control the breath."

Svatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika (15^th century)

So how do you feel now?

Your body is less tense and more relaxed and your mind quieter and calmer. You have induced this state of calm in yourself. Congratulate yourself. Taking satisfaction in this achievement will activate some of the pleasure centres in your brain and release endorphins which increase your feelings of well-being.

By changing your breathing, you are changing your physical response to a situation. The message your body is giving your brain is: “I am breathing in a calm, relaxed manner therefore I am in control.” As your brain registers this message, it assumes any danger has passed and deactivates the Fight or Flight response.

In our Happiness Habits Experiment this is Habit No. 2. We are asking you to practice this (and any of the five other Habits) at least once a day for three weeks. You can do it anywhere: watching TV, on public transport, at your desk – and as you do so, you will start to raise the threshold at which your Fight or Flight reaction kicks in. Soon you will be able to use it in any situation and induce calm in a couple of minutes. Before long it will become an automatic reaction to any stressful situation as well as something you just do to increase your sense of ease. In the following weeks, notice how much you use this new skill and what positive effects it has for you.

Sign up to become part of our Happiness Habits Experiment here - and get the rest of The Real Secret's "Mind Stretching" exercises here

You can also get our FREE Relaxation Audio here

Posted by Lucy