Does exercising make us happier?

Does exercising make us happier? Really? Let’s check the facts hidden behind this common wisdom.

An article from James Vlahos published in the New York Times on 12 Apr 2011, reported that, over a lifetime, the unhealthful effects of sitting add up. Alpa Patel, an epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society, tracked the health of 123,000 Americans between 1992 and 2006. The men in the study who spent six hours or more per day of their leisure time sitting had an overall death rate that was about 20 percent higher than the men who sat for three hours or less. The death rate for women who sat for more than six hours a day was about 40 percent higher. So fat for the negative effects of the lack of exercising. What about the positive impact of a balanced fitness program?

The Daily Mail published on 16 Dec 2008 the following study outcome from the University of Bristol in the UK. Evaluating a group of 200 employees, they found out that:

• 72% of the employees exercising regularly reported improvements in time management on exercise days compared to non-exercise days;
• 79% of the same group said mental and interpersonal performance was better on days they exercised;
• 74% said they managed their workload better.

This represents a statistically significant difference, confirming our initial presumption. One of the main cause and effect mechanisms behind the numbers is known and simple: exercising stimulates the production of endorphin, these chemicals that are able to cross through the gaps between neurons in order to pass along a message from one to the next. When endorphins lock into special receptor cells, they block the transmission of pain signals and also produce a euphoric feeling. In simple term, increasing your  endorphin level is like receiving a blast of happiness through your body. Too much will lead to euphoria, also known as the “runner’s high” feeling.
What do you think? Let us know your personal experience.

Do you want to find out more? Check wikipedia, science.howstuffworks.com, … and have fun shaping your active lifestyle.

PS: and don’t forget to check your happiness score on www.Authentic-Happiness.com

The Best Tricks To Keep Our Annual Resolutions ?

Ah the good resolutions, great ideas, even better plans, too often lost in a sea of good intentions! How often can you keep them longer than a month? 2 months maybe? 4 at best? If you are able to stick to them for the whole 12 months ahead of us, this article is probably not for you. You likely have your own secret, and you know how to make it work.

If not, read the next 3 paragraphs.

1. Looking for more happiness in your life, start with a short questionnaire to evaluate your Authentic Happiness score. With 15 questions, it will give you a first indication of how well you lead your life, shape your habits and design a lifestyle to maximize happiness. For each of your sub-optimal areas, you will get customized recommendations to find out more about these specific areas and if required, take a more thorough test.

2. What comes next is to define what makes a good annual resolution:

• Distinguish between what is important -and less important-, versus urgent -and less urgent. This is the essence of the Eisenhower method (see the “Manage you time” learning module in www.Authentic-Happiness.com)
• Use words to visualize your objectives: the Vision Board is a very effective tool to sort out your thoughts (find out more with the "Develop Your Life Vision" or "Get Active" learning modules).
• Make sure that your resolutions are meaningful connected to your personal vision and objectives. Check out the “Life Meaningfully” learning module.

3. Finally, now that you are done with developing your annual resolutions, how do you make sure that you will stay on track?

A sure way to stay involved is to use mobile technology. Some examples:

• Mobile application such as fitbit counts your daily steps to keep you in check. Competing with yourself month after month will help you stay fit & healthy.
• Another example is the “Way of Life” app: by investing less than a minute daily to track, identify and change your habits with Way of Life's unique red/green colour system, you will get daily help to reshape your “good” habits and forget the “bad” ones.
• Other applications like Lift makes you feel as if you have a personal coach in your phone: 24x7 and for 365 days. This will give you free guidance, motivation, and tracking for 100,000 different goals.
• Do you want to discover more apps to track your resolustions, visit www.Authentic-Happiness.com, “Track Your Progress” page.

In summary: To give long life to your resolutions, make sure that they will fully contribute to shaping a better life and that they are meaningfully connected to your goals and vision. Finally, search for the right apps, test them and select the ones that will help you stay on track for “the whole nine yards”.

Is Positive Psychology the new secret recipe for a long and happy life?

It is true that a meta-analysis of 35 studies conducted by Yoichi Chida and Andrew Steptoe concluded that “Positive Psychology well being was associated with reduced mortality in both healthy and disease population (Psychomatic Medicine, Journal of Biobehavioral Medicine, July-August 2013). This being said, the key learning from positive psychology practice are often advertised as a “secret recipe” instead of what they really are, a set of science-based observations, models, techniques and tools to make our life more fulfilling.

Personal development studies over the past decades  and centuries have already analyzed and reanalyzed this same subject.

What do they have in common with the more recent field of Positive Psychology? There are five recurrent themes at the intersection of these theories and models: let’s called them the “five pillars of happiness”:

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  www.authentic-happiness.com

  PILLAR #1 STAY FIT & HEALTHY: sleep well, switch to a healthy lifestyle and nutrition, boost your immune system, …
• PILLAR #2 EXPERIENCE POSITIVE EMOTIONS: monitor your stress level, meditate, build up your self esteem, unleash the power of gratitude, …
• PILLAR #3 DEVELOP YOUR TALENTS & STRENGTHS: manage your time effectively, "Flow" through the week, mentor your peers, …
• PILLAR #4 IMPROVE YOUR SOCIAL & COMMUNICATION SKILLS: tell your story, develop your personal brand, communicate with style
• PILLAR #5 LEAD A PASSIONATE & MEANINGFUL LIFE: learn from positive psychology and improve your well-being?, define your vision of a meaningful life

This all makes sense and seems so easy, but where to start? Life is an adventure, get at it one step at a time. Start by clicking on www.authentic-happiness.com, evaluate your strengths in each pillar (free questionnaire), learn every day from the free 10 minute modules and build your personal action plan to fill your life with authentic happiness, one step at a time. Yes, it is that simple!

Clara Novy is a active blog contributor and founder of the non-for-profit web platform www.authentic-happiness.com.

www.authentic-happiness.com is a free learning and personal development platform dedicated to help you fill your life with Authentic Happiness by discovering your strengths & exploring how to 1. Stay healthy & in shape, 2. Live a positive life, 3. Develop your talents, 4. Improve your social skills and 5. Lead a meaningful life.