Happiness fact 50: Keys to a happier, healthier life (a Hardward study)

Research suggests that certain personal attributes—whether inborn or shaped by positive life circumstances—help some people avoid or healthfully manage diseases such as heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and depression. These include:

* Emotional vitality: a sense of enthusiasm, hopefulness, engagement

* Optimism: the perspective that good things will happen, and that one’s actions account for the good things that occur in life

* Supportive networks of family and friends

* Being good at “self-regulation” i.e. bouncing back from stressful challenges and knowing that things will eventually look up again; choosing healthy behaviors such as physical activity and eating well; and avoiding risky behaviors such as unsafe sex, drinking alcohol to excess, and regular overeating...

Let's think about these four life happiness boosters as we look ahead into a new year.

Source: Sara Rimer, Madeline Drexler, Harvard School of Public Health, https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/happiness-stress-heart-disease/
 
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Happiness fact 49: happiness = think daily of 3 things you are grateful for

Think of three things you are grateful for before you go to sleep, everyday, for 21 days. A study revealed that participants were significantly more optimistic, and further, the change wasn't temporary -- the positive mindset lasted even six months later. An added effect: Increasing your optimism can improve your productive energy by 31 percent!

Source: Shawn Achor Shawn, Author, "The Happiness Advantage", USA (2012)

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Happiness fact 48: emotional well-being rises by 15% on weekends

Happiness spikes on the weekend and drops when the work week begins. Call it ‘weekend bliss’ or the ‘Monday blues,'” said Cristobal Young, an assistant professor in sociology who co-authored the study with Chaeyoon Lim from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Emotional well-being rises by about 15% on weekends, the study shows. This reflects both more positive emotions like happiness and enjoyment, and fewer negative emotions like stress, anger and sadness. The findings are based on a study of 500,000 Americans in the Gallup Daily Poll and eight years of data from the American Time Use Survey.

Source: Cristobal Young, and Gallup Study (2014)

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