Take your time and enjoy the process of identifying areas of life where you could potentially let some more happiness in. Bhattacharyya, Whitehead, Rakhit & Steptoe (2008) also found a link between happiness and heart health. The researchers studied individuals who already had, or were suspected of having coronary heart disease. They asked participants to rate their happiness, and their hearts were then tested for symptoms. Those who rated the highest for happiness on the day also had the healthiest heart patterns. This suggests that happiness can still have health benefits, even when illness or disease is already present. A further study exploring this connection also indicates that it is the consistency of life satisfaction (or happiness) that has an impact on life longevity. Boehm et al (2015) found that participants who reported a low sense of life satisfaction with a high level of variability (meaning they went through high and low phases) were more likely to die early than participants who reported a consistently low sense of satisfaction. Kelly, A. (2012) Gross national happiness in Bhutan: the big idea from a tiny state that could change the world. The Guardian. Retrieved from: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/01/bhutan-wealth-happiness-counts?CMP=share_btn_link Sapranaviciute-Zabazlajeva, L., Luksiene, D., Virciciute, D., Bobak, M., & Tamosiunas, A. (2017). Link between healthy lifestyle and psychological well-being in Lithuanian adults aged 45–72: a cross-sectional study. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5387968/

Strand, E. B., Zautra, A. J., Thoresen, M., Ødegård, S., Uhlig, T., & Finset, A. (2006). Positive affect as a factor of resilience in the pain-negative affect relationship in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16650588Shapiro, S. L., Carlson, L. E., Astin, J. A., & Freedman, B. (2006). Mechanisms of mindfulness. Journal of clinical psychology, 62(3), 373-386.

Schwartz, S. H. (2012). An overview of the Schwartz theory of basic values. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1), 1–20. Happiness leads to career success, and it doesn’t have to be “natural” happiness – researchers found that “experimentally enhancing” positive emotions also contributed to improved outcomes at work (Walsh et al., 2018). The present work drew on two large diary studies to examine how daily prosociality was associated with increases in both meaning and happiness in everyday life. Study 1 found that subjective prosociality was uniquely associated with both meaning and happiness. Study 2, using a self-report measure of prosocial behavior, revealed that daily prosocial acts were uniquely associated with increases in meaning, but modestly (though still significantly) related to happiness.

How to Train Your Brain for Happiness

Aknin, L. B., Barrington-Leigh, C. P., Dunn, E. W., Helliwell, J. F., Burns, J., Biswas-Diener, R., Kemeza, I., Nyende, P., Ashton-James, C. E., & Norton, M. I. (2013). Prosocial spending and well-being: Cross-cultural evidence for a psychological universal. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(4), 635–652. A portion of our happiness is determined by our genetics (but there’s still plenty of room for attitude adjustments and happiness-boosting exercises!).

With so much research showing the multiple positive benefits for our health when we’re happy, here are the top six proven health benefits: 1. Improved Heart Health Participants in the study who reported more positive over negative emotions in everyday life were more likely to have survived the length of the study. Happiness is a state, not a trait; in other words, it isn’t a long-lasting, permanent feature or personality trait, but a more fleeting, changeable state. Mongrain, M., Chin, J. M., & Shapira, L. B. (2011). Practicing compassion increases happiness and self-esteem. Journal of Happiness Studies, 12(6), 963–981. Finley K, Axner M, Vrooman K, Tse D. Ideal levels of prosocial involvement in relation to momentary affect and eudaimonia: Exploring the golden mean. Innov Aging. 2020;4(Suppl 1):614. doi:10.1093/geroni/igaa057.2083The Easterlin paradox—”money does not buy happiness” (Mohun, 2012)—sparked a new wave of thinking about wealth and wellbeing. Kern ML, Waters LE, Adler A, White MA. A multidimensional approach to measuring well-being in students: Application of the PERMA framework. J Posit Psychol. 2015;10(3):262-271. doi:10.1080/17439760.2014.936962 Happiness and job performance are related—and the relationship likely works in both directions (e.g., happy people do a better job and people who do a good job are more likely to be happy). Happy people tend to experience fewer aches and pains, including dizziness, muscle strain, and heartburn.

Fraley, R. C., & Vazire, S. (2014). The N-pact factor: Evaluating the quality of empirical journals with respect to sample size and statistical power. PLoS ONE, 9(10), e109019.

15 Tips To Form Habits For Happiness

Campos, D., Cebolla, A., Quero, S., Breton-Lopez, J., Botella, C., Soler, J., Garcia-Campayo, J., Demarzo, M., & Banos, R. M. (2016). Meditation and happiness: Mindfulness and self-compassion may mediate the meditation–happiness relationship. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886915005450 Lee M-A, Kawachi I. The keys to happiness: Associations between personal values regarding core life domains and happiness in South Korea. PLoS ONE. 2019;14(1):e0209821. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0209821 I hope you’ve enjoyed reading more about the different health benefits of happiness, I know I enjoyed researching them! If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this article, it’s that cultivating more happiness or positive emotions shouldn’t become an exercise to be added to the ‘To-Do’ list.