Notes on Positive Psychology

Apr. 10, 2023

Most times, our mind lies to us and tricks us into thinking that the things we think we get happiness from makes us happy. In fact, it's not. For instance, we tend to think that having good grades, having money, having flashy cars, watching Netflix, and using social media brings us happiness; however, they don't. It's some really simple things that we often overlook that bring us bouts of happiness. Things like Kindness, Real-time social connection, flow and fun. These are activities that bring us happiness. Now, let's take an in-depth look into some of those activities.

Social Connections: We get happiness by literally talking to people. In fact, a study that had people self-report their feelings on a scale of 1-10 after having a conversation reported a boost in happiness level. To further show this, a study which was carried out in a train where everyone faced his/her business forced people to talk with strangers. As control, some commuters were asked to not talk to anyone throughout the journey. After the ride, a survey was taken and the result of the survey showed a significant boost in happiness levels for those that were forced to talk to other commuters. This goes a long way to tell us how much talking to people can do for us. Don't only talk to people, put in time to maintain friendships and join faith-based communities or communities that share your values. Another study showed that people that were actively involved in faith-based communities had higher happiness levels compared to people who weren't involved in those communities. Not because of their spirituality or their relationship with God but because of communion with one another.

Kindness: We also obtain happiness from giving out our discretionary funds(kinda like spare money). Now being kind does a whole lot for us apart from bringing us happiness. A study by Elizabeth Dunn and colleagues (I remembered this one; it was too interesting to forget 😃) showed that doing nice stuffs actually reduces your blood pressure (this is not some pseudo-information, the data speaks for itself) and reduces the hormone, cortisol, that induces stress. Back to happiness, Elizabeth, again, conducted another study where she handed out $5 and $20 to random people but instructed them to either treat themselves to something good or be charitable with the money.

She also made them agree to having a call later in the day to know how they spent the money and do some survey. At the end of the study, she discovered that those people that spent the money on other people had a significantly higher happiness level than those people that treated themselves to something special (you see our minds tricking us again, right?) It didn't stop there. After a period of 6 months when the same people that were given the money to self reported some information, the result showed that those people who were charitable with the money still had higher happiness levels because of the impact of their act. The happiness level of those that were charitable with the $5 was equal to the happiness level of those that were charitable with $20. I know what you're thinking but don't give any less. Another study showed that people who give more money naturally have a decreased level of cortisol. I understand that not everyone has money, but you can decide to open the door for someone to walk through or say something nice to someone.