5 Simple Habits for Happiness Backed by Yale Research

If you are finding you are being weighed down by the news or other life events, here are 5 super simple things each of us can do. They are based on Laurie Santos' The Science of Happiness course at Yale University.

I took the free version on Coursera about 5 or so years ago.

Happiness boils down to only 5 things:

1) Gratitude (keep a daily journal)

2) Savoring (slow down)

3) Kindness (perform an act of good)

4) Social Connection (meet with friends)

5) Exercise and Sleep (this one is self-explanatory)

Last year, when I took over a larger team, my company had just gone through another round of layoffs. To counterbalance the negative feelings people were having, I asked everyone over the next two weeks to do an act of good.

This act of good didn't have to be anything special. It could be donating to your favorite charity, participating at a local food bank, or even helping a senior citizen with their groceries.

This single ask started to change the negative feelings that were consuming the team as they lost friends and colleagues.

In a world where there are negative things happening every day, sometimes focusing on one or all of these 5 things can make a huge difference in your mental and physical attitude...and maybe help change the direction of someone else's as well.

My ask of everyone is to do an act of good over the next two weeks. It is not necessary to post what you did, here or elsewhere, but just know the act will make a difference.

My hope is that this post can get some viral momentum as acts of good can be contagious😀

#Gratitude #journaling #Savoring #slowdown #kindness #actsofgood #socialconnection #friends #exercise #sleep

Copying Jaime Diglio and John Barrows who both posted similar topics recently and inspired me to do this post.

Cover photo by Raymond Petrik