When did you last feel really happy?

Who said being happy was easy?

Happiness is missing in most of our lives, because of the demands of work, the overwhelming challenges of the COVID pandemic, staying on top of raising children, and making ends meet financially. In recent times there has been a lot of focus on well-being but it seems that we are not focusing on the right things — We often define happiness by what we own or how much we make and how that compares to those around us. Science has shown that will never make you happy (for long anyhow).

Several Ivy League universities have now studied ‘happiness’ and are defining their research as the science of well-being. There are now hundreds of studies that have helped scientists to offer us exercises that have helped thousands to find a better sense of well-being (happiness). And they believe if you practice some of these exercises you can turn your mood around in a very short period of time, (I will put links at the end to help you find a study on ‘happiness’ or the science of well-being from those much wiser than I.)

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In this section, we will talk about how our minds work and how we can learn to be happy in almost any situation.

Here is a popular exercise:

Savoring helps us to boost our mood, make us remember the good that has happened in our lives, if you reflect on times with good friends/family it can keep us at that moment, which can increase our sense of gratitude.

Find a positive moment in your life and really take time to remember that moment. It might be watching a sunset on a Caribbean island in the middle of winter. Or could be your first kiss…or the time one of your kids won a race they had been working on for months.

So really think about that one happy moment that causes you to smile even years later. And savor that…close your eyes and enjoy it again.

Gratitude increases your good mood and studies show it also lowers your stress level;l oddly enough research shows gratitude will increase your immune system…get out and feel some thanks

Take 5–10 minutes each night to write down five things for which you are grateful.

There are now lots of courses available for free online to help you with this direction…the first one I studied was at Coursera and it's FREE!

The Science of Well-Being