Neil Pasricha, a Harvard MBA, Walmart executive turned bestselling author tackles the topic of happiness in his latest book The Happiness Equation, which dives into the expanding literature on positive psychology and emerges with a formula for happiness.
Happiness is a nebulous concept at best – one that’s contributed to a growing happiness industry and an array of contradicting opinions in academia and cultural commentary. Parischa offers evidence-supported strategies geared to increase levels of life satisfaction, positively affect balance, have a preponderance of positive feelings, and relatively few negative ones. Gina Di Giulio, PhD, Director of Psychology at Medcan, provides perspective on Pasricha’s findings below.
Be happy, live longer, be promoted
Pasricha cites studies done by Stanford University published in the Harvard Business Review that show happy people are 31% more productive, have 37% higher sales, and are 40% more likely to get promoted in the next year. Outside of work, happiness can lead to longer lives. The Nun Study led by the University of Kentucky found that nuns who expressed more positive emotions lived as many as 10 years longer than those expressing fewer positive emotions.
So if you are convinced that happiness is a desirable state, how does one attain it?
Start with happy, outcomes will follow
“Starting off with a positive mindset is the key to a successful and fulfilling life,” says Dr. Di Giulio. “This doesn’t mean that one should deny difficult emotions such as sadness; in fact doing so is unhealthy and can lead to emotional problems over time. But making positivity your dominant frame of mind is important in order to build resilience against life’s stressors.”
Pasricha says this begins with a change in perspective.
First, he says, we need to change where happiness is placed in our perceived order of things. Many of us are conditioned to believe that if we work hard, and attain great things, we will become happy. Pasricha flips the order by placing happiness at the start. Instead of believing that happiness will reveal itself after we’ve succeeded, Pasricha says, we are more likely to succeed if we start with a happy mindset.
But isn’t the pursuit of happiness the root of all unhappiness? It’s more simple than that, says Pasricha. There are five activities that are likely to create the happy mindset that precedes great work and success.
Five ways to train your brain to be happy
Reflect and replay the good in your day. Take 20 minutes and write in a journal about a positive experience from your day. Studies show your happiness will dramatically improve. Parents may want to do this with children at bedtime. Pasricha reflects on his day with his spouse using the “rose-thorn-bud” template where the rose represents something positive, the thorn represents a challenge, and the bud is something to look forward to. Researchers at the University of Texas published “How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Words,” whereby one member of a couple was asked to write about their relationship for twenty minutes three times a day. Compared to the test group, the couple was more likely to engage in intimate dialogue afterward, and the relationship was more likely to last.
Take a walk in nature. We seem hard wired to need access to green space and movement. Studies show that exposure to green spaces help to restore the mind from mental fatigue, contributing to improved work performance, mood, emotional stability and satisfaction. In Japan, so-called forest bathing involves people going into forests and parks to observe and connect with their underused sensations. Pennsylvania State researchers reported in the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology that the more physically active people are, the greater their general feelings of excitement and enthusiasm. The American Psychosomatic Society published a study showing how researchers found that three 30-minute brisk walks or jogs even improve recovery from clinical depression.
Recognize your random acts of kindness. This exercise is all about the ego. We feel good when we do good. Whether it’s holding the door for someone, paying someone a sincere compliment, or buying a homeless person lunch, we feel good about ourselves. Scientists have found that doing good deeds is the most reliable way to increase a sense of well being. Numerous studies have shown that receiving, giving, or even witnessing acts of kindness increases immunity and the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that regulates mood in the brain. Kindness may also help socially anxious people relax, according to research out of the University of British Columbia.
Sit, turn off your phone, close your eyes, and breathe. Massachusetts General Hospital-led study shows mindfulness meditation can change brain structure over time. Heightens areas related to focus, awareness, empathy and stress. Dr. Di Giulio speaks about meditation here. Researchers have done brain scans before and after a beginner does meditation for a few weeks – which show increased activity in your pre-frontal cortex. Meaning improvements in attention, concentration, and focus.
Five gratitudes. Cultivate a sense of gratitude every day by identifying three to five things you’re grateful for. Researchers asked groups of students to write down five gratitudes, five hassles, or five events that happened over the past week for 10 straight weeks. The students who wrote five gratitudes were happier and physically healthier.
Create space and optimize your 168 hours
Another strategy that Pasricha suggests is to create space in our lives to enjoy those aspects that are most valuable to us. Every single person – the Prime Minister, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg – has 168 hours in a week. How best to optimize that time?
“Think about work life balance in terms of three buckets of 56, 56 and 56,” says Pasricha. “You have a bucket for sleep (8 hours a night), a bucket for work (8 hours a day) and then a bucket for anything you like.”
But with so many emails (on average 147 emails per day), constantly being plugged in (we check our cell phones on average 150 times a day – which is every 4 min of our waking hours) and with around 295 decisions to make every day, creating space can be difficult. Since decision-making energy is a finite resource, he says that’s just too many decisions.
So he presents another solution with a decision-making quadrant.
“Our busyness is getting in the way of our happiness, and this is a way out. When we get rid of the dings and pings in our life, we finally make space for that which really matters.”
Automate. What in your life can you automate? Some suggestions would be to have a go-to uniform or outfit; converting dinner leftovers to next day lunches so you don’t have to make any additional decisions in that area.
Regulate. What can you regulate? Pasricha uses email in this example. If possible he recommends restrict checking email to two hours daily so that you can work on projects uninterrupted. He’s also reserved one day a month to focus on home-related projects.
Effectuate. What can you just get done? This category includes the important things that have to be done. I.e. pick children up from daycare or go grocery shopping. Just get them done and move on.
Debate. Give the most important aspects the most time. “When you automate, regulate and effectuate your life, you create space for the things that really matter,” says Pasricha, i.e. the long-term project you want to present to your boss or a big trip you are planning with your spouse. Training for a marathon. Choosing a school for your children. These are important, and require time, they fit in the debate box.
Happiness need not be a fleeting or elusive feeling
“Optimism is not a personality construct; it can be learned,” says Dr. Di Giulio. “It requires a reframing of stress as a challenge, rather than a threat. Most importantly, remind yourself that success is not tied to goal achievements; they are on the opposite side of success. By carving out a few minutes a day to be grateful, engage in a random act of kindness, taking note of things for which you are grateful rather than noting perceived negatives, and letting go of things that are not within your control, you can rewire your brain to be happy.”
This post includes excerpts from Neil Pasricha’s new book The Happiness Equation, which began as a letter to his unborn child on how to live a happy life. Pasricha is Director of The Institute for Global Happiness and a “Top 10” Most Inspiring TED Speaker.