The Power of Happiness

Investing in your own happiness should be a priority for everyone. Having a positive mindset leads to you being overall happier, but there are so many other effects on your body. The benefits of expressing happiness and positivity can be either physical or mental.

Benefits:

Mentally, your creativity and problem-solving skills will improve over time since by having a positive and open mind, you aren’t letting negativity block your thoughts so you will be able to do a lot more creative thinking. Happiness has also been shown to help combat stress, increase your productivity, and help you become a more resilient person.

Physically, the benefits are overall being a healthier person since you will have better heart health, sleep better, have a stronger immune system, reduce stress, and studies have shown that those who are overall happier/positive have a reduced risk of stroke. These are a lot of things that can change in your life, but how do you start the change in your lifestyle.

How to focus on Happiness:

Just saying you’ll be a happier person seems like it’s easy to do, but sometimes it can be hard to focus on the good over the bad in life. Especially since those bad things feel more dramatic and make it hard to focus on all the positives. This is where you can start the change.

Over the next couple of days, try to focus on everything good that happens. It doesn’t matter how small it is, just acknowledge that it was a good thing and continue on your day. Soon you’ll start to realize that there is so much that happens every day that you can be happy about, but I’m not saying to ignore the bad things. Of course, bad things happen to everyone every day, but the difference between so many people is that some fixate on the negatives (even when it’s something they can’t control) and forget about the good in their lives, and others focus on the positives and don’t let the bad things control their mindset.

Using a gratitude journal is also a good way to put this into writing. Writing out some things you are grateful for each day allows you to reflect on the positives in your life and you can solidify why this is something that made you feel happy. Over time, noticing what you are grateful for will become a normal part of your life.

Exercising is another great way to be a happier person since it releases endorphins in your body and this hormone directly impacts your mood. Endorphins are also referred to as the “feel-good” chemicals in our body since they can be a pain reliever and they boost your happiness.

Click the links below to learn more about the impacts of positivity!

https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-happiness/

https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/how-happiness-impacts-health

This article was developed by Sarah Dietrich, an Illinois State University student working as an Intern for the Always Unstoppable Campaign.

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