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Groves, P. (2016). Mindfulness in psychiatry–where are we now? BJPsych Bull. 40, 289–292. doi: 10.1192/pb.bp.115.052993 Happy people have a positive influence on others and encourage them to seek happiness as well, which can act as reinforcement. Expecting to do a lot of deep thinking was positively related to meaningfulness, but negatively with happiness;
A recent study explored the association between happiness and mental health in college students and found that a relatively strong, positive correlation connects the two factors (Shafiq, Nas, Ansar, Nasrulla, Bushra, & Imam, 2015). This correlation held, even when gender and socio-demographic variables were added to the mix.
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Lyubomirsky, S. (2001). Why are some people happier than others? The role of cognitive and motivational processes in well-being. American Psychologist, 56(3), 239. By the time you finish with all that, you already feel exhausted. You sit behind the kitchen table, and you either: Happiness can be either feeling or showing, meaning that happiness is not necessarily an internal or external experience, but can be both. The association between the two makes sense, and it’s common to hear the two words used interchangeably outside of the literature; however, when it comes to the science of positive psychology, it is important to make a distinction between the two.
You might be wondering why happiness is considered such an important aspect of life, as there are many components of a meaningful life. Call me selfish, but I wake up at 5 a.m. on most mornings with the only reason to attend to my needs first before attending to someone else’s needs. I simply must (yes, that’s the right word) take some alone-time in the early hours of the day, do what I feel is self-nourishing and welcome the day feeling content. Realize you had to journal, but the journal is somewhere in your bedroom/living room/far-far-far away from you. Hence, no happiness journaling this morning. Kaufman, S. B. (2016). The differences between happiness and meaning in life. Scientific American. Retrieved from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-differences-between-happiness-and-meaning-in-life/
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Focus on the positive things: By making lists of good things in our lives or qualities that we like in ourselves, we can help undo some of our negative emotions.