What the researchers say about happiness

1. Researchers found that the majority of the subjects they studied were not able to identify anything they had done recently to try to increase their happiness or life satisfaction.

Happiness can be increased by planning to be happy. Have you identified what makes you happy? This list helps you do so!
2. Researchers who studied peoples level of interest in and attention to strangers found that people who were sad spent 35 percent more time focusing on strangers who looked unhappy than on strangers who looked happy.

If you are unhappy, you tend to notice people who are unhappy too. Looking at happy people might you feel happier!

3. People become about 1 percent more likely to hold a positive image of their bodies with each year of age after forty.

As you get older, you grow more confident or more accepting of your less than perfect body. This removes a major source of unhappiness. It also help that your friends are going through the same phase and physical appearance becomes less of a competition point.

4. Those who strongly identified with their current age became 2 percent less satisfied with their lives with every passing year, while those who infrequently thought in terms of their age showed no such negative trend.

Caring less about age brings more happiness?

5. Those over fifty who showed a high degree of resistance to change were 26 percent less likely to feel optimistic about their futures.

You need to get a change in direction if you are to feel that your life is going somewhere.

6. People in their sixties and beyond who had a long-term plan to accomplish something were 31 percent more likely to report that they enjoyed their lives.

With goal setting, you get a sense of satisfaction and a feeling that you are actually using your life effectively as there is a benchmark of your progress.

7. Those who considered themselves a success were 25 percent less likely to feel anxious about their lives, 14 percent less likely to be selfish, and 45 percent more likely to say they enjoyed their lives.

Everyone’s definition of success is different. What is yours?

8. Recent retirees were 15 percent more likely to be happy than those of a similar age who continued working full-time, but within six months retirees happiness fell behind that of those of a similar age who were working if the retirees did not have an active lifestyle.

Again, everyone needs something to do to feel their self worth. Without work, how do you ascertain your self work? Volunteering or part time jobs certainly help. Having an active online lifestyle does help too.

9. Those who said they regularly took notice of something beautiful were 12 percent more likely to say they were satisfied with their lives.

This is really good. Why not start today. Change your desktop wallpaper to something is looks beautiful. Scenery usually helps.

10. Studies have shown that each additional enjoyable activity that people over fifty engage in per month increases their likelihood of life satisfaction by 2 percent.

Active body = active mind = happiness. It’s that simple. Happiness comes through action.