![]() ![]() ![]() Find a way to be grateful, and you’re happier. This can create a mental habit of gratitude that you can use other times in your day, when you’re focused on the things you don’t like or have - when you feel this, think about something you do have, that you love. We didn’t invent this, but it serves as at least one time in your day when you focus on what you’re grateful for. Eva & I started a daily evening ritual, at about 7pm each day, where we take a moment to tell each other three good things about our day. So what habits make you happy? Try doing these on a daily basis, and see if you get the same results: If you incorporate them into your life on a regular basis (make them into habits), you’ll be happier regularly.Īnd those might seem to be small realizations, but actually they’re huge.A handful of activities can actually make you happy.Since then I’ve experimented with a number of habits and have found a couple things to be true: My mindset shifted from the things I didn’t like or didn’t have, to the things I was really happy I had. This list was magical because I went from feeling a bit depressed about everything, and hopeless and helpless, to much happier. Amazingly, there were a lot of things on the list, from things about my wife, kids, relatives, and friends, to things about my job, about nature around me, about my life. It was a list of the things I was grateful for. I make a lot of lists - it’s one of my favorite habits - but this list seemed to have a magical power. I felt like I couldn’t change any of that. It was because I was unhappy with myself, and that caused growing debt problems, unhappiness with my job, health problems and more. It wasn’t because I hated the people in my life - I had a lovely wife, great kids, other wonderful family members and friends. I remember being unhappy most days, at one point in my life. I’m not one who believes you can be happy all the time, but I have learned you can be happy much of the time.Īnd that’s not something that depends on how your day is going or how others treat you - it depends on what you do on a regular basis. It comes from your own actions.’ ~Dalai Lama If you’re interested in any of the scientific background on the app, I’m happy to share both specific take-home messages and data.Īs featured on psychescircuitry.‘Happiness is not something ready made. I love using it on the NYC subways, and it’s truly “snackable” in that using it a few minutes at a time reaps benefits. But building new habits takes some practice, so we recommend spending time with it every week. You can reduce your stress and anxiety in as little as one sitting, and the more you play, the more you strengthen well-being and vaccinate yourself against the negative effects of stress.Įssentially, the app works by helping people build new habits of paying attention to the world. Personal Zen helps to short-circuit these habits and frees you up to develop a more flexible and positive focus. These habits of attention reduce our ability to cope effectively with stress and can create a vicious cycle of anxiety. Here’s how it works (as I wrote in the App Store): When we get anxious or stressed, we pay too much attention to the negatives and have less ability to see the positives in life. Because stress reduction is key to wellness, that’s where I’m starting with Personal Zen. As we increasingly curate our own emotional and mental wellness, I think it’s crucial that we have scientifically-supported options to chose among. My larger goal is to develop a suite of mobile games for health based on sound scientific principles. So please try it and let me know what you think (either via this blog or the app, which has a “send feedback” button in the menu). Yet, as a game, it’s a beta version and our goal is to get any and all feedback to make it more fun, user-friendly, and effective. Research from my lab supports its efficacy to prevent and reduce stress and anxiety. To follow up on my posts about gamifying mental health, I’m excited to announce that Personal Zen, my science-based (but still fun) stress-reduction game, is ready to share with the world! It’s free in the App Store, so please download it and check it out.
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