10 days to drastically improve your happiness- Day 1

A little over three years ago Zara (my better half) and I went on our first date.

It went a little like this…

Chris and Zara go to a pub…Chris starts to show off playing ball games in the beer garden. Chris (accidentally) Knocks out Zaras front tooth with a cricket ball- True story.

What’s fascinating about this absolute debarkle of a first date is not how monumentally I f**ked it up, but her reaction. There were no tears, anger or hate. She just put the tooth in her pocket, laughed it off and ordered another drink. WTF?? Safe to say I was in Love.

A couple of months later I met Zara’s parents (I had actually met her dad before…at a stag do…in Barcelona…that we don’t talk about) and realised this glass half full attitude ran throughout the whole family.

In fact, a lot of you will be familiar with Zara’s mum, Shirley. Without doubt the happiest person I know. She is constantly happy.. In fact I have never not seen a smile on her face. Even when I woke her up drunk at 4am trying to get into her house. A true rarity.

Anyway, what’s all this got to do with your happiness? This seemingly nonchalant reaction to embarrassing and painful incidents got me wondering why some people seem to breeze through life seeing nothing but positives, whereas others have a meltdown if they step in a puddle or spill their frappacino.

Are some people born happy? It certainly appears that way. Is our level of happiness genetically predetermined? or Is there anything we can do to improve it? If so, surely everyone needs to know how. After all, isn’t happiness the reason we do EVERYTHING?

It has been suggested that around 50% of our happiness is set at birth. In other words we have a happiness set point. This goes some way to explaining the people we all know that are constantly happy or sad…you know the ones 🙂

Upon reading this 3 years ago, I decided to write a blog on how to boost the remaining 50% we can change. It’s safe to say I got a bit too into it. The advice here is the culmination of 24 books on the subject, over 50 hours of talks and seminars, and a postgraduate course in happiness and fulfilment from the university on pensylvania.

Yea, I went right down that happy little rabbit hole…

It turns out, that happiness is a complicated little shit. It wears many masks. Trying to define it is well beyond the scope of this article. In fact, it has been well beyond even the most versed philosphers and psychologists for centuries. Many of which have been left bruised by the task of solving the ‘happiness’ riddle.

The aim of this blog series is not to define or package happiness but to show you some techniques and routines that may help you cultivate that ‘feeling’ of wellbeing and fulfilment throughout your day to day business.

Happiness is, after all, the one common goal we all have. In fact, it’s the reasoning behind pretty much every choice we make. Without knowing it, one way or anther we chose to complete even the most mundane and boring tasks for some overriding feeling of well being, all to give us the freedom to be happy, whether it’s now or when we can enjoy the fruits of our labor in the future.

Philosopher Blaise Pascal was particularly clear on the point:

“All men seek happiness; this is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. This is the motive of every action, of every man.”

From both my own experience, the content I have read and the real experts I have liaised with, I have narrowed it down to 10 important teachniques that I will blog about over the next few weeks.

Exercise

Might as well get this one out of the way first. The fact is, everyone can drastically boost their mood (and performance) from getting a sweat on.

We are meant to move, that’s how we have evolved. Sitting at a desk is a relatively new phenomenon for us Homo Sapiens. Not only does this sedentary lifestyle make it far easier to pile on body fat, it also messes up our brain chemistry.. in a pretty substantial way.

Unfortunately our level of happiness is largely determined by this brain chemistry- which has now been pickled, so to speak.

Regular exercise goes someway toward improving your brain chemistry cocktail. The reason we feel pretty awesome after training is primarily down to two functions performed by the brain in response to exercise;

Endorphin release. Endorphins are released by the brain (mainly from the pituitary gland) in response to exercise, and function as an analgesic by minimizing discomfort and blocking feelings of pain. Similar to the effects of morphine they also elicit feelings of euphoria. This ‘Euphoric’ feeling is often accompanied by a positive and energising outlook on life.
The release of a protein called BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor). BDNF is released by the brain to protect us from perceived stress (in this case the stressor is exercise). BDNF functions to protect and reset the memory neurons of the brain, resulting in a feeling of calmness along with a boost in your mood.

The interesting finding is that you don’t need to do a huge amount of training per session to achieve this ‘high’. The first 20 minutes or so seem to get the best result (especially for beginners). So don’t feel like you have to train for hours on end each day.

From experience, we know that the hardest part is actually getting started. After all, can you think of a time you actually regretted working out? Me neither.

For us exercise nuts, a life without training seems unthinkable, but for those stuck in a rut with little motivation, just try adding a simple 10-20 minute workout like this to your morning routine. Leave your kit by your bed the night before and set your alarm 20 minutes early. I guarantee it will completely change your mental state for the rest of the day.

Day 1 Action point