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Joy

Harvard expert shares the 'one trait' the happiest people have at a young age

One trait can create a lifetime of happiness.

via Canva/Photos

Teens having a good time volunteering.

In 1938, Harvard researchers embarked on a decades-long study to discover what makes people happy. They followed 724 people from around the globe and had them fill out detailed questions about their lives every two years. The study yielded many incredible insights into how people can live lives filled with joy and happiness.

Recently, the study’s director, Robert Waldinger, MD, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, shared some of the big lessons from the study on the “A Bit of Optimism” podcast hosted by Simon Sinek. At the show's beginning, Sinek asked Waldinger what happy people know at a very young age.

“A lot of them care about making a difference in the world, and they care about the world,” Waldinger said. “And the people who stay with that, who they may not be the same purpose through their lives, but the people who stay with that aspiration, I think staying engaged in life and I think that's what they get right.”

happiness, harvard happiness, robert waldingerSome young people joining a cause.via Canva/Photos

Waldinger added that people can find this happiness as they age by adopting a “generativity” mindset. Generativity was a concept created by groundbreaking psychologist Erik Erikson. In 1950, Erikson postulated that in middle age, people should develop "a concern for establishing and guiding the next generation." If not, they are in a stage of stagnation that involves being self-involved and disinterested in productivity or improving the self.

“One of his stages he called generativity versus stagnation, and the generativity was wanting to be part of something bigger than yourself realizing, ‘Oh, I want to help raise kids, or I want to mentor people.’ Or, ‘I want to do something that's not just me.’ He said that [those people] become the people who are going to look back on their lives with less regret with more of a sense that ‘my life was good enough,’” Waldinger continued.

However, Waldinger stresses that it has become harder for people to be involved in things greater than themselves. This stems from societal changes that have de-emphasized the importance of long-term employment with the same company, organized religion, and community organizations. He claims that the digital revolution has accelerated the increase in social isolation.

happiness, harvard happiness, robert waldingerA middle-aged man mentoring people. via Canva/Photos

“And what he's found is that it's gotten worse since the digital revolution,” Waldinger says. “The digital revolution has accelerated the trends that were already there, and so, the path of least resistance now is social isolation, greater and greater isolation, and we’re all kinda desperate for what do about it and how to feel like we belong.”

The big takeaway from Waldinger’s interview is that when people want to be a part of something bigger than themselves in their youth, they tend to feel that way throughout the rest of their lives. This helps foster a life of meaning that is also filled with one of the most essential contributors to happiness: close relationships. Wouldn’t it be great if people took this valuable insight and made it a big part of how we nurture children? If the key to happiness is to be a part of something greater than yourself, let’s teach our kids to find that passion so it can carry them through their lives.

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Joy

5 things that made us smile this week

The animal edition!

True

Been stressed this week? Who hasn’t. That’s why we’re bringing you the latest in good news—five animal-themed stories we guarantee will put a smile on your face.

This week, we’re celebrating:

The most entertaining animal photos you've ever seen

Jason Moore/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2023 and © Tzahi Finkelstein /Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2023

Need a laugh? How about a dozen laughs? Look no further than the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, a competition started in 2015 that focuses on the lighter side of wildlife photography. More than 1,800 photographers from around the world submitted photos, and the finalists—from a kangaroo playing air guitar to an arguing set of greenfinches—will absolutely make your day.

Healthier, happier, rescued pets

Hundreds of thousands of pets are relinquished to shelters each year, and many vulnerable pet populations—such as disabled and elderly dogs—can be hard to place in loving homes. Fortunately, Subaru has sponsored the rescue, rehabilitation, and adoption of more than 134,000 of these pets through the Subaru Share the Love® Event. As the largest corporate donor to the ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®), Subaru and its retailers are donating a minimum of $300 to charities like the ASPCA for every new Subaru purchase or lease during the 2024 Subaru Share the Love Event, happening now through January 2, 2025.

This animal-centric (and adorable) creative writing assignment 

Amy McKinney, a third-grade teacher in Pennsylvania, recently had a genius idea for teaching her class persuasive writing: Rather than have them formulate an argument for an imagined audience (boring!), McKinney partnered with a local animal shelter and had her class write persuasive descriptions of each animal to help them get adopted. Each student chose a pet to write about and sent their essays to the shelter to display and post to the shelter’s social media channels. Student engagement was “tremendous,” said McKinney, and there’s no doubt these persuasive paragraphs made a huge difference in these shelter pet’s lives. Adorable.

The dog who saved his owner with CPR (yes, really)

Dogs have made the news for saving humans before, but have you ever heard of a dog performing CPR? That’s exactly what Bear, a Siberian Husky-Golden Retriever mix, did in 2022 when he found his owner unconscious on the floor after suffering a major heart attack. Not only was Bear able to quickly call for help, he even jumped on his owner’s chest repeatedly while someone else called the paramedics. Thanks to Bear, the owner survived what should have been a fatal heart attack. Now that deserves some head scritches.

Bee populations have reached a record high

macro shot photography of beePhoto by Jenna Lee on Unsplash

Honeybees are essential to the planet, as they pollinate over 130 types of fruits, vegetables, and nuts. For years, honeybee numbers have been in decline—but happily, that’s starting to change. The US has added almost a million bee colonies in the past five years, with more than 3.8 million honeybees in total.

For more ways to smile, check out how Subaru is sharing the love this holiday season.

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Health

Simple visualization exercise is proven to help people's long-term happiness

Seeing things clearly can make all the difference.

via Canva/Photos

A woman looking towards the future.

Often, our biggest mistakes come when we make decisions based on how we feel in the present instead of thoroughly considering their effect on the future. The amount of money we save, the food we eat, the relationships we choose to nurture and our career decisions will all have a significant effect on our futures. The problem is that connecting with someone so distant can be challenging. The good news is that some prominent researchers have figured out how we can connect with our older selves to improve our happiness in the present and the future.

Hal Hershfeld, a marketing, behavioral decision-making, and psychology professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management, found that when we think about our future selves, our brains light up like we are thinking about a stranger. That’s a problem because most people are more apt to look out for themselves than strangers. According to Hershefeld, uncertainty is the big reason we can’t relate to our future selves because the future looks blurry. We don't know where we'll be, how we'll look, what we'll be doing, or what the state of the world will be.

visualization, happiness, hal hershfeldA woman thinking about the future.via Canva/Photos

How to be happy in the future

So, the key is to start building a relationship with our future self by creating a vivid image in our minds and hearts about what our lives will be like in 20 years. When we connect with that person, we’ll be much more likely to treat them well by saving a little more, hitting the gym more often and fixing today’s problems before they worsen.

Yale professor Laurie Santos, teacher of its most popular class, the Good Life, took a page from Hershfeld's research and regularly talks to her future self.

How to connect to your future self

“We’re navigating what our future self might want in the present moment, but we often perspective-take on our future self quite poorly,” Santos told Fast Company. “Hal’s research has found that just seeing a picture of your future self can bring [the idea] more into view. It helps with that process of trying to figure out what [the future you] would really want.”

“It’s profound,” she continues. “I really recommend people try it out. You see an image of yourself as much older and it’s like: I don’t want her to be unhealthy or have diabetes. I don’t want her knees to be screwed up. It really did change the amount that I worked out and how I was eating. It made it easier to make choices that would help my future self, rather than screw her over.”

visualization, happiness, hal hershfeldA woman on the couch thnking about the future.via Canva/Photos

Why you should talk to your future self

Hershfeld also believes in having regular conversations with your future self. “Make that more a part of your life so that when you’re making big decisions that are going to have impacts and consequences later on, you are thinking about that push and pull between your present and future selves,” he told UCLA Newsroom.

The professor also recommends that people write a letter to — and then from — their future self. This will help you visualize the future more vividly. “I also talk about trying to figure out what parts of your life are going off course, then creating pre-commitments to a certain course of action,” he continues.

Ultimately, it’s hard to plan for a future or have strong feelings about its direction if we don’t have a clear idea or image of what it'll look like. Our lives are our greatest endeavor, and in the same way someone might visualize an art project or what a thriving business looks like, we can do the same with our lives. The clearer the picture we have of our future today, the greater the chance we will one day get to live it.

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Humor

Stressed out students pretended to laugh for 40 minutes straight. Here's what happened.

Can you really fake it 'til you make it?

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

Every had someone tell you "turn that frown upside down!" Obnoxious advice? Maybe. But they might just be onto something. By now, most of us have heard of forced smiling — or the act of turning your mouth up at the ends into something like a smile — and how it can potentially turn your mood around by tricking your body into, essentially, think it's happy.

Research has shown that smiling more, even when you have to fake it, can boost your mood, lower stress, bring your heart rate down, and give your immune system a boost. But did you know some people say the same is actually true of laughing?

Reseachers wanted to test the positive effects of laughter, so they found some of the most stressed out people they could manage: Students.

Researchers from Istanbul University-Cerrahpaşa chose nursing students who exhibited high levels of stress due to their coursework and put them through a rigorous laughing protocol. Nursing is notoriously one of the most stressful college majors.

First, students were surveyed on measures like their self-reported stress levels, the academic self-efficacy or confidence, and overall well-being.

For the test group, a group of the students took a 40-minute laughter yoga courses once per week, for five weeks.

Laughter yoga is a unique sort of yoga class that has four components, according to the study. First, a playful clapping warm-up. Next, deep breathing. Third, silly games, and fourth, laughter exercises. The idea is to force yourself to laugh — even literally saying the words ha-ha over and over — until eventually you start genuinely laughing and smiling.


two women laughing and smiling Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

Compared to the control group, the intervention group saw significant improvements in overall well-being and perceived stress levels after five weeks of laughing yoga.

The findings from the new study line up with previous research about laughing yoga and forced laughter. Previous studies have shown laughing yoga, specifically, to be beneficial for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy as well as the elderly. This aligns with common sense, too. You can only say hahaha so many times before you start genuinely cracking up, and you're bound to feel fantastic afterwards.

So far, the science says that regular forced laughter is a fun, cost-effective, and non-medicinal way of lowering stress and increasing well-being. Plus, if you try out laughing yoga, you get to tell people that you're going to yoga class when you're really just goofing around! Win-win.

Are there potential downsides to forced laughter or smiling?

smiling girl in pink and white stripe shirt Photo by Freddy Mishiki on Unsplash

Forced laughter, especially in social settings, is a heavily studied phenomenon. Did you know there are four types of forced laughter, depending on the reason and motivation behind each one? Studies show that forcing a laugh can be a mixed bag.

Intimacy maintenance laughter, or "a forced laugh used to brighten the atmosphere in a situation or to maintain or improve one’s level of intimacy with another," unsurprisingly has positive ramifications on our mental health. But expression control laughter, where we fake a laugh to hide a negative emotion, can have the opposite effect.

It definitely begs the question — could forcing ourself to laugh or smile when we're stressed actually be harmful? So far, there's not much data to suggest a downside to something as gentle and fun as laughing yoga, but there is research that shows when sad people try to smile more it makes them feel worse in certain circumstances.

And some people, whether it's supported by data or not, just can't get on board with trying to "trick" our minds and bodies into feeling a certain way. It's definitely not a concept that would sit well with truly dedicated yogis.

Finally, when it comes to the stories we've all heard about forced smiling, it turns out the positive effects are probably a lot smaller than we've been led to believe anyway. Even the recent study on laughing yoga for stressed out nursing students, while definitely demonstrating an improvement in well-being, fell short of the massive effect you might expect.

The takeaway? Forcing a laugh or a smile can be a good pick me up, and a solid everyday habit, like meditating. But it's best viewed as a short term solution and probably isn't going to cure your stress and anxiety all on its own.

The ideal would be if you can find a way to genuinely smile and laugh every day. Talk to a friend, watch a funny movie, joke around with the kids.

But if you have to start with a forced smile or laugh, it's better than nothing. Stress levels have been rising in America for years, so at this point, we'll take anything we can get!

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