I JUST READ A UNIVERSITY STUDY ABOUT HAPPINESS. A very respected group of researchers confirmed, simply saying “Thank you,” raises one’s mood as much as 25%. I’m not sure about the experimental design or how they figured all this out, those rigorous academic days are way in my past, thankfully.
I would rather go with the belief that one has control over their state of happiness. I am a strong believer that you can think yourself happy. I’m not saying that this is the cure for all our world’s maladies, or that you approach everything with some make-believe fantasy and huge set of blinders – those people are dimwits. Happiness comes from a deep appreciation of how fortunate one is and then expressing thanks to all who we interact with day in and day out; beginning or ending such greetings with a simple smile.
In my first book From the Hip & Heart, available at Amazon [https://goo.gl/Uecvh6]. My basic approach and story line was to look back at my life and recall happy times and lean on them as the building blocks to move me forward from a series of difficult personal setbacks – what setbacks aren’t personal? Through my efforts, I found deeper appreciation for the gifts I had been given; recalling my blessings seemed to produce a 25% uptick in my mood. Writing them down was the key.
So today, happy thoughts and saying thank you, plus two big martinis seem to do the trick for this humorist. Alcohol just can’t be condoned in NIH funded studies. How sad is that.