Monthly Archives: February 2009

Take a clean pen or pencil and put it in your mouth. Sideways. As far back as you can go, like a bit on a horse.

Now say something.

If you’re not laughing already, fear not. You’ve artificially induced a smile. Even though you might be feeling miserable, you’ve begun a fantastic process of feeling better.

You see, your brain can’t tell the difference between a real, authentic smile and a fake one. It reacts the same way to both. And the brain interprets the smile as something to be happy about and releases all the good chemicals that enhance well being. Now that all this happy juice is floating around, you actually DO start to feel better.

You can fake it til you make it. Give it a whirl.

In order to go anywhere, you really need to know your starting point.

Draw a line across a piece of paper. Put a mark in the middle of that line – this represents the neutral spot of happiness. Neither here nor there. Life’s fine, not great, not horrid.

To the left of this midpoint is the continuum of unhappiness – from the blues to full blown depression. To the right of this midpoint if the continuum of the good life. A range of things that make life worth living.

Where are you on this continuum? Are you an optimist by nature? Are you generally a happy person? Are you suffering from depression?

Happiness is a component of something called subjective well-being. Essentially, how happy you think you are is how happy you actually are. It’s subjective.

However, scientists have been able to concoct several different methods for accurately measuring happiness, optimism, strengths, and so forth and you can too. Measure your happiness with a variety of questionnaires at http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/default.aspx

Are you happy? If not, why not? What would make you happy?

If you’re having a hard time answering this question, you’re not alone.

How do I determine if I am happy or not? At point do I become happy? Is there a universal standard of happiness against which I must be measured? Am I happy relative to others and therefore how do I measure how happy they are?

None of this brain muddle is making me happy….

It is the wrong question. We must ask ourselves instead. How do we become happier?

Happiness is a lifelong pursuit and an ongoing process best thought of as a continuum rather than a finite point. Happiness is an unlimited resource and we must focus on ways of getting more of it.

So what does it mean to be happier?

Well, that’s another post altogether…