Adventures in Cultivating Happiness - Part 2

Alrighty, here are happiness interventions 6-10 that we can practice to bring more joy into our lives.

6. Increase flow experiences - find activities that are challenging but not overwhelming and permit you to focus your attention; immerse yourself in that activity and develop a mastery of enjoyable activities. People are happier when they are doing rather than passively interacting i.e. we're happier when we're gardening or running than we are when watching TV. The activity has to be something interesting and engaging, something active, and something your know how to do and like to do. To pursue this as a happiness intervention, spend more time doing such an activity and do it more thoroughly. Some examples of flow experiences are cooking, yoga, mountain biking and solving problems.
7. Savor life's joys - this is more in the moment than expressing gratitude, which is after the fact. Practice relishing life's ordinary experiences and spend time each day savoring for several minutes some aspect of your experience; consider how this moment is unique and will not last. Catch and savor little moments and observation. You can also reminisce about the past by identifying happy memories and thinking about them alone or with others, one example of this is scrapbooking. One caution on reminiscing, though, don't journal about happy events as this can take the happiness out of them.
8. Commit to goals - pick a couple of significant goals that are meaningful to you and devote time and effort to pursuing them. Think of goals that are bigger than just yourself. An exercise to get started on this is to think about how you want to be remembered after you die. What do you want your obituary to say? This sounds a bit morbid, but it will give you some direction and a connection with a goal greater than yourself.
9. Take care of your body and laugh/smile more - get enough sleep (we need about 8 hours a night), begin an exercise regimen (make appointments to exercise), and be laugh ready. The speaker recommended setting an alarm for 8.5 hours before you want to wake up. When it goes off, you have 30 minutes to get ready for bed.
10. Mindfulness mediation - this is a combination of savoring life's joys with flow experience. Practice relaxing, breathing, and focusing on the present.

So there you have it, all my learnings from the happiness session. Which intervention will you use first to bring more joy into your life? What do you already do?

Mike and I share one thing we're thankful for and one thing we're looking forward to every night before we go to sleep; this is a ritual that I really enjoy! I used to practice weekly acts of kindness, but since the wedding, I haven't kept up with it. I think I will get back into it soon. I am still trying to decide which intervention I want to really focus on right now. I hope that I'll eventually be able to move through all 10 and make them all into habits.

Photo by Jenn from a hike we took with my parents during their visit.