Amazing Things I Learned From Studying Happiness

In this post, I listed the amazing things I learned from studying happiness thru “The Science of Well-Being“, one of the free courses I took while in quarantine.

Why Study Happiness?

I first got wind of the course from a social media post. True enough, amazing things come to surface when you have space for it. This happened after my social media feed cleanse where I decided to get rid of fake news, one-sided news coverage and people who cancel other people, as told on my first post. (All the more reasons to unfollow what’s giving you #negavibes.) It was free and I had the time, so what’s there to lose?

I enrolled myself and took a dive. I was curious. Why are a lot of people sad if you can just study how to be happy? I wanted to know if there was a happy pill all along.

Amazing Things To Do To Be A Happier Person

This was the first and so far only course I took from Coursera. In addition, it was being offered by Yale University. It was designed to be completed in 10 weeks, where you need around 1-3 hours for the videos/readings weekly. If you’re enthusiastic enough, you can move on to the lessons for the next weeks and complete the course in less than 10 weeks.

I completed mine in 10 weeks. And if I was to summarize what I learned, it would simply be one of the first things our instructor said, “Knowing is not half the battle.”

Knowing is not half the battle.

– Laurie Santos, The Science of Well-Being

People become happy not because they simply know how, but because they do certain things that contribute to their well-being.

1. Be grateful.

Gratitude is the enemy of envy and the friend of contentment. Being thankful makes us feel blessed and more satisfied with our lives. I have never met a happy person who was entitled. Remember, always count your blessings.

To know how gratitude makes you happier, read my post “Five Ways Practicing Gratitude Will Make You Happier“.

2. Stop comparing.

Every person is unique, every event is unique.

Stop comparing your life to another person. Stop comparing your experience to another person’s experience. Enjoy what you have while you have it.

More practical advice, don’t compare your life to someone’s social media timeline. Life’s beautiful. It’s just different from one person to another, and can’t be represented enough by social media.

3. Invest in experiences, not things.

Happiness from our shopping hauls are fleeting and quickly fades. Meanwhile, experiences become part of our identity and in general, more memorable.

4. Savour good memories.

Savouring is the ability to notice, appreciate and intensify the positive experiences in our life.

To do it, just spend a few minutes thinking about a happy or pleasant event, and realize why it makes you happy. This event may be something you liked in the past (hang out with friends last month), something you are enjoying now (the coffee you’re sipping or the beautiful road you’re driving in), or something you’re looking forward to in the future (a vacation you’re planning).

5. Don’t be materialistic.

Stuffocation is real. Materialistic tendencies are linked to lower life satisfaction, psychologists find. Accumulation of possessions may provide a partial fix or a shopper’s high, but it does not make us happy in the end.

6. Share happiness.

Happiness is intensified with sharing. Share whatever makes you happy to other people and be happy for what other people share as well. After all, happiness are one of those things you can give without decreasing what you have.

7. Be kind.

Kindness makes us feel better, both the doer and the receiver. It connects us to people and improves our relationships. Doing random acts of kindness are one of the things we can do to make ourselves happier, and that is backed by science.

8. Live in the moment.

A wandering mind is an unhappy mind. Thinking too much of what’s not there is a surefire way of not seeing the positive that’s already in front of you.

9. Sleep and exercise.

Yes, I know. Sleep and exercise are regulars on the “Health” talk but they are also important for happiness.

Sleeping well and exercising regularly both improve our mood, give us energy and increase our focus on things that make us happy.

10. Spend time wisely.

Being in control of our time, and not feeling that our life is just a long to-do list makes us happier. So, learn to say no to things you don’t like, so you can say “YES!” to those that you do.

11. Help yourself.

Design your space so that it makes it easier for you to do things that makes you happy. Surround yourself with happy people. Use your phone to capture happy events you can savor later on. Make your gratitude journal more visible. Shape your environment for success.

Let’s go!

Though the course helped me learn these things, it was only the beginning. Doing these in real life is what’s going to help us find the happiness that all of us are searching for.

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