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Episode 3002:
Shawn Achor, a Harvard University alumnus and author of "The Happiness Advantage," sheds light on the power of positive psychology in managing chronic illnesses like multiple sclerosis. He emphasizes how small, daily practices like sending appreciative emails, smiling, expressing gratitude, focusing on positive experiences, engaging in fun activities, and meditating can significantly boost well-being, optimism, and life satisfaction, even in challenging circumstances.
Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.livehappy.com//blogs/happiness-advantage/achieving-happiness-despite-everyday-challenges
Quotes to ponder:
"Social connection can be as predictive of your longevity as high blood pressure, obesity, and smoking."
"Our brains can't tell much difference between visualization and actual experience, by rehashing a high point in the day you double the effect of that positive experience."
"Happiness is a choice, even in the midst of a chronic illness."
Episode references:
Shawn Achor's TED Talk: Link to TED Talk
The Happiness Advantage: Link to Book
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[00:00:00] This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 3002, Achieving Happiness Despite Everyday Challenges by Shawn Achor with LiveHappy.com and Re-Narrate or Justin Malik, the guy that reads blogs or articles to you every single day of the year, including weekends and holidays.
[00:00:17] And with that, let's get right to our next post as we optimize your life. Achieving Happiness Despite Everyday Challenges by Shawn Achor with LiveHappy.com Learning that you or a loved one has a chronic illness is news you never want to hear.
[00:00:38] The knowledge of such information is often accompanied by feelings of fear, anger and depression, which can cause debilitating unnecessary stress. By understanding more about your condition and adopting a positive outlook on life, you can set the course for a better future.
[00:00:55] During my time at Harvard University I focused on positive psychology, the scientific study of what makes people thrive. Research in the field has found a strong connection between an individual's mindset, social support system and well-being.
[00:01:09] Recently I have been able to leverage the research behind positive psychology to help people living with multiple sclerosis. Through a program called Everyday Matter sponsored by the National MS Society in Genzyme,
[00:01:20] I am working to provide tools and resources related to positive psychology, wellness, work and education, relationships, family and empowerment to the community. As a chronic, unpredictable and often disabling disease, the power of positivity is extremely important in managing MS.
[00:01:40] In my book The Happiness Advantage, I've outlined the advice I've been giving to Everyday Matter's participants into simple tips that can help those not only with a chronic disease such as MS, but everyone in achieving a more empowered existence.
[00:01:54] You can see my TED talk to hear more about this research which I'll describe in brief. Send an appreciative email.
[00:02:01] When you open your inbox for the first time each day, take two minutes to send an email to someone in your social support network, family member, friend, teacher, coach, co-worker, praising him or her, or thanking that person.
[00:02:15] Studies from Harvard show this is so powerful that there's actually a correlation between happiness and social connection of 0.7 significantly higher than the correlation between smoking and cancer. Social connection can be as predictive of your longevity as high blood pressure, obesity and smoking. Smiling is contagious.
[00:02:36] Through a study involving 11,000 hospital employees over 6 months, it was found that smiling, making eye contact and simply saying hello within 10 feet of another person, increased the hospital's patient satisfaction, the doctor's job satisfaction, and the likelihood to refer the hospital to others.
[00:02:54] This is because of the way neurons function in our body, lighting up at the receipt of a friendly gesture, telling our brains to smile when someone smiles at us and spreading the joy all around. Give thanks.
[00:03:07] Think of three things you are grateful for before you go to sleep for 21 days. We did a study on this and at the end of the study, participants were significantly more optimistic. And further, the change wasn't temporary. The positive mindset lasted even 6 months later.
[00:03:24] In added effect, increasing your optimism can improve your productive energy by 31%. Never give up on the good times. Take 2 minutes every day to write down every detail you can remember about one positive experience that occurred over the past 24 hours.
[00:03:42] As our brains can't tell much difference between visualization and actual experience, by rehashing a high point in the day, you double the effect of that positive experience. Overall, this leads to greater life satisfaction and meaning.
[00:03:56] Studies have shown that women who wrote about positive experiences were 40% more likely to live to age 94 than their negative peers. Have fun. By adding 15 minutes of a fun, mindful activity to your day like gardening, going on a walk or working out,
[00:04:14] your brain learns to believe that behaviors matter, the core of optimism. In fact, in one study, researchers took people suffering from depression and had half taken antidepressant and half do light aerobic exercise in order to train their brain to believe that their behavior matters.
[00:04:32] While there were equal drops in depression for the first few months, the group that added a habit of exercise had significantly lower chance of relapse back into depression 10 months later. Habits like the Fun 15 help your brain record a victory which creates a cascade of success
[00:04:48] where individuals start creating a constellation of positive habits around them, decreasing the likelihood for depression and despair. Meditate. Take two minutes each day to stop what you're doing and watch your breath go in and out. This exercise trains your brain to do one thing at a time.
[00:05:06] Research suggests that a multitasking brain has a harder time falling asleep, is more stressed, and has lower energy. By taking time to relax, the brain has a chance to undo the negative effects of trying to manage everything at once.
[00:05:21] As part of Everyday Matters, we're following five people through personal text, video and photo journals as they learn to apply these tips in their everyday lives. To see how they're doing, comment on their journeys, to offer your own gratitude,
[00:05:34] or to access resources about positive psychology, you can visit everydaymsmatters.org. Happiness is a choice even in the midst of a chronic illness. By taking small steps, large goals can be accomplished, enhancing the outlook and overall well-being of those living with or affected by a life-altering disease.
[00:05:54] You just listened to the post titled, Achieving Happiness Despite Everyday Challenges by Sean Acor with LiveHappy.com Taking it as Sean, he's regularly mentioned by my brother on Optimal Health Daily, even though he's not a featured author just because he has a lot of great research on happiness
[00:06:15] and Dr. Neal is a fan of his work. He spent over a decade at Harvard University where he won numerous distinguished teaching awards for his work. In 2006, he was head teaching fellow for Positive Psychology, the most popular course at Harvard at the time.
[00:06:30] When the global economy collapsed in 2008, Sean was immediately called in as an expert by the world's largest banks to help restart forward progress. And as you heard in this post, he has a TED Talk that's worth checking out.
[00:06:43] You can search for the happy secret to better work on YouTube or on the internet anywhere to find it. And his books are also worth checking out. They're very highly reviewed. He even has children's books. So if you have little ones at home, I'd recommend checking those out
[00:06:58] since they promote basically what we talk about here on the show but for the kids at home. And if you find benefit in this material, getting them started at an early age would benefit them as well.
[00:07:09] I mean, they could always listen to this show with you but obviously this isn't geared towards kids. But anyway, thank you to Sean and the team at LiveHappy.com for this post.
[00:07:19] Thank you for being here listening through to the end. Have a great rest of your day and be back tomorrow as usual. Where optimal life awaits.