Effective ways to be happier....

Today's post: Thursday, 4-23-2009

Prudent optimism, a strong sense of purpose, an outgoing and friendly nature including liking most people and wishing them well, and laughter all tend to create good health and resilience.

Their opposites tend to cause disease and early death too.

Perhaps even more important today with all the bad news lately is that this is true in both good times and bad times.

In our last post on Tuesday, we covered those four things. But I didn’t have time to include a similar article from Early to Rise they published last Saturday, 4-18.

So it’s here in this post today. It makes similar points to our post last Tuesday. But you may find it easier to follow or use. And, even better, if you like it, it’s adapted from the author’s related book. So you can get even more info & tips if you like.

“This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com .”

“How to Stay Up When the Economy Is Down - With 5 Quick-Start Steps

By Marci Shimoff

"How can I be happy when the economy is tanking?" It's a question I hear a lot lately. It seems that as the financial picture becomes more depressed, so do we. That's why now, more than ever, we need to learn to be happy from the inside out - no matter what's going on in our lives.

What would it take to make you happy? A fulfilling career? A big bank account? The perfect mate?

What if it didn't take anything to make you happy?

Well, it's possible.

Doing the research for my book, Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy From the Inside Out, I interviewed scores of scientists, as well as 100 unconditionally happy people. And I discovered a way to experience a state of inner peace and well-being that isn't dependent on external circumstances.

When you're Happy for No Reason, you don't need to manipulate the world around you to make yourself happy. You bring happiness to your everyday experiences rather than trying to extract happiness from them.

Here are a few strategies you can use to become happier - and stay that way:

1. People who are Happy for No Reason incline their minds toward joy.

Have you noticed that your mind tends to register the negative events in your life more than the positive? If you get 10 compliments in a day and one criticism, what do you remember? For most people, it's the criticism. Scientists call this "negativity bias" - primitive survival wiring that causes us to pay more attention to the negative than the positive.

To reverse this bias, get into the habit of consciously registering the positive around you: the sun on your skin, the taste of a favorite food, a smile or kind word from a co-worker or friend. Then take a moment to savor it deeply and feel it. Make it more than a brief mental observation. Spend 20 seconds soaking up the happiness you feel.

2. People who are Happy for No Reason trust in a friendly universe.

Happy people believe that this is a friendly universe. When things don't seem to be going their way, instead of feeling like a victim, they look for the lesson and the gift in the situation.

Try it: The next time you face a challenge, take a moment to reflect silently, asking yourself, "If this were happening for a higher purpose, what would it be?"

3. People who are Happy for No Reason let love lead in their life.

One way to power up your heart's flow is by conveying a feeling of loving kindness to your friends and family, as well as strangers you pass on the street.

When you're waiting for the elevator, stuck in a checkout line, or caught in traffic, send a silent wish to the people you see for their happiness and health. Simply wishing others well switches on the "pump" in your own heart that generates a strong current of happiness.

4. People who are Happy for No Reason make the cells in their body happy.

Your brain produces a veritable pharmacopeia of natural happiness-enhancing neurochemicals - endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine - just waiting to be released to every organ and cell in your body. The way you eat, move, and rest, and even your facial expression, can shift the balance of your body's feel-good chemicals in your favor.

To dispense some extra Joy Juice - smile. Scientists have discovered that smiling decreases stress hormones and boosts happiness chemicals, which increase the body's T-cells, reduce pain, and enhance relaxation. You may not feel like it, but smiling - even artificially to begin with - starts the ball rolling. It will turn into a real smile in short order.

5. People who are Happy for No Reason surround themselves with support.

We catch the emotions of those around us just like we catch their colds. It's called emotional contagion. So it's important to make wise choices about the company you keep.

Establish appropriate boundaries with emotional bullies and "happiness vampires" who suck the life out of you. Develop your happiness "dream team" - a mastermind or support group you meet with regularly to keep you steadily on the happiness path.

"Happily ever after" isn't just for fairy tales or the lucky few. Imagine experiencing inner peace and well-being as the backdrop for everything else in your life. When you're Happy for No Reason, it's not that your life always looks perfect - it's that however it looks, you're still happy!

[Ed. Note: Marci Shimoff is the author of the New York Times bestseller Happy for No Reason: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out, a revolutionary approach to experiencing deep and lasting happiness. ….]”

X* X* X* X* X* X* X* X*

She has many good ideas in her article. Here’s just a few comments.

1. I’ll add two ways to feel better about criticism.

Some criticism is legitimate feedback on something you did wrong or need to do better. Despite the fact it may not be fun to hear, it can actually be a blessing in disguise to get and save you from worse troubles later to hear it. One very successful man said when you are criticized to check out if the criticism has any of this legitimate aspect to it. Even if it was meanly stated or meant, if it does, plan to make constructive use of the information. That can make you feel better because it puts you in control. His tactic if it doesn’t have any legitimate thing you are actually doing wrong, it has no force to it and can usually be ignored and should be.

Second, if it’s harshly put, it may be that the person criticizing you is in a particularly bad mood for some reason. In other words, it’s more communicating their bad mood than something you actually did wrong. You might be able to find out what caused their bad mood and even help them feel better. If you can, that will often turn off the criticism by removing the discomfort that triggered it. Or, if you can’t, your best bet may be to give them some space or be somewhere else until they feel better. It’s optimistic thinking as we discussed in our last post to also make sure to remember that this same person was in a better mood before and may well be in a better mood later. That can also help you feel better.

2. Noticing good things and appreciating them at the time or also remembering them and going over the good things that happened to you each day is a habit that can be learned if you haven’t been doing it. It has been proven to work. So, she is not just saying it because she thinks so when it really is not.

Study after study has confirmed that this works extremely well to improve the mood and feeling of well being in people who do it even if they never did it before. (It sounds like she has read reports of some of these studies.)

(It also helps to notice when someone does something that really works for you or makes you feel better to make it a point to thank them. This can be even more important if it’s something they do often. They’ll feel better and appreciated and will be much more likely to know you like it and value their efforts. And, it also helps they are more likely to keep doing it.)

3. Our universe does have good things in it. And people who are optimistic not only have noticed this but believe that such good things are always there even if you aren’t currently experiencing them. They believe they are permanent and lasting. Since optimists are happier, have more friends, and stay in much better health, her point, “People who are Happy …. trust in a friendly universe.” is accurate and true.

4. Wishing others well does all kinds of good. It does jump start your own positive emotions and releases neurochemicals that make you feel good. It helps you to see yourself as a good and worthwhile person. And, sometimes people can tell or really like it when you also do something that does do something for them they want done.

5. Smiling has very similar effects. In addition, you look better. It relieves the stress of the people around you. It makes THEM feel better and liked. So they tend to treat YOU better and respond better to you.

Dale Carnegie launched a career, a best selling book, and a success training company that still exists. And, according to his feedback from his initial trainees, his teaching them to smile at other people often may have been (& still is) as valuable as everything else in his course. Some of his students literally wrote him for years afterwards about how much better their lives became after they begin smiling at people often!

6. Also notice that each of these things makes it easier to and more likely that you will surround yourself with the support of other people.

That is a proven way to feel better, be healthier, and live longer.

Feel better & lose fat off your waist...

Today's post: Tuesday, 12-2-2008

Yesterday, Monday, 12-1-2008, AP had an online health article saying that a new study found that people who were depressed were more likely to develop abdominal fat internally than people who were not.

1. The article didn’t mention that depressed people are proven to be more likely to NOT exercise or to exercise less than people who are more optimistic and feel better. And, regular exercise has been shown to help reduce abdominal fat both inside the body and outside. So that’s a very important omission.

But it works the other way too. If you make sure you get regular exercise each week no matter how you feel, it’s been shown that you become less depressed. Not only that, interval cardio and progressive strength training seem to work best at producing this effect.

So, one excellent solution to reducing the dangerous inside the body abdominal fat and the outside the body abdominal fat that many people would like to lose -- AND to feel better is to do regular sessions of interval cardio and progressive strength training each week.
This makes you less depressed and directly removes abdominal fat.

Regular exercise also helps to improve your sex life for both men and women other studies have shown.

2. The article quotes the researchers as speculating that depression releases excess cortisol; and since excess cortisol from too much stress has been shown to contribute to increases in belly fat, that may well be correct.

Meditation, Tai Chi, and other kinds of physical stress relief, if done regularly, have been shown to reduce the effect of excess stress or turn it off entirely. So that likely can help with this. And, a separate study was reported recently that said that meditation (& presumably similar stress relief practices) also helps people who recover from depression, stay recovered. So this looks like a good solution if you can do it. Regular exercise also helps relieve stress.

In addition, I got an intriguing report in the email I get from Brain Longevity expert, Dr Singh Khalsa, that eating whey protein either in a whey based protein supplement or in low fat ricotta cheese effectively lowers excess cortisol.

And, since adding servings of whey based protein supplements to your food each day increases your protein intake, this will also help you lose belly fat. Protein helps keep you from being hungry; and whey protein has virtually no carbs and is low in fat.

Most whey protein supplements have stevia, which I find has a disagreeable and over-powering flavor. (To me, it tastes like a badly done, imitation marshmallow flavoring.) In addition, since stevia tastes somewhat sweet but delivers no sugar to your body, it may tend to make you hungry or hungrier as the artificial noncaloric sweeteners do. But there is good news, because the supplement company, Jarrow, does offer a whey protein supplement that has no stevia added. You can buy or order Jarrow’s stevia-free whey protein supplement at virtually any health food store.

3. You can also take action to feel better & reverse depression. (When you stop being depressed, the depression stops producing excess cortisol since it is no longer present.)

Here are some effective methods that do NOT involve the addicting and only slightly effective drugs for depression.

a) This time of year particularly, due to less sunlight, some people often become depressed. This effect is called SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder.

There are three treatments that work.

The most expensive and least effective is Light Therapy where you get full spectrum light bulbs in your kitchen or bathroom or the room where you exercise & where you spend time early in the day and spend up to 45 minutes a day exposed to several very bright full spectrum light bulbs that are on.

It also has been shown to work to take even as little as a 10 or 15 minute walk at mid-day, possibly over your lunch hour. Yes it may look almost dark on very overcast winter days. But the actual light readings on a light meter are substantially higher than the light bulbs in the light therapy can deliver. The other benefit is that the walks burn some calories and add to your weekly exercise. So if it’s safe where you could walk at lunch time, which can vary with the weather in some places, this is a good one to use.

Taking 3,000 iu or at least 2,000 iu extra a day of vitamin D3 in addition to any in your food or multivitamin has also been shown to work. And, it certainly is the most convenient of the three. Plus it costs only $5 or $6 a bottle to buy.

b) Do the Thanks part of Thanksgiving once a day.

It IS doable to write down a list of things that you ARE thankful for and that have gone well each day even if there are a lot of bad things going on too.

Studies have found that people who spend just a few minutes each day doing this once a day feel remarkably better in just a few days or weeks. The only downside is that it’s like exercise, because it works best if you keep doing it every week.

c) An optimistic frame of mind can be learned. And, an optimistic frame of mind turns off the cognitive part of depression.

(Martin Seligman, PhD in his books notably, Learned Optimism, explains how this works and what it consists of.)

Here’s a short summary.

It has two parts.

When things go wrong, optimistic people are extremely realistic and scientific in thinking about what went wrong.

They assume that the bad things had causes that can be identified, they won’t keep happening if the causes are removed or reversed; they assume when the cause disappears and the damage is repaired and, in some cases, preventative measures are set up, that the bad things will stop. And, the are careful to not assume that one bad thing will cause others without actually checking to see if this is the case.

To put it simply, they avoid shooting themselves in the foot if they just stub their toe.

For example if someone is a bit mean to them because that someone had a bad day, optimists tend to expect that to reverse or at least that that person sometimes has a good day instead of deciding that person is a mean person. They also remember when that someone was nice before if they were. So they tend to be hard to lose as friends and give you credit for what you do right and usually forgive you when you are grouchy.

The second part is more akin to noticing the things that go right. Since there are virtually always some things going well, optimistic people tend to notice that many good things are always happening.

In addition, they look for ways they CAN do things or ways things might be possible.

If what they try doesn’t work or almost works, they often will make an extra effort to make things work. This often is effective.

They look for ways to succeed in life and expect to find them. Then they try the things they’ve found. As long as they take prudent risks instead of foolhardy ones in doing this, they are often remarkably effective at making good things happen even when other people cannot.

As a result they tend to see problems as challenges that can be overcome.

The results are almost spectacular. Seligman and others have found that people who are optimistic by this definition, have more friends, enjoy much better health, and even make more money, than the pessimists who have the reverse tendencies in these two areas.