20 Ways to Stay Happy.docVIP

Health and Happiness As experts gather to explore the techniques for achieving peace and happiness at the 2nd International Conference on Happiness Its Causes, TIME looks at proven ways to find more joy in life. —Coco Masters Count Your Blessings Martin Harvey / Corbis Count your blessings — but not everyday. Sonja Lyubomirsky, an experimental psychologist at UC Riverside, found that people who once a week wrote down five things they were grateful for were happier than those who did it three times a week. Its an issue of timing or frequency, says Lyubomirsky, When people do anything too often it loses the freshness and meaning. You need to have optimal timing. Lyubomirsky added that it has to feel right. She tried to count her blessings and hated it. I found it hokey. It didnt work for me. Just like a diet program, what you do has to fit your lifestyle, personality and goals. In essence, gratitude might not be for everyone. But if it is, another exercise is to think of a person who has been kind to you that youve wanted to thank — a teacher, mentor or parent — and write a letter, once a week to different individuals over two months. You dont even have to send it to feel happier. Hear the Music Brooke Fasani / Corbis Whether regarded as an evolutionary accident that piggybacked on language or as the gateway to our emotions, music activates parts of the brain that can trigger happiness, releasing endorphins similar to the ways that sex and food do. Music can also relax the body, sometimes into sleep as it stimulates the brains release of melatonin. A study of older adults who listened to their choice of music during outpatient eye surgery showed that they had significantly lower heart rates and blood pressure, and their hearts did not work as hard as those who underwent surgery without music. A second study, of patients undergoing colonoscopy, showed that listening to their selection of music reduced their anxiety levels a