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They Look on the Bright Side.
Optimism touts plenty of health
benefits, including less stress, a
better tolerance for pain and, as
HuffPost Healthy Living recently reported, longevity among those with
heart disease. When you choose
to see the silver lining, you’re also
choosing health and happiness.
They Unplug.
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Whether by meditating, taking a
few deep breaths away from the
screen or deliberately disconnecting from electronics, unplugging
from our hyper-connected world
has proven advantages when it
comes to happiness. Talking on
your cell could increase your blood
pressure and raise your stress levels, while uninterrupted screen
time has been linked to depression
and fatigue. Technology isn’t going
away, but partaking in some kind
of a digital detox gives your brain
the opportunity to recharge and
recover, which — bonus — could
increase your resilience.
They Value a Good Mixtape.
Music is powerful. So powerful, in
fact, that it could match up to the
anxiety-reducing effects of massage
therapy. Over a three month period,
researchers from the Group Health
Research Institute found that patients who simply listened to music had the same decreased anxiety
symptoms as those who got 10 hourlong massages. Choosing the right
tunes could be an important factor,
however, as a happy or sad song can
also affect the way we perceive the
world. In one experiment where researchers asked subjects to identify
happy or sad faces while listening to
music, the participants were more
likely to see the faces that matched
the “mood” of the music.
They Get Spiritual.
Studies point to a link between religious and spiritual practice and
mirth. For one, happiness habits
like expressing gratitude, compassion and charity are generally promoted in most spiritual conventions. And, asking the big questions
helps to give our lives context and
meaning. A 2009 study found that
children who felt their lives had a
HUFFINGTON
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