Do you want to experience more positive emotions? Here are 5 Science-backed ways to feel happier

By Dea Victoria

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In one of her podcast episodes for SuperSoul Conversations entitled: The Secrets of Happy People, Oprah interviewed Shawn Achor, a Positive Psychologist at Harvard University. During their conversation, she mentioned that in the 25 years of the Oprah Show, there’s always a focused group discussion at the end of every show. Oprah then shared:

“When I ask people: what do you really want? people will stand up and say: I just want to be happy, and when I asked what would that look like? people will have difficulty defining it”.

I wonder, if you were part of that focused group discussion, will you tell Oprah the same thing – that you just want to be happy? And, will you be able to define what happiness would look like for you?

Defining happiness in your own terms

Happiness can mean different things to different people. For this article, I’ll use the term happiness loosely to also pertain to other positive emotions associated with it. But what’s important is to define it for yourself — not based on societies’ or your family’s definition but what is true for you — by reflecting and answering questions such as:

What brings a genuine smile to my face?
What makes me come alive?
What makes me feel connected and fulfilled?
What makes my life meaningful?

It also helps to have a broader definition of happiness as not just seeking pleasure that’s fleeting and unfulfilling but focusing on things that bring you joy and meaning which is more lasting and fulfilling. For most people, when they talk about happiness, they simply mean they want to experience or feel more positive emotions as opposed to the negative; for them to feel good most of the time as opposed to feeling pain and suffering.

“Positive emotions are not trivial luxuries, but instead might be critical necessities for optimal functioning” – Barbara Fredrickson

It’s not about eliminating negative emotions

However, the aim is not to eliminate negative emotions — nor “think positive” and be happy all the time — but to be able to train our brain to be more positive in order to deal with life’s inevitable difficulties. Remember, negative emotions are not “bad”; it has value and are part of the human condition. What’s important is how you cope with it when it arises and the steps that you take to improve your wellbeing to live up to your definition of happiness and live a genuinely flourishing (as opposed to languishing) life.

In spite of life’s inescapable adversities, happiness is a choice.

Creating a Happy and Positive Brain

The two main roadblocks to creating a happy and positive brain (and thus happier you) are the following:

The brain’s innate negativity bias
The genes that you inherited from your parents

Granted, these are oversimplification because you are a complex being, and apart from negativity bias and your genes, there are other factors such as your mindset (do you have a growth or fixed mindset?) and life circumstances (did you go through traumatic experiences? or lived in poverty?) but for now let’s focus on these two factors.

The human brain has evolved to focus on the negative to protect us and help us survive; it’s very good at learning from bad experiences and unfortunately, good at deflecting positive experiences.

I like the metaphor used by Rick Hanson, a Neuropsychologist: “The mind is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones”, which explains why whenever you watch the news, you easily remember the negative news more (and why news channels hardly report anything positive because they know that fear catches our attention more). Another example is during an interaction with someone; most likely you will remember the bad more (such as, if the person said anything you didn’t like or threatened you, or if the person made you feel uneasy).

Apart from the brain’s innate tendency to focus on the negative, much of your happiness is also hardwired in your genes; you inherit a certain percentage (approximately 50%) from your parents. Further, your genetic makeup also influences your temperament (whether you’re shy or outgoing, become anxious easily or not)) and your tendency to engage in various activities that will contribute to your happiness such as, for example, exercising and performing acts of kindness.

How then can you overcome these hurdles? It’s easy to throw in the towel and accept the genes and brain that you currently have but the exciting thing is, various research on positive psychology and neuroscience provide promising hope and evidence that you can change the structure of your brain to become more positive, and that your genes are not your destiny; gene expression depends on the what you choose to do (intentional activities). In short, you don’t have to be defined by your genes, brain, environment, and even life circumstances.

Therefore,

The great news is: much of your happiness (and other positive emotions) is in your control. You can take action and perform intentional activities or behavioural habits — regardless of your age and background — to become happier, thanks to neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to continuously change throughout life)

The not so good news:

It takes effort, commitment, and consistency (it is not easy!)

Here’s what worked for me that I would like to invite you to try out

Use “the law of little things” – little by little, day by day, put in the gentle effort to develop behavioural habits that will contribute to your happiness (such as the five interventions that will be discussed in this article). What’s important is to stay consistent and do it every day. Remember, tiny tweaks and actions can lead to big changes over time. Be patient.
Try various interventions – There are numerous interventions or strategies that lead to positive emotions (I’ll share five in this post and share more in future articles). However, not all of it may work for you. You will have to do some trial and error to see which one will give you the best result.
Treat yourself like a science experiment – Like a scientist, be curious — find what works for you (again, through trial and error). Aside from applying curiosity, it’s also helpful to reflect and ask questions such as: How did this particular intervention make me feel? What made it work for me? How can I tweak or personalise it to be more effective for me?

Now, time to take action and experiment

The following are the interventions or strategies that have stood the test of replication in research (meaning, it has shown repeated effectiveness on the majority of people in research settings). I’m hoping that some, if not all, would be effective for you too.

Power Posing

Are you a fan of Wonder Woman? (or Superman?) it turns out, the “power pose” or “expansive posture” of these two superheroes (standing tall, feet hip-width apart with both arms on their waist) can make you feel more powerful due to increased testosterone (a hormone linked to dominance) and lowers cortisol (a stress hormone). Feeling more powerful will then help you feel more confident, more optimistic, more assertive, less stress reactive, more creative, have improved cognitive functioning, and become happier. These are the findings of some of the research done on expansive posture; one of which was conducted by Amy Cuddy, a Social Psychologist at Harvard University.

The bottom line of the result of the study by Cuddy is: our bodies change our minds (our thoughts and feelings), our minds then change our behaviour, then our behaviour changes our results. When you change your physiology by using an expansive or power pose (as opposed to low-power pose like wrapping yourself up or making yourself small by folding), you’ll feel more powerful, more confident, optimistic, and happy. And as a result, you’ll behave in ways that will bring about positive outcomes or success (for example, using the power pose for at least two minutes before a job interview can help you do well and increase your chance of getting the job.)

Being Curious

How do you feel about exploring new places, meeting new people, and learning something new each day? Do these activities excite you or make you feel anxious? If you tend to fear or feel anxious about new experiences, then it might help you to cultivate curiosity.

Research findings have found that Curiosity (i.e. discovering, exploring, being open to new experiences and knowledge) is one of the strengths that is most reliably linked to satisfaction with life, as well as happiness and positive social relationships.

When you are curious:

You allow yourself to engage in self-exploration, and through that exploration, you may experience growth and help you create and discover what makes your life meaningful. People who continuously learn and live meaningful lives are happier.
It makes you “psychologically flexible”; it allows you to tolerate novel and ambiguous experiences which dials down the anxiety that you may feel when faced with unfamiliar or uncertain situations. Thus, curiosity is an antidote to anxiety.
You feel pleasure because dopamine, a neurotransmitter linked to anticipating rewards and pleasure is released by the brain whenever you seek out new experiences. Novelty seeking will also protect you from boredom that can cause anxiety and depression.

Laughing

Intuitively we know that laughing makes us feel good; these actions are also synonymous with happiness because the physical act of laughing activates the endorphin system (a neurochemical that’s a natural painkiller and brings about feelings of euphoria) in the brain.

Another reason why laughing and humour can make you happy is that it connects you with people. As social beings, we thrive and feel good whenever we connect, feel safe, and belong in a group. Whenever you laugh and use humour in social situations, you help bring people closer together, increase cooperation in groups, and increase engagement (and thus, create a positive interaction and experience). As a bonus, positive emotions brought about by laughter can improve your cardiovascular health and undo the effects of negative emotions.

Savouring Positive Emotions

Have you ever experienced looking at old travel photographs and felt happy remembering and reminiscing about the positive memories associated with those photographs? How about eating your favourite meal while noticing the smell, colour, and taste of it? And does it make you feel good thinking about a future plan of, say, a family reunion? These are some examples of savouring.

Savouring prolongs, stretches, and amplifies your experience of positive emotion and the positive moments in your life. When you savour, you pay close attention to and apply focus and mindfulness (being fully in the present moment) to the details of whatever it is that you would like to relish – whether a thing, a situation or a memory – and using your senses to intensify the experience. Developing savouring as a skill can help you become happier, less depressed, optimistic, and more appreciative and satisfied with life because it can be a way to counteract the natural tendency to focus on the negative in life (again, the brain’s negativity bias) than the positive things. As a result, it can help you cope with negative events or adversities by training yourself to luxuriate in positive emotions such as joy and love.

A research conducted by the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin – Madison has found that savouring contributes to improved wellbeing. They also found that a certain area of the brain called the ventral striatum (the part that influences motivation and has a prominent role in reward processing) gets activated during savouring. This area of the brain is also within your conscious control; meaning, you can become better at prolonging the positive feelings you feel by activating this part of your brain through practices such as meditation, mindfulness, and taking time to consciously savour positive events and emotions.

Practicing Gratitude

Whenever you feel grateful about all the blessings and good things in your life – for example, having a loving family, supportive friends, affectionate pets, good health – how does it make you feel? And how do you feel whenever you say thank you and appreciate the help that someone gave you in times of need? Most likely, these made you feel good or happy.

Various studies have found that gratitude (appreciating and focusing on the good in our lives) has important implications for our wellbeing. It improves our mental health by preventing depression, increases our likelihood of engaging in prosocial behaviours (such as being more altruistic and performing random acts of kindness), it decreases materialism (due to being more satisfied with life which gives a sense of abundance), and results in more positive relationships (since gratitude acts as a “social glue” that improves relationships).

Moreover, gratitude improves our mood and coping behaviours (we adopt more positive coping behaviours such as exercising, meditating, and seeking support, rather than binge drinking alcohol or engaging in dangerous behaviours) and may increase our self-esteem (because gaining help from someone makes us feel valued). It can also improve our physical health by improving sleep, lessening levels of cellular inflammation, and fatigue. Because of these benefits coupled with appreciating life’s simple pleasures and shifting the focus on the positive rather than the negative, gratitude is associated with subjective happiness, optimism, and life satisfaction.

And since gratitude is embedded in our brain and DNA, we can learn to be more grateful by strengthening the neural response of our brain through practice (for example, keeping a daily gratitude journal).

By being more grateful, you not only become happier but also more resilient when facing adversities, and prevent “hedonic adaptation” as well (getting used to the good things in our life that we eventually take it for granted).

Key Takeaways

To be happier, we must first define what happiness looks like or mean to us; focus on what gives you authentic and lasting joy and meaning
We can be happy despite experiencing some negative emotions
We can overcome our brain’s innate negativity bias and our genetic predisposition by training the brain to become more positive through daily habits that bring about happiness
Happiness is a choice and within our control but it takes effort and commitment to make changes
Simple actions, when done consistently can make us happier and improve our wellbeing over time
Our physiology affects our emotions and vice versa – applying the wonder woman pose and smiling or laughing even when we don’t feel happy can help us feel happier
Applying curiosity during conversations shifts the focus from ourselves to the other person, preventing and alleviating anxiety and improves connection that in turn produces positive emotions
Relishing positive memories (whether from past, present, or future), our food, and even the company of people makes us feel good
Appreciating and being grateful for even the small things in our life can make a big impact on our happiness and in generating positive emotions

Now it’s your turn

Before an important meeting, job interview or presentation (or any activity that needs you to be confident), stand like Wonder woman/Superman for at least 2 minutes
Watch a funny movie or video with a friend or a loved one and laugh out loud
Research on a topic that you’re curious about, or interview someone knowledgeable about it
On your next meal, savour your food, slow down and notice every detail — how does it smell, taste, feel? How does eating the meal make you feel? (As a bonus, it has been found that people tend to eat less when they savour their food!)
Write a gratitude letter or email to someone who has helped you in the past or who means a lot in your life. Alternatively, call or talk to that person to say thank you. If you’re into journaling, write 3 things you’re grateful for that happened today (better if you do it daily).

Thank you for reading! Please share in the comments below your thoughts and experience. Which intervention worked for you? What other strategies do you use to experience more positive emotions?