Make Happiness a New Year's Resolution

Make Happiness a New Year's Resolution

Rallie McAllister, M.D., M.P.H.

If you're still working on your New Year's resolutions, you might want to consider adding "be happy" to your list.

Around this time of year, most of us set goals that we believe will bring us joy: We vow to lose weight, earn more money or buy a new house. As it turns out, the best way to achieve more enjoyment in life may be to take a more direct approach, by simply applying ourselves to the intentional pursuit of happiness.

When Abraham Lincoln said, "People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be," he was on the right track. Most experts agree that sustained happiness depends on more than chance or good fortune -- it requires deliberate control of our thoughts and actions.

Knowing what makes you happy is an important first step to achieving greater pleasure in life. For most folks, happiness is best measured in terms of relationships and experiences, rather than in dollars and cents.

In spite of popular myth, money doesn't guarantee a perpetual state of bliss, especially if it comes too easily. Emory University scientists determined that lottery winners and trust-fund recipients don't derive nearly as much satisfaction from their cash as those who earn it the old fashioned way -- by working.

In an effort to determine whether money can buy happiness, researchers at the University of Colorado analyzed data collected from a national survey of more than 12,000 Americans. The majority of respondents reported that they gained more enduring pleasure and satisfaction when they invested their money in life experiences rather than material goods.

Spending money on others can promote greater feelings of happiness than spending it on yourself, according researchers at the University of British Columbia and Harvard Business School. As part of their study, the scientists gave volunteers either a $5 bill or a $20 bill and asked them to spend the cash by 5:00 p.m. the same day.

Half the participants were instructed to spend the money on themselves, while the other half were asked to spend it on others. The participants who spent the money on others reported feeling significantly happier at the end of the day than those who spent the cash on themselves.

Fortunately, you don't have to spend a single cent to experience joy. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside found that simply doing a few good deeds daily, such as holding the door for a stranger or offering someone a sincere compliment, can dramatically lift your spirits.

Performing random acts of kindness makes the person performing the acts happier, especially when the good deeds are carried out in succession. People who did considerate things for others five times in one day reported experiencing greater happiness than those performing five good deeds over the course of a week.

The same researchers found that practicing gratitude can promote happiness. Study participants who expressed gratitude by writing down five things they were grateful for each week reported feeling significantly happier than those who didn't take part in the exercise.

One of the best ways to improve your state of mind is to surround yourself with happy people. Recent research from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego suggests that happiness is contagious, spreading among friends, family members and neighbors.

In a study of more than 4,700 people followed over a period of 20 years, scientists found that when one person in a social network became happy, the chances that a friend, sibling, spouse or next-door neighbor would become happy increased by 15 percent. Even better, happiness continued to spread from person to person through three degrees of separation.

Happiness is a critical component of emotional wellbeing, and it plays an equally important role in physical health. In an article published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, researchers reported that happy people are not only healthier, they also enjoy a life expectancy that is seven to 10 years longer than that of unhappy individuals.

Scientists at the University College of London found that blood levels of the stress hormone cortisol were roughly a third lower among happy individuals compared to their less cheerful counterparts. Chronically elevated cortisol levels have been linked to a number of serious conditions, including obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Finding joy in life isn't always effortless, but it is entirely possible. Because happiness doesn't always happen by luck or chance, intentionally pursuing it may be the best way to attain it.

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Rallie McAllister is a board-certified family physician, speaker and the author of several books, including "Healthy Lunchbox: The Working Mom's Guide to Keeping You and Your Kids Trim." Her website is www.rallieonhealth.com. To find out more about Rallie McAllister, M.D., and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.