This winter has been hard on us and we could all use some sunshine to fill up our drained happiness reserves right about now. Luckily, even if the weather isn’t on our side, we can do something to increase our happiness. Today, we give you 11 simple and scientifically proven tricks that you can easily integrate into your everyday life to become happier each day:

1. Laugh: A study at the Mayo Clinic showed that laughter and giggles reduce stress. Positive effects are both short term (boost your mood, reduce tension) and long term (strengthen your immune system). Try it out and give us a big smile/giggle/laugh!

2. Put your happy music on: We all have a song that makes us happy whenever we listen to it. Recent research at the University of Missouri discovered that participants were able to improve their mood by listening to upbeat music and even boosted their overall happiness over a period of two weeks.

3. Go for a run: If you don’t like working out, this one probably isn’t for you. But you still should try to do physical exercise in any form when you’re feeling down, according to a study at Penn State University. When you exercise, your body releases endorphines, which have been known to be the “happiness” hormone in our body that makes us feel uplifted and euphoric.

4. Cuddle a puppy: If you’re looking for a reason to get a pet, look no further. Researcher at the Miami University found that spending time with a pet can significantly increase your emotional well-being and happiness. On top of that, pets can be a great source of emotional support for their owners. So really, there’s no excuse not to get one.

5. Volunteer: By helping others you not only make them feel better – you make yourself happier too. An extensive study at the University of Exeter Medical School proved that volunteering and helping others can lead to an increased well-being, lower depression, and even reduce our risk of dying!

6. Try meditation: By now, you have heard that meditation is good for your overall well-being. There are several studies that demonstrate meditation to raise your hapiness and health. A study at UCLA also revealed that meditation can increase your brain size, prevent brain cells from dying when you age, enable you to focus more deeply, and deal with stress better.

7. Think of happy memories: A study at the University of Southampton showed that just by thinking of happy memories in your past, you can strengthen your happiness levels and be more optimistic about the future. Being nostalgic never felt better!

8. A walk in the park: A study conducted at the University of Edinburgh found that we feel more at ease when we are surrounded by nature instead of an urban scenery. In the study, participants had to first walk on a noisy street and then in a quiet park. The results clearly showed their brain waves to be relaxed in the park, whereas the noisy street environment caused their stress levels to rise.

9. Take a vacation: Not only is a vacation a great way to distance yourself from your daily workload, a study conducted at the NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands also examined what the mere anticipation of a vacation does to your mood. Turns out that by only looking forward to your next trip, you already increase your overall feeling of happiness – this effect can occur up to 8 weeks prior to your departure.

10. Get your sleep: As we all know, sleep is good for us. Experiments by psychologist David Dinges from the University of Pennsylvania showed that people who get their sleep are much happier than their crankier counterparts who don’t hit the sack timely. So turn off your smartphone, grab a good book and curl up in bed before switching off the lights and calling it a day.

11. Move closer to your workplace: Or get a job close to where you live. Either way, the important thing is you don’t spend an excessive amount of time commuting between the two. Commuting has negative consequences for your health, your phsychological well-being, and your happiness – as research at Umea University in Sweden has demonstrated. A long commute to and from work literally drains your energy, can lead to feeling lonely and depressed, and even puts a strain on your relationships.

These findings are based on studies that have investigated cognitive performance between two days, with or without a good night’s sleep. Obviously, sleep-deprived individuals perform in tasks worse the next day than people who slept.

Several mechanisms have been found to contribute to the beneficial effects of sleep – such as the pruning and strengthening of the connections between neurons – but it has not been clear, whether several hours of nocturnal sleep is required or whether also daytime napping can have beneficial effects on cognition. A new Harvard study could recently provide insights.

Study shows: A nap keeps you sharp and healthy

In order to answer this question, researchers from the Harvard University and Harvard Medical School had participants perform a visual perception task in four 60-minute sessions. In the task, while they had to keep their eyes fixated on the center of the computer screen, other figures were presented in the periphery and the participants had to recognize what kind of figures they were.

After the second session, some of the participants were allowed to take a short nap of 30 to 60 minutes. While the participants who were not allowed to nap showed a linear performance decrease, the participants who took a short nap (30 minutes) stayed on the same performance level through sessions, and the participants who took a long nap (60 minutes) even improved their performance.

The results clearly showed the beneficial effect of a nap on cognitive performance and the general psychological well-being. On a smaller scale, they show that sleep, even in small amounts, increases learning and memory performance. On a larger scale, the authors conclude that results give important insights into the prevention of burnout symptoms.

This is because burnout has been described as “increased irritation and frustration” and “decreased effectiveness” after a prolonged cognitive effort. This feeling has been suggested to stem from fatigue in brain regions that are continuously engaged when the person is performing the same task. Sleeping gives these regions “a break” and a chance to restore their processing capacities. The study results again show that even a short period of sleeping – that is, taking a nap – has a great impact on the regeneration of the brain and consequently on improved cognitive performance and well-being.

Protect your Brain with NeuroNation

Sleeping is great for filling up your resources, but there is more to a fit and healthy brain. Exposure to burnout is highly correlated with our cognitive reserves. A study by Dr. Stefan Diestel from the University of Dortmund, Germany could show a 50% increased risk of stress-related diseases, f.i. burnout, for employees with non-trained cognitive reserves.

To help you get the right training, we collaborate with neuroscientists and psychologist and develop personalized courses, tailored to your unique skills and profile.

Keep yourself fit by creating a premium account today and start your first personalized course.

The amount of sleep we get and the quality of it is a central component in keeping us fit and healthy. Everyone who has experienced a bad night’s sleep knows that the sleep-deprived mood we are in the next day isn’t exactly pleasant [1].

On top of that, the long-term effects of sleep deficiency are just as bad for our health. Chronic insomnia can for example increase the risk of Alzheimer’s later in life. In the U.S., 40 million people are diagnosed each year with a chronic sleep disorder, and an additional 20 million individuals at some point will experience significant troubles sleeping, says the Centre of Disease Control and Prevention. We have looked at what studies say about why sleep is so important for us. Here is what we found:

Our sleep’s cleaning squad

When we sleep, our inner cleaning squad goes to work and removes all toxins that have accumulated in our brain throughout the day. The toxins are being transported out of our body through the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Particularly, substances such as amyloid, tau proteins, and other molecules – which can lead to Alzheimer’s if allowed to build up in the brain – are eliminated through the route of our CSF. In order for this cleaning process to be successful and rid our body of all waste substances, we need to get a sufficient amount of good quality sleep. So far, so good. But where does our sleeping position come in?

The position we sleep in

Dr. Helene Benveniste and her colleagues of Stony Brook University School of Medicine initiated a study to explore how the position we sleep in affects our brain and the process of ridding the body of metabolic waste [2]. Mice were used to examine the glymphatic pathway – the route which cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) filters through the body and is exchanged with interstitial fluid (ISF) to clear waste. During sleep, these glymphatic pathways are very active, ridding the body of toxins, such as amyloid, tau proteins, and other molecules.

These mice were put to sleep on their side, back, or stomachs using anesthesia, and their glymphatic pathways were then examined using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). As it turns out, the mice’s metabolic waste was cleared most efficiently when they were put to sleep on their side. This shows that sleeping on our side is the best way to stimulate our brain’s nightly detoxification process.

Tips for a healthy sleep

Apart from our sleeping position, there are a few easy things that can help us have a better and more relaxing sleep:

Stay away from your smart phone in bed: A study revealed that people who use their smart phones or tablets before going to sleep have a worse quality of sleep than people who do not use their smart phones before bed. The study found that the problem is in fact the light of the tablet or smart phone that negatively affects our sleep quality [3].

• Don’t drink alcohol before bed: Contrary to what we might think, alcohol can actually damage our sleep quality as it robs our body of REM sleep and other deeper stages of our sleep cycle that are responsible for ensuring that we wake up feeling rested.
• Regular exercise: Additionally to all other heath benefits we already know of, regular exercise also helps us sleep better, feel less depressed, and have more energy. If you find it difficult to exercise right before bed, try squeezing in a morning run or a lunchtime yoga class. It doesn’t matter when you exercise as long as you do it on a regular basis.
• Practice meditation:  Regular meditation is a powerful tool for insomniacs. The ‘why’ part is still largely unknown by scientists, but we do know that meditation sends signals to the sympathetic nervous system’s “fight or flight” response, commanding it to relax.
• 4-7-8 Method: According to Dr. Weil, this breathing technique can make a person fall asleep in less than one minute. We created an infographic about this trick to fall asleep.

A healthy brain makes sleep a priority

There are many ways to keep our brain in good shape – but sleep is one that comes naturally without any effort. Get a good night’s sleep, and try to optimize the quality of your slumber, to keep your brain healthy and decrease the risk of developing neurological diseases in later years.

Do you laugh with your mouth or your eyes? As strange as this question may sound, it does reveal whether your laugh is real or fake. What do your eyes have to do with your laugh, you wonder? Well, it is not only your mouth that shows a smile or a laugh, it is also your eyes. The French scientist Gauillaume Duchenne de Bologne (1806-1875) examined the human facial muscles during laughing.

While analysing which muscles are responsible for making us laugh, he came across two muscles: Musculus zygomaticus major, which controls the corners of our mouth and Musculus orbicularis oculi, which is responsible for the area around our eyes. However, there is a significant difference between these two: Musculus zygomaticus major can be controlled by us, whereas Musculus orbicularis oculi is completely out of reach of our deliberate control. 

The appeal of laughter

This means that only when a laugh is genuine, both muscles are activated. Only then do wrinkles appear around our eyes and the corners of our mouth go up. A fake laugh on the other hand can be recognized when only the corners of the mouth go up but the eyes remain the same. Next time you smile at someone, try to pay attention to the reaction you get back.

You will notice that most people will smile back at you. This also happens when you fake a smile. Even monkeys have the ability to put on a fake smiling face. It is believed that smiling and laughing are a sign of submission and can therefore defuse conflict. It is therefore a crucial part of our behaviour and is used in the most diverse situations of life. 

Laughter in science

A key component of making business is trust. You would probably agree that trusting in what a salesperson is saying to you is vital in making you buy their product. A team of scientists at the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Biology and the Toulouse School of Economics set out to further analyse this. They wanted to know how important laughter is for evaluating how trustworthy our conversation partners are. In their experiment, they had two people interact with each other.

The first agent received 4 Euro and was given the choice to either keep the money or confide it to the other person (here called fiduciary). If the first agent decided to give the money to the fiduciary, the amount was tripled immediately. The fiduciary then had the chance to decide what to do with the tripled amount of money. He could either give part of it back to the first person or keep the entire amount for himself.

Things could therefore go very well or very badly for the first agent: On the one hand, he is at risk of losing all of his money if he gives it away. On the other however, he also has the chance to get back more money than he initially gave away. Is it worth taking the risk? In order for the first agent to better evaluate the fiduciary, he was shown a short video of the latter introducing himself. The words used for the introdution were always the same; a prefabricated text composed by the scientists. 

The type of laughter is key

First, the scientists examined how the fiduciary was perceived. One factor here was to see how genuine his smile was believed to be and how trustworthy he seemed. The findings revealed that the more a fiduciary’s smile was perceived to be real, the more trustworthy he was believed to be by the first agent. Accordingly, in these cases, the first agent was much more willing to hand over their 4 Euro. And surprisingly, this strategy paid off: Those fiduciaries whose smile was perceived to be genuine, on average also transferred the money back to the first agent.
Science could therefore show that the human laughter has a special kind of status in our social interactions. No matter if we are talking to a friend, confiding in a family member, or making business with a partner – our laugh – both fake and real – is crucial in deciding what the outcome will be. 

We constantly hear all kinds of health advisors warning us about the effects of coffee: ‘only in small quantities; no more than two cups a day.’ ‘Too much coffee leads to circulatory problems; too much coffee can cause cancer’ and several more. Many people take this advice to heart and proceed to quit their ritual of indulging in their daily cup of coffee. But is this demonisation justified? Is our ‘wake up’ go-to guy really as bad as they say?

Meta-Studies give new insights

Lucky for us, scientists wanted to clarify the myths surrounding coffee once and for all. The best way to examine the effect it has on our health is through meta-studies. A meta-study looks at several different studies that all examine the same topic and evaluates their findings. The advantage here is that mistakes that can sometimes occur in a single study are being compensated for by basing the findings on not just one, but many individual studies. Let’s take a look at the following meta-studies and their findings about coffee:

Lower risk of cardiovascular diseases

A meta-study conducted at Harvard University analysed 36 different studies, in which roughly 1.3 million people had been examined. The researchers wanted to find out whether there is a connection between

the consumption of coffee and the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases. The findings showed that people who drink between three and four cups of coffee per day, had the lowest risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases. Those who drank five and more cups per day had a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. However, the group with the highest risk was by far the group that didn’t drink any coffee at all [1].

Lower risk of cancer

Several meta-studies analysed a possible connection between the consumption of coffee and cancer. A meta-study at the Swedish Karolinska Instituts looked closely at the relationship between coffee and liver cancer. This study integrated data of nine different studies with 245.000 participants in total. The results showed that people who drink on average two cups of coffee per day have a 43% lower risk of suffering from liver cancer [2]. Another meta-study published in the British Journal of Urology analysed the connection between the consumption of coffee and prostate cancer. However, the researchers did not find any evidence of an increased risk of prostate cancer through the consumption of coffee [3]. 

Protection against Parkinson’s disease

A meta-study published in the journal Geriatrics and Gerontology in 2013 examined 13 studies with a total of 901.000 people, investigating a possible relationship between the consumption of coffee and the risk of Parkinson’s disease. The findings revealed that people who on average drink three cups of coffee per day had the lowest risk of developing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease [4].

Protection against Alzheimer’s 

A Finnish meta-study published in 2010 looked at the findings of five different studies and concluded that a daily consumption of three to five cups of coffee reduced the risk of suffering from Alzheimer’s in old age by 65% [5].

Conclusion

Even though these findings clearly point towards coffee being the good guy, you still shouldn’t start downing your cups of coffee uncontrollably. As with most things in life, with coffee too it is the dose that makes the poison. There are a few things you should be careful about: For example, coffee contains caffeine, which can cause an inner unrest and nervousness. Children should be cautious with the consumption of coffee too as the stated studies above were only conducted with grown ups.

It should also be noted that the analysed studies are so-called correlation studies. With these, it is often difficult to find a direct connection between coffee and health. It could also be that people, who like drinking a few cups of coffee per day, have other characteristics that protect them against certain diseases. However, what can be stated is that a demonisation of coffee is definitely not justified from a scientific point of view. So you can enjoy your coffee with a clear conscience. Go ahead and continue to take pleasure in your daily cup(s) of coffee – we are having one right now! 

We’re not saying there is no truth to these healthy lifestyle advisors. But with all the attention given to our body, we shouldn’t forget about our brain’s health and fitness. Many of us fall into a trap of habits every day that are bad for our brain. We have identified 5 habits that you should not pick up if your brain is near and dear to you:

1. Too much salt

After all these years of sugar-bashing, you can add another ingredient to the list of nutritional villains: salt. A study published in the journal of JAMA Neurology, exposed salt as one factor contributing to high blood pressure. And indeed, research has proven that a high intake of salt can increase the risk of high blood pressure, which in turn can lead to minor cognitive deficits and an increased risk of stroke [1]. A higher risk of stroke can cause quite severe damage to your brain.

2. Sleep deprivation

Science has not fully discovered yet to what extent your brain needs sleep. But do you really need science to figure this one out? Who doesn’t know the feeling after a bad night’s sleep? Lack of focus, a sluggish attention span, and a mood far from its best behaviour are just a few of the things to name here. On top of that, a continuous lack of sleep harms your memory too and has long-term effects on your brain. This is because in your sleep, mechanisms are hard at work, which rid you from toxic by-products that accumulate in your brain throughout the day. A lack of sleep means that these mechanisms cannot get sufficiently activated, and therefore fail to clean your brain from harmful substances. If these substances are not eliminated, they start to accumulate in your brain and can lead to a severe damage [2].

3. Bad hearing

Your precious ears are the ones suffering most from our noisy modern-day surroundings. How peaceful must it have been for ancient-time ears to be exposed to nothing more than the singing of birds or the occasional ringing of church bells. Today, your ears have a lot more to endure – a constant exposure to noise: subway’s roaring, cars honking, music in the supermarket, in your headphones, construction sites everywhere – the noise level is at a crazy high. And it’s driving your ears crazy too: according to latest findings, hearing impairments are increasing. A study conducted at the John Hopkins University found that hearing impaired people have a 30 – 40% higher risk of falling victim to cognitive deterioration [3]. So it’s smart to protect your ears as much as you can: for example, audiologists offer ear plugs that are tailored to your ears and protect you from too excessive noise levels.

4. Too much food

Now this one, you’re not going to like. And yes, maybe we were a little too harsh on all the lifestyle advice we talked about in the beginning. Tips regarding how to eat healthy are actually quite valuable for your body’s health, and for your brain too. A study published in the journal Neurology in 2012 examined 6000 people, who were on average 50 years old. 10 years later, the same participants were examined once again and the results showed that the ones who were overweight, had a 22% higher deterioration of their cognitive functions than their slimmer counterparts [4].

5. Loneliness

Being lonely doesn’t necessarily mean not having many friends. Sometimes even people who have many friends can be lonely. As with many things in life, here too, it’s the quality that matters. This being said, however, being alone can promote the feeling of loneliness, which causes stress and inflammatory processes in the brain. A study at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago conducted with the participation of over 100 people, all aged 80+, revealed that those who had the least social contacts were suffering from the most severe cognitive deterioration [5].

Of course, your brain’s health depends on a variety of factors. And while you can’t control your genetical predisposition, you do have control over other things that can help you stay healthy. We want to encourage you to take care of your brain’s health and understand how important it is for your well-being. Your brain really is the most precious friend you have – treat it that way: a happy brain means a happy you.

From the lab to your smartphones

The science behind NeuroNation was made with the help of researchers from around the world. We have ongoing collaborations with renowned scientists; continuing to strengthen the efficacy of NeuroNation’s courses and exercises. Currently NeuroNation is being used in five scientific studies.

Clinical depression is more than just a temporary feeling of sadness, which we all experience from time to time. It is a serious condition that impacts all aspects of our everyday functioning – including eating, sleeping, working, the quality of our relationships, and the way we feel about ourselves. 

It is estimated that 16.6% of the U.S. population suffer from depression. Indirect consequences range from a lack of motivation and a higher vulnerability to a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, it is estimated that depression costs the U.S. government 83 billion dollars each year due to absenteeism. So far, no scientifically proven treatment exists, and as the rates continue to rise, doctors and researchers are trying to find alternative therapies to combat depression.

Antidepressants

In recent years, much controversy has surrounded the treatment of depression with antidepressants. A review of studies on the effects of antidepressants conducted by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that publications published in the last few years have favoured the positive effects of antidepressants rather than demonstrating their negative or null effects [1].

This means that many researchers, study participants, health care professionals and patients have been led to – perhaps falsely – believe that antidepressants do work, when evidence suggesting the contrary exists but has not been published. Most patients taking antidepressants either don’t respond at all or only partially to the treatment. In fact, success is considered at just a 50 percent improvement rate in half of depressive symptoms.

Cognitive Training Can Help

A recent unpublished meta-analysis ran by ProfessorJoel Sneed and his team in New York looked at the effects of brain training in the treatment of depression [2]. Depression often becomes apparent through the appearance of cognitive impairments such as problems with working memory, verbal fluency, processing speed, or attention.

The researchers were able to show that brain training not only led to improvements in the patient’s mental functioning, but also had positive effects on their mood. In general, the patients found it less hard to function in their everyday life after having used brain training. However, it should be noted that in these studies, brain training was often complementary to other therapies. But an essential part of the patient’s improved well-being was provably a consequence of brain training.

These results are great news as brain training is a less expensive – compared to other treatments – method to combat depression, and is noninvasive, and available everywhere. Furthermore, training can be carried out in the comfort of a patient’s own home and there are no side effects, unlike with the use of antidepressants. 

Future studies are needed to examine the exact effects, but indicators for brain training as part of a positive treatment for depression already exist.

Many people think of a buddhist monk sitting in peaceful relaxation when they think of meditation. But meditation is something we all can integrate in our life. It’s not just for Buddhist monks who have mastered the challenge of unplugging themselves from the outside world. Even someone with a hectic lifestyle, and a busy job can learn to use meditation as a way to calm down and take a break from the outside world. 

What is meditation?

Meditation or mindfulness training is a way to train the awareness of our own body. Many of us find it difficult to live in the present moment and be present in the now as we often feel we have so many other things to worry about, so many past events we still dwell on, and so many plans to make for the future. When was the last time you were fully present in the moment? Many of us would answer this question with: “quite some time ago”.

For this reason, it might be worthwhile to see if meditation works for you.
Specifically, we are supposed to direct all our attention toward our body, our breathing, and our thoughts during meditation.

By focusing on nothing but ourselves, we learn to live in the present moment and tune out all other distractions that usually affect us. It is important that while noticing all our feelings and thoughts, we should not evaluate or judge them but rather consciously observe them. We often try to suppress our negative feelings and thoughts, thinking they won’t affect us that way. Meditation teaches us to notice and observe each of our thoughts – even the negative ones – without evaluating or judging them. In the following, we look at the advantages meditation can bring to you. 

1. A better mood

A study published in 2010 analysed how meditation affects our mood. A research team at the University of Pennsylvania examined soldiers who were about to be send abroad and were receiving an intense military training for this reason. This was a time in which the soldiers were under enormous psychological and physical pressure. The researchers split them into two groups, with one group receiving mindfulness training for 8 weeks. The results showed that the group who had meditated during this period stated that their mood had improved significantly compared to before and they were happy more often.

The reason for meditation bettering our mood is that it prevents us from constantly worrying about negative things, things we fear, things that burden and stress us. An uncertain, anxious future, a hurtful situation from the past – more often than not, we waste our energy on things that create negativity inside of us. Whereas if we fully live in the present moment, there are far less things we have to worry about [1]. 

2. Negative emotions don’t trigger depression 

People who practice meditation become aware of their emotions and consequently also experience their negative emotions more consciously. This makes them realize that negative emotions are an integral part of their emotional spectrum and are not something to surpress, push aside or be scared of. They are part of our emotions and have just as much a right to exist as our positive feelings. During meditation, we understand that negative feelings are no threat or danger to our well-being, quite the opposite: they are part of our experience as human beings.

Therefore, people who practice meditation don’t experience negative emotions as a trigger for depression, as was shown by a study published in 2010 [2]. 

3. Pain can be dealt with better

Meditation strengthens our so-called alpha waves, which are responsible for our will power. A study at Brown University demonstrated that people who meditated on a regular basis were more able to use their willpower and strength of will to ignore any kind of pain [3]. 

4. An increased concentration

In our daily lives, there are many things surrounding us, demanding our attention. This makes it difficult sometimes to fully concentrate on one thing only. A study at the University of Santa Barbara examined the effect mindfulness training has on our ability to concentrate. Participants of the study found it easier to concentrate on one task and felt less affected by other distractions they were being exposed to after having tried meditation for two weeks. [4]. 

Become a master of your mind

It can be said that the benefits of meditation are indeed quite abundant. Why don’t you try it out yourself and see what you think of it? After all, we have seen that not only does it enhance our mood, it also strengthens our concentration and makes us feel more in control of our thoughts and our mind. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to tune out all those noisy modern-day distractions and take a few minutes to only focus on the essential – your feelings, your thoughts, your entire being. In a world where we have forgotten the true value of the present moment and what power it holds to make us happy if truly experienced, meditation might just be what brings us back to ourselves. 

A number of studies have examined the components of life which equate with happiness. Here we talk about a few ways you can live your life to stimulate the production of these neurochemicals, and live a happy life.

Strong Relationships

There is one characteristics which is the most prominent in happy people – strong social ties.

The happiest 10 percent of Harvard Undergraduates reported having strong social support. Good relationships were a stronger predictor of happiness than student’s university grades, family income, SAT score, age, gender and ethnicity [1].

This finding was not only limited to university students but in the GRANT study, which followed men throughout their entire lives.

Indeed, the researchers of the GRANT study wrote that “connecting with and helping others is more important than obsessing over a rigorous exercise program”. Indeed, the capacity to love, and be loved, is a single strength most clearly associated with subjective well-being at age eighty.

If you’re feeling a bit blue today, spend time with friends. Not spending enough time with the people we love is the one thing we regret the most later in life.

Plan Your Happiness

We value happiness so much, but when we’re happy we usually put it down to good luck. It’s not luck.

Just waiting for happiness to come is not a recipe for success. Happiness needs to be worked for.

What to do? Regularly schedule happiness appointments. Love a yoga class but often lack the time? Find the time and put it in your calendar. When we schedule something, we’re more likely to do it, because the decision to do it has already been made. It’s just about following through.

Don’t Confuse Instant Happiness with Long-Term Happiness

Happiness can be a vague word. What we need is meaning in life, which then leads to happiness.

At Tohoku University in Japan, a 7-year study of 43,000 adults aged 40 to 79 were asked if they’d had a meaningful life, and then tracked what happened next [1].

People who’d had a meaningful life were much more likely to be alive 7 years later. Lives not lived meaningfully were associated with death, most commonly due to cardiovascular disease.

Studying is boring. Completing a degree with first class honors is awesome. Running a marathon hurts. The feeling that comes with crossing the finishing line cannot be compared.

Happiness right now is not everything. Being able to say that you’ve living, and have lived, a happy life is.

Stay Busy, But Don’t Run on Stress

The happiest people are those who feel busy but are not frazzled by their full schedules.

Surveys show that too much spare time is a burden. People who are less happy tend to have the most excess time.

So what should you do to fill in your time? Do things that you’re good at – use your ‘signature strengths’; the things that you’re uniquely talented at, and give back something to the community. Do things that are useful.

People who use their signature strengths on a daily basis become significantly happier, and the sensation of happiness can last for months.

The Secret to Happiness

Given everything we’ve just talked about, it becomes apparently clear that living a happy, fulfilling life where you do things that you want to do and enjoy, leads directly to happiness.

When we’re happy, our bodies release dopamine (the reward molecule driving pleasure seeking), oxytocin (the bonding molecule that comes with fulfilling relationships), endorphins (the natural pain killers), and many more other neurochemicals that contribute to a feeling of general wellbeing which we enjoy so much. The more fulfilled we feel in our everyday lives, the more likely we will be happy, and that happiness can last for an indefinite, prolonged period of time.

Most of us have a favourite playlist for jogging, cooking and friendship dramas. But there are more benefits to being musical than you may think, with scientists only just beginning to understand the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the therepeutic and emotional benefits of a catchy tune.

Musical Training Helps You Learn and get a Better Memory

Musical training is in no way directly related to developing skills required for specific careers (unless your dream is to become a classical violinist), but scientists do think that learning an instrument teaches students how to learn more effectively. In a study examining 40 low-income Chicago freshmans, those who participated in the school’s musical program were found to better respond to sound stimuli than those in the athletics club [1].

Musical training was also associated with improved language skills and overall brain development. Additional evidence shows that learning an instrument can boost young people’s numeracy and literacy skills. While education funding cuts target ‘luxury’ programs such as libraries and musical sessions, evidence suggests that governments should keep supporting school’s musical endeavours.

Why is it that our Brains Enjoy ‘Sad’ Music?  

A study conducted at the Free University in Germany by Lila Taruffi and Stefan Koelsch has found that we gain four different rewards from listening to sad music [2]:

1. We receive the “Reward of Imagination”: we get the feeling that we are expressing our emotions in a similar way to the singer we are listening to.
2. We regulate our emotions by experiencing sadness of the music we hear, which in turn then gives us an emotional boost.
3. We experience empathy for the singer or composer of a sad song, due to feeling that we are sharing and understanding the artist’s sadness.
4. We can feel sad with there being no ‘real-life’ implications that usually come with the devastating life events that cause our own sadness.

The three most popular situations participants chose to listen to sad music were: emotional distress, social problems, and reflection. Sad music can help us alleviate our own pain, and enjoy and emphasize with the artists emotions that are expressed in our favourite songs. 

Heavy Metal Music can also be Therepeutic and Improve the Emotional Experiences tied to Bad Memories

What about a heavy metal playlist? A study at the University of Queensland in Australia found music expressing anger and aggression can also improve your mood when angry [3]. The study involved 39 regular listeners of extreme music – heavy metal, punk rock, screamo, and hardcore music – who said they listened to these kinds of music at least 50% of the time they had a music player on.  

When they were made to feel angry by recalling particularly frustrating situations and being provoked by the study coordinators with sensitive questions, listening to extreme music helped calm them down. The reason was that the participants were used to using these genres to experience a wide range of emotions, from sadness to anger, to relax. Heavy metal to calm down? Yes – the science says so!

Musical Benefits

Music is used for all sorts of situations, from cleaning to break-ups, and can help people increase their self-esteem, improve their communication and interactive skills, reduce depressive symptoms, and help young students get better grades. As Aristotle wrote, music “makes the hearts of men glad: so that on this ground alone we may assume that the young ought to be trained in it.”