10 strategies everyone can use to discover pleasure and satisfaction in everyday moments:<\/p>\n
1. Share positive feelings<\/p>\n
Let your children know how great it feels to spend time with them. Tell your lover about the compliment your boss paid you. E-mail your best friend to tell her how fondly you remember the camping trip you took last year, and include a silly picture. Sharing happy memories and experiences with others\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor even simply anticipating doing so\u00e2\u20ac\u201dis one of the most powerful and effective ways to prolong and magnify joy, research shows. “It helps sustain emotions that would otherwise fade,” he says. Affirming connections with others is “the glue that holds people together.”<\/p>\n
2. Build memories<\/p>\n
Take mental photographs of memorable moments that you can draw on later. Recall vivid, specific events, and pinpoint what brought you joy. Do you love your red wool scarf because it’s stylish and warm, or because its smell reminds you of your childhood romps in the snow? Just be careful not to overanalyze and lose the wonder of the moment. What you want, says University of Virginia social psychologist Timothy D. Wilson, PhD, is to dissect your experiences just enough to appreciate how they’ve helped form you and then get back to simply living them. Interjecting mystery into happy moments\u00e2\u20ac\u201dreflecting on what’s surprising or hard to understand about them, for example\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcan strengthen their power. “If you analyze special times in a way that makes them seem ordinary or predictable, then you don’t necessarily get as much benefit”.<\/p>\n
3. Congratulate yourself<\/p>\n
Take pride in a hard won accomplishment. If you spent a year sweating at the gym to reach a fitness goal, bask in your success\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand share it with others. Self-congratulation doesn’t come easily to everyone. “A lot of people have trouble basking in an accomplishment because they feel that they shouldn’t toot their own horns or rest on their laurels”. It’s a fine line between joyous self-congratulation and shameless self-promotion, but don’t worry: You’ll know if you’re crossing it.<\/p>\n
4. Fine tune your senses<\/p>\n
Close your eyes while you roll a square of dark chocolate over your tongue or fill your lungs with salty sea air or eavesdrop on your grandchildren’s play and laughter. Shutting out some sensory stimuli while concentrating on others can heighten your enjoyment of positive experiences\u00e2\u20ac\u201dparticularly those that are short-lived.<\/p>\n
5. Compare downward<\/p>\n
Comparing upward makes us feel deprived, but comparing downward can heighten enjoyment. Think about how things could be worse\u00e2\u20ac\u201dor how things used to be worse. Just keep it light\u00e2\u20ac\u201dyou don’t have to relive your cancer diagnosis or revel in a neighbor’s misfortune. Simply take note: Is today sunnier than promised? Are you fitter than you were a year ago?<\/p>\n
6. Get absorbed<\/p>\n
Some joyful moments seem to call for conscious reflection and dissection. At other times, we savor best when we simply immerse ourselves in the present moment, without deliberate analysis or judgment. Listen to your favorite music with headphones in a dark room. Lose yourself in a novel. Set aside enough time on the weekend for your favorite hobby so you can attain a level of absorption known as the “flow” state.<\/p>\n
7. Fake it till you make it<\/p>\n
Putting on a happy face\u00e2\u20ac\u201deven if you don’t feel like it\u00e2\u20ac\u201dactually induces greater happiness. So be exuberant. Don’t just eat the best peach of the season\u00e2\u20ac\u201dluxuriate in every lip smacking mouthful. Laugh aloud at the movies. Smile at yourself in the mirror. After all “a surefire way to kill joy is to suppress it.”<\/p>\n
8. Seize the moment<\/p>\n
Some positive events come and go quickly\u00e2\u20ac\u201da surprise toast to your accomplishments at work, your daughter’s sweet 16 party. It seems obvious that the more quickly a positive experience evaporates, the more difficult it is to savor. Yet paradoxically reminding ourselves that time is fleeting and joy transitory prompts us to seize positive moments while they last.<\/p>\n
9. Avoid killjoy thinking<\/p>\n
The world has enough pessimists. Short circuit negative thoughts that can only dampen enjoyment, such as self recriminations or worries about others’ perceptions. When you find yourself awash in happiness, give it space to grow\u00e2\u20ac\u201ddon’t ruminate about why you don’t deserve this good thing, what could go wrong, how things could be better. Consciously make the decision to embrace joy.<\/p>\n
10. Say thank you<\/p>\n
Cultivate an “attitude of gratitude”. Pinpoint what you’re happy about\u00e2\u20ac\u201da party invitation, a patch of shade\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand acknowledge its source. It’s not always necessary to outwardly express gratitude, but saying “thank you” to a friend, a stranger, or the universe deepens our happiness by making us more aware of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
10 strategies everyone can use to discover pleasure and satisfaction in everyday moments: 1. Share positive feelings Let your children […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[641,365,134,640],"class_list":["post-815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random","tag-cheez","tag-inspirational-thoughts","tag-motivational-exercises","tag-staying-positive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t