Takeaways from the Distinguished Speakers lecture
Remember when we featured the podcast The Happiness Lab, hosted by Laurie Santos, PhD? The Savor Lining team recently had the privilege of attending a local lecture by Dr. Santos through the Distinguished Speakers series. In her presentation, Dr. Santos gave an abbreviated version of the psychology course she teaches at Yale University, ‘The Science of Happiness.” Here are a few brief takeaways from this high-level overview, as well as some practical steps to strengthen your own mental fitness.
1- Happiness matters for your performance
Here, performance indicates not only your job or productivity, but can be applied to any endeavors such as volunteering or hobbies. People intrinsically seem to have an understanding that when they are happy, they also perform better for their work or activities – not necessarily the other way around (i.e. I am performing well at work, hence I feel happy). With that knowledge in mind, how can we increase our happiness?
2 – Powerful practices that promote joy
Reflecting on your own experiences, try incorporating one or more of the following mental fitness exercises into your routine:
- Savor the good things in life – this is a form of mindfulness which engages your senses and responses. An example: Eating a delicious meal? What does it taste like? How does it make you feel?
- Be present, even when things feel “yucky” – the flipside of the former, it’s important to acknowledge the thoughts and emotions when situations are not ideal. One experiment found that doctors who were shown silly cat videos before brainstorming treatment ideas were more creative than the placebo group who were not shown anything humorous.
- Helping others is more rewarding than you’d think – though slightly counterintuitive, people reported feeling more satisfied when they used $20 to treat someone else versus the other research group who spent $20 on themselves.
- Practice gratitude daily! In keeping with what we shared on the positive impact of gratitude, a study by Dr. Marty Seligman (often credited as a founder of Positive Psychology) found that individuals who hand wrote and delivered a letter to someone in person showed lasting effects up to three months after doing so. Is there anyone on your list you should thank?
3 – Focus on your strengths
When you look at the adjectives in the above list of character strengths, what are the top two to three that you identify with? If you, for instance, count appreciation of beauty amongst your top qualities, are you finding small ways to introduce beauty into your everyday tasks, or taking time to visit a local museum for inspiration? Dr. Santos discussed research of hospital janitorial staff, where one lady said she would take opportunities to rearrange floral bouquets and gifts for patients in the coma ward – an action that brought a sense of fulfillment to her work.
4 – Time wealth
The trade-off between the time it would take you to complete a task and paying for a service may be worth it if it releases time for you to do things that are life-giving. To illustrate this concept for her Yale course, Dr. Santos gifted students back the hour the class took place to students. Some chose to go hiking nearby, others wrote a song in the music hall, but two students actually broke down in tears, expressing that this was the first free time they had all semester. Are there moments in your life where you similarly could give yourself the gift of time?
Additional resources
- Book, 10 to 27: The Science of Motivating Young People by David Yeager
- Video series, The Science of Wellbeing for Teens by Dr. Laurie Santos