3 Ways to Feel Positive—In 60 Seconds or Less

Leader's Digest Quick Tips

Social-psychological researchers have shown that there is a host of happy behaviors that can be quickly incorporated into your everyday life. 

1.    Smile More.

Most important of all, smile more. This shouldn’t be a brief, unfelt smile that finishes in the blink of an eye. Instead, you should try to maintain the expression for between 15 and 30 seconds. To make the grin as convincing as possible, try to imagine a situation that would elicit a genuine smile. Perhaps you have just met a good friend, heard a hilarious joke or found out that your “X” isn’t coming to visit after all. Consider creating a signal to remind you to smile regularly. Set you watch, computer or Smart Phone to beep on the hour, or use a more random cue such as your telephone ringing.

2.    Sit Up Straighter.

Your posture is equally important. In a study conducted by Tomi-Ann Roberts and Colorado College, participants were randomly split into two groups and asked to spend 3  minutes either sitting up straight or slumping down in their chair. Everyone was given a math test and asked to assess their mood.

Those who had sat upright were much happier than those who had slouched down, and even obtained higher scores on the math test.

3.    Act Postive.

Research by Peter Borkenay from Bielefeld University and others has revealed that happy people move in a very different way to unhappy people. You can use this information to increase your sense of happiness by acting like a happy person. Try walking in a more relaxed way, swinging your arms slightly more, putting more of a spring in your step. Also, try making more expressive hand gestures during conversations, nod your head more when others are speaking, wear more colorful clothing, use a greater frequency of positively charged emotional words (especially “love”, “like”, and “fond”), show a lower frequency of self-references (“me”, “myself”, and “I”), have a larger variation in the pitch of your voice, speak slightly faster and have a significantly firmer handshake.

Incorporating these behaviors into your everyday actions will help enhance your energy and happiness!

"We can create happiness or sadness, the amount of work is the same."
                                                           --Carlos Castaneda

 
All the success!

 Peter Mclees, Leadership Trainer, Coach and Facilitator

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com

Mobile: 323-854-1713

P.S. Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.