Improve your health and happiness
Happiness and optimism are the best predictors of good health and longevity.
Happiness can be improved by:
- Improving the quality and quantity of connections with people you value
- Achieving in ways that are meaningful to you
- Reducing stress
Connection can be improved by spending more time with people you care about and deepening your connection with them. Asking questions and listening helps you understand them. This is particularly important if you are feeling upset about something in your relationship. Projections (misinterpretations of motives and meanings) can destroy good relationships so if you have an issue with someone you are normally happy with, it is important to talk it out with them. Mostly it is a misunderstanding that gets cleared up. Sometimes it will turn out the person wasn’t who you thought they were, and you can decide what you want to do about the relationship.
To achieve in a way that is meaningful to you it is important to know your values and have them incorporated into your goals. Applying your talents, ideas and skills towards the realization of these goals makes you happy. Pursuing interests and activities you enjoy also contribute to your positive affect (long term / base line mood).
Stress can be reduced in many ways.
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- Problem solving
- Exercise and sport
- Good nutrition and diet
- Sleeping well
- Reframing problems
- Resolving trauma