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Happiness Strategy: Practicing Happiness and Gratitude

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Happiness Strategy: Practicing Happiness and Gratitude

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-Regularly engaging in gratitude practice, such as journaling can strengthen your neural pathways from serotonin to dopamine. By doing this on a daily you can, feel better and deeper secure within yourself overtime.

- Experiencing different things outside of our comfort zone can connect us deeper to ourselves. We build our own experiences and when we spend the time building them with gratitude practice, we will likely have a happier outcome with whatever those activities are.

-"Giving to others makes us happy" (Aknin, 2024.) If we want to spend time/money on other people, the outcome might be in our favor. Giving and providing to charity or going out with a friend and spending some money for them can make us feel a part in our "need to feel connected" and it makes us feel joyed.

-32% of humans believe it is a matter of good genes in which their happiness comes from. Happiness comes from and is impacted by the environment and behavioral factors around you.

- Source:

Positive Psychology 101 (discover magazine)

Student: Andrew

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Changing Government policies to fund treatment for mental illnesses or fund public parks and cleaner spaces.

Helping others and making others happy is a good way to help move one closer to their own personal happiness.

Making sure to take advantage of the resources already available and sticking to it.

"Government policies can certainly foster economic prosperity, but citizens each individually must work hard, and if they are lazy or irresponsible they will probably not flourish" (Arafa,2019).

Taking care of yourself mentally and doing well can help others that you know look to get help and focus more on their own well being.

Understanding happiness looks different for everyone and something that might make you happy may not make another person happy.

Source:

Why Governments Should Care More About Happiness

(Greater Good Magazine)

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Student: Jasmyn

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Happiness Strategy:  Not Being Overly Competitive

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Happiness Strategy:  Not Being Overly Competitive

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Having a competitive attitude can be very motivating but it shouldn't be your main focus. You can still have ambitions yet be humble and satisfied in life.

Spending less time on social media can raise your self esteem, as you focus on yourself more rather than comparing yourself to others or trying to live up to unrealistic standards.

"I once had the pleasure of delivering a commencement address for students graduating from a high school. I told them to listen to their hearts. Take control of your studies and work on topics that fire you up, that's what creates happiness." (Mäkitalo, 2024)

Pursuing a more quiet satisfaction, A good example of this is a very successful business owner from Finland who had a Ferrari. Yet, when it came to visiting his customers, he would drive his old, worn out, compact car to show that he is still the same person and that his value should not be judged by what car he owns.

- Source: I'm From the World's Happiest Country—Our Work Culture Is Different to the U.S.

Student: Paul

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Happiness Strategy: Government helping boost communities and resources

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Happiness Strategy: Government helping boost communities and resources

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- "Focusing public policy on increasing this kind of social capital will not only enhance cohesion, reduce crime, and deepen trust, it will also increase happiness" (Kelly 2022). By focusing on public policy, it can lead to motivation to build relationships. Building relationships with people who care to make a movement toward a greater goal and more positive environment, can help build a stronger community overall.

- Addressing and reducing unemployment rates can contribute vastly to a happier community. Employment doesn't only provide a solid source of income for said employee, but also provides a sense of purpose and social connection which each provide a large impact on an individual. By implementing policies to create opportunities for way more individuals, it would spring a strong, bonded community.

- Investing in public spaces and community programs to bring everyone closer together. Bringing people together can boost moral and lead to not only improved happiness individually, but also create things to bond over as a whole.

- Mental health also plays a big part. By investing in these public spaces such as parks, libraries, whatever it may be, it will give people something to pass the time and remove stress instead of feeling trapped doing the same things by yourself everyday.

Source:

Can the Government Make Us Happy?

Student: Xander