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Winning can evoke positive feelings such as happiness. This can be either from sports or even a board game. when you come out on top, serotonin is that good feeling. Serotonin is a chemical that is released in your brain that makes you feel good. But is this what happiness is as an actual chemical rather than a emotion? Well when we win at something our bodies release this. So in term winning makes us happy because of our natural competitiveness.

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Winning doesn't matter, we're told, but something deep inside suggests otherwise. "Our society" creates the urge to win, we're taught, yet monkeys have been trying to one-up each other for fifty million years. Natural selection built a brain that rewards you with a good feeling when you come out on top. Serotonin is that good feeling. This was discovered in the 1980s, but it is still unmentionable in polite society. [A good summary of the research is The Biochemistry of Status and the Function of Mood States.]

The facts of our natural competitiveness have been submerged by a warm and fuzzy view of nature. Perhaps good intentions are behind this, but the benefits of knowing the inconvenient truth have been overlooked. We are already challenged to manage a brain that strives for social dominance. Understanding that impulse can help us enhance this skill, and to stimulate more good serotonin feelings with less conflict.

Ignoring the facts about our neurochemical inheritance has unfortunate consequences.

We deride assertive impulses in others while denying or rationalizing them in ourselves and our social allies, resulting in sustained resentments and hostilities.

We end up with low serotonin if we stifle the natural urge for self-assertion instead of finding healthy ways to direct it.

We seek moral superiority by avoiding conflict at all costs, and submit to bullies as a result.

We are better off knowing why our brain rewards social dominance with the good feeling of serotonin. Mammals began living in groups for protection from predators, so they needed a way for strong and weak individuals to live side by side. They evolved a brain that constantly compares itself to others. If it sees that it's at a disadvantage, cortisol is released and it withdraws to avoid pain. If the mammal brain sees that it's in a position of strength, serotonin is released, and it goes for it. This doesn't mean constant conflict. On the contrary, animals avoid conflict because they only engage when they expect to win. Usually one individual backs down, knowing it can survive the loss of this food or mating opportunity better than it can survive an injury. Conflict only erupts when two individuals perceive themselves as the likely winner.

When an animal submits to a stronger individual, they do not call it " cooperation" or " empathy." Yet modern researchers have been putting a positive face on such frictions in nature, even as they put a negative face on frictions in "our society." Social affiliation does trigger good feelings due to a different brain chemical, oxytocin. Researchers have used this to assert that nurturing and altruism are the state of nature. But the harsh truth is that oxytocin causes herd behavior. It creates a safe feeling when an individual is with its trusted allies, but when a mammal brain sees distance between itself and its herd or pack or troop, oxytocin falls and a cortisol alarm is released. Though we constantly seek the good feeling of oxytocin, our brain is not designed to release it all the time. It evolved to make careful decisions about when to release it because trusting everyone does not promote survival.

Each time serotonin or oxytocin is released, neurons connect that guide future expectations about how to stimulate it. We all wire ourselves to seek good feelings in ways that worked before. Sometimes past experience is a good guide to the future, and sometimes it's not. We've all heard of the tiny poodle who lashes out at German Shepard. The poodle built unrealistic expectations from experiences that were unrepresentative of the larger world. Early experience builds the myelinated superhighways of our brain, so unreliable impulses can be hard to rewire. We all face the world with neural circuits needing adjustment since early experience can never be a perfect representation of the world we live in. Fortunately we can build new pathways to stimulate our happy chemicals in new ways, but it takes a lot of repetition after puberty.

The link between serotonin and social assertion was finally revisited by a 2015 study reporting higher social anxiety in people with higher serotonin. This study does not disprove the serotonin/social dominance connection. On the contrary, it shows how brains that built a large serotonin-seeking habit are concerned about meeting their need for it. More important, it associates low social anxiety with low serotonin. We might want to hear that low social anxiety goes with equanimity and egalitarian virtue, it doesn't seem to make you happy. Neither position is happy because our brain did not evolve to release happy chemicals constantly for no reason. It evolved to release them to motivate survival behavior.

The warm fuzzy view of our nature is appealing so it's easy to accept it as a harmless way to "help." But this kind of help can do more harm than good. It trains people to expect their happy chemicals to flow effortlessly all the time, and to think something is wrong with the world, or with themselves, if their happy chemicals sag. We are better off knowing that these chemicals turn on in short spurts when you see a way to meet a survival need. Then they turn off and you have to do more to get more. For most of human history, it was hard to meet basic needs and people took pleasure in simple things like finding ripe fruit or the glance of a special someone. Our ancestors lived with real threat and pain, not with effortless peace and comfort. But they did not believe they could feel good all the time if only they made the right demands on "the system."

Today we are habituated to high levels of reward, so it takes even more to stimulate our happy chemicals. Each brain interprets the world through the lens of its own experience. No one has an easy time of it because a step toward one happy chemical can put another at risk, or increase the risk of pain. We all struggle to manage the quirky neurochemical operating system we've inherited. It's not easy being a mammal!

Much more on the potential to rewire our happy chemicals in my book Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain your brain to boost your serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and endorphin levels. Plenty of free resources are available from the Inner Mammal Institute. (InnerMammalInstitute.org)

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Winning doesn't matter, we're told, but something deep inside suggests otherwise. "Our society" creates the urge to win, we're taught, yet monkeys have been trying to one-up each other for fifty million years. Natural selection built a brain that rewards you with a good feeling when you come out on top.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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My origional thoughts on how people attain happiness

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My origional thoughts on how people attain happiness

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In this video I explain why I think that there is not one way to attain happiness. (This is not my final video)

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Being a part of a team makes me happy because it promotes bonding with teammates. I have made lots of friends whilst playing volleyball. Making me happy every practice. I was always happy because of the people I was around and the sport I love.

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There are many definitions for happiness, but psychologists define happiness as a mood or emotional state which is brought about by generally positive thoughts and feelings. What brings on these feelings of happiness is different for everyone, otherwise subjective. Happiness signifies an increased enjoyment of life, and researchers suggested that there may be a causal link between positive affect and success. There are many added benefits to being happy such as even living longer Koopmans et al conducted a 15-year longitudinal study into the happiness of elderly people, known as the Arnhem Elderly Study. They found higher levels of happiness in those who lived longer. This should give people a reason to want to be happy.

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Just how happy are you? Do you ever wish for a life that brought more moments to be joyful?

Happiness is often an elusive experience - people will go to great lengths for a fleeting moment of happiness. Even the U.S. Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, asserts the right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".

But what precisely is happiness - how can it be quantified, and is there any measurable benefit to possessing a happy mindset over that of a more stoic realist?

"Happiness is a mystery like religion, and should never be rationalized."
G.K. Chesterton, English author (1874-1936)

Happiness is a subjective experience - what brings elation to one person will not necessarily satisfy another - but from a psychological viewpoint, we must be able to quantify this state of mind in order to understand it.

When we discuss happiness, we are referring to a person's enjoyment or satisfaction, which may last just a few moments or extend over the period of a lifetime. Happiness does not have to be expressed in order to be enjoyed - it is an internalized experience, varying in degrees, from mild satisfaction to wild euphoria.

Psychologists often refer to happiness as positive affect - a mood or emotional state which is brought about by generally positive thoughts and feelings. Positive affect contrasts with low moods and negativity, a state of mind described as negative affect in which people take a pessimistic view of their achievements, life situation and future prospects.

Quantifying Happiness

With positive affect being subjective and relative to the individual, can happiness be measured? The United Nations seems to believe that it can, and releases the World Happiness Report, which ranks countries by the self-reported happiness of its citizens.

In 2016, the report listed Denmark as the happiest nation, followed by Switzerland and Iceland. The US was the 13th happiest country with the UK ranking 23rd. Nordic countries feature prominently as being amongst the happiest societies in the world (Helliwell, Layard and Sachs, 2016).

The World Happiness Report measured happiness levels using the Cantril Ladder, a scale devised by U.S. psychologist Hadley Cantril (1906-1969). Participants are asked to imagine a ladder with 10 rungs, with rung number 1 representing the worst life imaginable, working upto the optimal life represented by the ladder's highest rung. They are then asked to identify the step number that they feel reflects their life situation, either at present, in the past or how they envisage it to be in the future (Cantril, 1965).

The four happiest countries identified by the World Happiness Report placed themselves at 7.5 or higher on the Cantril Ladder (Helliwell, Layard and Sachs, 2016).

Given that these countries are highly developed and prosperous, it is easy to assume that positive affect is linked to wealth. A common wish in our modern age is to possess more money: wealth can signify success and increases a person's purchasing power, giving them choices that they might not have been able to make before. But can money buy happiness?

It's a question that troubles not only psychologists, but economists, too. Richard Easterlin, a professor of economics at the University of Southern California, noticed a strange paradox involving money and happiness. Should a positive correlation exist between the two, we might expect citizens of developed countries to be happier than those of less prosperous nations.

Easterlin discovered that this is not the case - rich people within countries tend to be happier than the poorest in the same country, but overall, more prosperous countries are no happier than their poorer counterparts. These findings, known as the Easterlin paradox, contradict popular assumptions that wealthy people enjoy happier lives.

A study of lottery winners and victims of serious accidents delved further into the link between money and happiness. The happiness of 22 winners of large lottery prizes was compared to that of both controls and 29 people who had been paralysed as a result of an accident. The level of happiness experienced by winning the lottery had numbed people to the smaller joys of everyday live - a resistance the researchers described as "habitation", as only more significant events could bring the winners joy (Brickman, Coates, Janoff-Bulman, 1978).

The results of these two studies suggest that money alone cannot bring people lasting happiness.

Why it Matters: Benefits of Happiness

Happiness signifies an increased enjoyment of life, which is of course beneficial in itself. But beyond this obvious advantage, are there any further gains to be had from increased happiness?

One study looked at wide-ranging research into happiness to better understand the link between happiness in successful people.

Researchers suggested that there may be a causal link between positive affect and success - that success not only brings happiness, but that a person who is happy has an higher chance of achieving success than somebody experiencing negative affect (Lyubomirsky et al, 2005).

The findings of this research support another, earlier, study by Daubman and Nowicki (1987) which artificially induced positive affect in participants in a series of experiments by subjecting them to watching comic films and providing them with sweets.

Subjects were then timed whilst they completed an exercise in creative problem-solving. The researchers found that those in a state of positive affect were able to solve the problems quicker than those in a neutral state or those experiencing negative affect (Daubman and Nowicki, 1987). Positive affect prior to success, it appears, boosts our intuitive abilities and enables us to achieve more.

Do Happier People Live Longer?

Can happiness lead to a healthier, longer life? Koopmans et al (2010) conducted a 15-year longitudinal study into the happiness of elderly people, known as the Arnhem Elderly Study. They found higher levels of happiness in those who lived longer.

But does happiness lead to a longer life or does good health and longevity give people reason to be happier? The researchers also accounted for the participants' levels of physical activity and found that, once exercise was accounted for, the link between happiness and life span was insignificant. This indicates that happiness may lead to increased physical activity, which in turn can be beneficial.

Indeed, a 2011 study suggested that exercise in sedentary males could be increased by first boosting their positive affect levels (Baruth, 2011).

Encouraging Happiness

Book store shelves are awash with self-help books claiming to nurture happiness - but is positive affect something that we can nurture, or as the World Happiness Report emphasises, is influenced by our environment and life circumstances, often beyond our control?

Let's look at some factors which can influence and encourage positive affect:

Acts of Kindness

Contradicting the idea that possessions can bring happiness, giving to others may in fact be more beneficial in terms of positive affect. Stephen Post (2005) noted that, whilst citizens in the US and Europe are more wealthy than previous generations, we are no happier as a result. Post emphasizes the personal benefit that acts of altruism - selfless giving or assistance - can provide (Post, 2005).

The effect of selflessness on happiness was further supported by a 2008 experiment in which participants were given a gift of $5 or $20 and instructed to either spend it on themselves or on other people. Whilst the amount of money received had no notable effect on happiness, participants who gave away the money experienced elevated positive affect following the experiment (Dunn et al, 2008).

Relationships

Familial relationships and friendships affect happiness and can also be impacted by a person's levels of positive affect. Our ability to make friends often affects our self-esteem - unsurprisingly, people with extrovert personalities have been to found to enjoy higher levels of happiness than introverts (Argyle and Lu, 1990).

The contagiousness of happiness is not limited to direct relationships: it can influence the happiness of people by up to 3 degrees of separation from the original individual

A 20-year study of interpersonal relationships demonstrated just how important the happiness of a person's friends and family is to their own wellbeing.

Between 1983 and 2003, James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis looked relationships between close relatives and found that the happiness of a friend or close family member who lives up to a mile away from a person can boost their prospects of happiness by around 25%.

The study also suggests that the contagiousness of happiness is not limited to direct relationships: it can influence the happiness of people by up to 3 degrees of separation from the original individual (Fowler and Christakis, 2008).

Spousal relationships can be of particular influence on happiness levels. A study across 17 countries found that marriage does tend to lead to increased levels of happiness. Cohabiting also boosts happiness but by a lesser degree than marriage. The research emphasises the secondary effects of matrimony, such as the emotional and financial support provided by a partner, may explain this change rather than the act of marriage itself (Stack and Eshleman, 1998).

Self-Determined Happiness

Positive affect might be influenced by external factors in our everyday life, but if people yearn for more happiness, can they bring it about themselves? Schütz et al (2013) studied the habits and happiness of people whose affect levels varied. The study observed a number of ways in which some people were able to proactively nurture their own happiness:

The self-fulfilling participants showed significantly higher results than all other profiles on the direct attempts strategy, suggesting that in order to increase their happiness the self-fulfilling individuals are more prone to directly attempt to smile, get themselves in a happy mood, improve their social skills, and work on their self-control.

Schütz et al, 2013 via PeerJ

Pretending to be happy through outward expressions of happiness, it appears, may have led the individuals to internalise this joy.

Maintaining an optimistic mindset can also bear further benefits. Brissette and Scheier (2002) found that college students who started the semester with a sense of optimism were more able to cope with stressful events and felt that they had better social support even when their friendship network had not increased.

References

1. Helliwell, J., Layard, R. and Sachs, J. (2016). World Happiness Report 2016, Update (Vol. I). New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

2. Cantril, H. (1965). The pattern of human concern. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

3. Brickman, P., Coates, D. and Janoff-Bulman, R. (1978). Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 36(8). 917-927.

4. Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. and Diener, E. (2005). The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success? Psychological Bulletin. 131(6). 803-855.

5. Daubman, K.A. and Nowicki, G.P. (1987). Positive Affect Facilitates Creative Problem Solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 52(6). 1122-1131.

6. Koopmans, T.A., Geleijnse, J.M., Zitman, F.G. and Giltay, E.J. (2010). Effects of Happiness on All-Cause Mortality During 15 Years of Follow-Up: The Arnhem Elderly Study. Journal of Happiness Studies. 11. 113-124.

7. Baruth, M., Lee, D.C., Sui, X., Church, T.S., Marcus, B.H., Wilcox, S., Blair, S.N. (2011). Emotional Outlook on Life Predicts Increases in Physical Activity Among Initially Inactive Men. Health Education and Behavior. 38(2). 150-158.

8. Post, S.G. (2005). Altruism, Happiness, and Health: It's Good to Be Good. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 12(2). 66-77.

9. Dunn, E.W., Aknin, L.B. and Norton, M.I. (2008). Spending Money on Others Promotes Happiness. Science. 319. 1687.

10. Argyle, M. and Lu, L. (1990). The Happiness of Extraverts. Personality and Individual Differences. 11(10). 1011-1017.

11. Fowler, J.H. and Christakis, N.A. (2008). Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study. British Medical Journal. 337. 1-9.

12. Stack, S. and Eshleman, J.R. (1998). Marital Status and Happiness: A 17-Nation Study. Journal of Marriage and Family. 60(2). 527.

13. Schütz, E., Sailer, U., Nima, A.A., Rosenberg, P., Arnté, A.C.A., Archer, T. and Garcia, D. (2013). The affective profiles in the USA: happiness, depression, life satisfaction and happiness-increasing strategies. PeerJ. 1(e156). Retrieved from https://peerj.com/articles/156/.

14. Brissette, I. and Scheier, M.F. (2002). The Role of Optimism in Social Network Development, Coping, and Psychological Adjustment During a Life Transition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 82(1). 102-111.

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Psychology Of Happiness: The Science Of Being Happy

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Just how happy are you? Do you ever wish for a life that brought more moments to be joyful? Happiness is often an elusive experience - people will go to great lengths for a fleeting moment of happiness. Even the U.S. Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, asserts the right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness".

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“Folks are usually about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”
― Abraham Lincoln

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This song demonstrates the happiness of being in love. It describes happiness as "walking on sunshine". Sunshine is though of as a positive thing because it is bright, evoking positive feelings.

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Katrina & The Waves - Walking On Sunshine (Official Music Video)

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In the Great Gatsby, Gatsby is in love with daisy, but has to go to war. He comes home only thinking about daisy, making it his sole mission to marry her. He thinks that this will make him happy, so he spends 5 years trying to pursue her. He had so much hope for this happiness with her that he basically wasted all his life on her. What he didn't realize is that with love also comes unhappiness.

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Love is not a feeling like happiness. But being in a relationship in love can make one happy. But with every relationship there are ups and downs. Being in love is associated with emotions of joy and happiness, but it also associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety, too. Because every person is different,two people in love will most likely disagree at something at some point. So, Love can make people happy but it is important to know that it wont always.

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What does it mean to love someone? Some people describe love as a feeling, which is part of the reason it gets mixed up with happiness. But love is a lot more than a feeling, and it does not immediately equate to happiness. By reviewing what love has meant to people throughout history and across cultures, researchers offer a definition of love containing four key components:

1. The beloved. To love someone, there must be someone to love.

2. The feelings that accompany love. These can be sexy feelings-or not.

3. The thoughts that accompany love. You think about the beloved.
Being with them, how they are, and so on.

4. The actions or relations one has with the beloved. Again, these
can be sexy actions-or not.

Although these components of love differ in how they are manifest across time and place, they have all have been present in some form when people describe love.

Now: will love make you happy? To have a beloved, as well as all the thoughts, feelings, and actions that come along with love? The evidence is pretty clear that although love can make you feel great, it also brings quite a bit of misery, too-and not just when you break up. Being in love is associated with emotions of joy and happiness, but it also associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety, too. Because happiness is not just about good feelings-it's also about the absence of bad ones-the research is clear that love does not equal happiness.

Why might love bring on such a mix of positive and negative experiences? As with all things that affect how we feel, the answer lies in attention: love impacts our happiness depending upon how much attention we pay to it. Love is highly attention-seeking when there is a lot of uncertainty associated with it. Does she love me? Will he ask me to marry him? What if her friends don't like me? The negative uncertainty that comes with love is a recipe for experiencing both positive and negative emotions as a result of loving someone.

Moreover, the longer you love someone, the worse you are at knowing what they do and do not like. When people judged an array of food dishes, movies, and kitchenette designs according to how much they thought their partners would like them, the longer they had been with their partner, the worse they were at predicting their preferences; and yet, the more certain they were that they were right. People assume that the person they love has the same preferences that they did when they first met but, in fact people's preferences change. Love can make us confused about what our partners like.

Love can also make us more likely to break our promises to our beloved. Research shows that people who feel like they really love their partner are more likely to make promises to them, but that they aren't more likely to actually keep these promises. People who have good self-regulation skills-the ability to monitor and control what they do-are most likely to actually keep their promises to you, not necessarily the people who love you the most. This is another reason we might experience negative as well as positive emotions as a result of love.

So although love can be great, it also brings with it a whole host of misery-making, problems, negative uncertainty, mismatched preferences, and broken promises. If you care about your happiness, you should be realistic about the fact that love won't always make you happy. Happiness will, however, affect your success in love. Happier people are more likely to get married. And research shows that the bigger the happiness gap between spouses, the more likely it is that they will get divorced. This is most common when the woman is less happy than her husband. Rather than focusing on love as a route to happiness, perhaps it's best to focus on being happy regardless of love, and then love and strong relationships will follow.

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Sometimes love is described as if it is happiness in and of itself. Love is not happiness, although it can contribute to your happiness - and your happiness can contribute to your success in love too. This Valentine's Day, learn a bit more about what love is and think about whether it's worth having or not.

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Happiness is defined as Positive emotion and pleasure. This made me think that is happiness a choice? Can some people not even attain happiness? Research has found that the way we attain happiness comes down to our genes. I found this interesting because it means that different things make different people happy. For instance, I could find sports to make me happy. But, other people may not be into sports and their choice to not play. So it comes down to lifestyle and how one can choose happiness, with what makes one happy.

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What causes happiness? Is it all down to our genes? Is it due to external conditions, or is it in part down to us and therefore really it is our own choice. We take a look at happiness in the workplace in this series of three articles starting with what causes happiness to gain some insight on whether we can choose to be happier or not. Then, secondly to ask: can being a happy person help make you more successful at work? Thirdly, if some of our happiness is down to choice and being happy is helpful in being successful then it's worth finding ways to be happy at work.

Defining happiness

A good point to start then would be to understand what we mean by happiness. Leading positive psychologist Martin Seligman suggests that happiness itself is a scientifically unwieldy term. To clarify its meaning he proposes three distinct routes to a happiness definition.

Positive emotion and pleasure (the pleasant life)

Engagement of your unique strengths doing productive things (the engaged life)

Meaning: finding ways to serve and contribute (the meaningful life)

He argues that the most satisfied people are those who orient their pursuits towards all three, with the greatest weighting carried by engagement and meaning.

What Causes Happiness? Is it Your Choice?

Happiness is good for you! Being happy may have a lot of advantages, but if we can't do anything about our level of happiness then whilst it is nice to know it's not particularly useful.
The interesting findings from recent research are that whilst a part of our happiness is determined by our genes (around 50%), only about 10% is related to our circumstances, and significantly 40% is down to our choices.

Significant elements of happiness are down to the way we think and behave. It seems we can choose to be happier!

If you combine the insight that we can choose to be happier with Seligman's definition of happiness, then they together suggest that you should choose to build activities into what you do that integrate:

Pleasure and enjoyment,

Engagement and productivity

Meaning and enduring significance.

Enjoying!

In the workplace it helps to do things which you enjoy. Amidst all the things you have to do, make sure you find time for things you want to do. Include things that make you feel good in what you do.

This initially may seem a simple even perhaps trivial suggestion, but think about how often we allow our work life to become filled with frustrations and activity which we don't enjoy doing.

Don't allow a day to go by without doing some things that you enjoy!

Engaging

Secondly spend more time on things that engage you, that use your strengths productively. We are all good at some things, each of us has a unique set of strengths, yet we may not be using them effectively or indeed spending much time getting better at what we are good at.

Enduring

(By enduring we mean something that is lasting, not something you have to put up with!)
Thirdly combine your strengths in doing things that are meaningful and significant to you. When meaning and significance are linked with what you can achieve in the organization, then there is real potential for both personal and organizational success. Think about what would have enduring meaning for you, and build that more into what you do.

Start Choosing to be Happy!

Obviously you cannot always be doing things that make you feel good, but be proactive in building elements from all three aspects into your work day, and especially build meaning in to what you do.

This article highlights a major theme of the Happy Manager, to build on your strengths and the strengths of your colleagues. Build into your practice and those with whom you work a combination of activities you enjoy, activities that engage your strengths, and activities where your strengths produce meaningful and significant results.

What causes happiness? Certainly our genes and our circumstances have an improtant place, but so do the choices we make. If happiness can be increased, can being happy help make you and your organization more successful? Is a happy person more successful at work?

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What causes happiness? Is it all down to our genes? Is it due to external conditions, or is it in part down to us and therefore really it is our own choice. We take a look at happiness in the workplace in this series of three articles starting with what causes happiness to gain some insight on whether we can choose to be happier or not.

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Music is widely listened to all around the world. Everyday songs are played for peoples enjoyment. Studies have been done that show "A review of 23 studies by Bradt & Dileo (in 2009) involving almost 1,500 people found music helped to reduce blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety in heart disease patients". This study demonstrates how music can help people physically, but mentally it can improve focus and uplift mood. I know when even I'm feeling down I always listen to music. Listening everyday to uplift mood is easy because i can play thousand of songs on my phone. With all these songs on my phone i'm able to listen to music anytime anywhere. So music is a good way to make you feel better wherever you are.

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Music can make us feel uplifted, contented and can improve our health, too.
The aim
Whether you're performing it or listening to it, music can increase your happiness (as well as the happiness of those around you.)
The theory
Music can lift the spirits. But science has now shown it has a physical effect on our bodies, too. As we listen, music works on the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for controlling blood pressure and heartbeat, as well as the limbic system, which is responsible for feelings and emotions. A review of 23 studies by Bradt & Dileo (in 2009) involving almost 1,500 people found music helped to reduce blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety in heart disease patients.

Music can benefit psychological wellbeing, too. Research from the University of Missouri published in The Journal Of Positive Psychology found for the first time, that upbeat music can have a very positive effect on our wellbeing.

'People were successful at raising their positive mood as long as the music they listened to was happy and upbeat,' said Dr Yuna Ferguson, the lead author.

And participating in music-making can also increase our happiness, and help us to get on better with others. A 2013 Finnish study of 1,000 pupils who took singing classes found they reported higher satisfaction at school in almost every area.

Lead researcher Päivi-Sisko Eerola said 'synchronising' with each other may 'even make people like each other more than before'.
Try it out

Listen to music every day. Just 25 minutes every day for at least 10 days will help to prevent back pain and make you sleep better. Keep up the habit beyond 10 days if you can.

Play music while working out. Experts from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, USA, say listening to music during exercise can help to release endorphins to increase your endurance, boost your mood and distract you from the discomfort you may feel during your exercise session.

Pick music to suit the situation. Any type of classical music, such as pieces by Mozart or Beethoven, can help relieve muscle pain. For an effective, beneficial workout, researchers say the best music is high energy, high tempo music such as hip hop or dance.

Join a choir. Experts found that if we actively engage with the music - feeling it rather than letting it simply be in the background - it can give us extra emotional oomph and make us feel happier (Ferguson and Sheldon, 2013).

Listen to music while working or studying. If you're trying hard to crack that difficult report or you're struggling with the final touches of a dissertation, music could help get your brain in gear. A study of children ages eight to 11 found that those who took extra-curricular music classes, developed higher verbal IQ, and visual abilities, in comparison to those with no musical training (Forgeard et al., 2008).

MARTHA ROBERTS is an award-winning UK health writer and mental health blogger at mentalhealthwise.com Photograph: iStock

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Music can make us feel uplifted, contented and can improve our health, too. The aim Whether you're performing it or listening to it, music can increase your happiness (as well as the happiness of those around you.) The theory Music can lift the spirits.